Sudden burst of spontaneous insight: the next Big Trend In Plants--because we're approaching the time when we're all going to start feeling succulents are a little played out--the Next Big Trend will be: The Shrubbery. (No, NOT Begonias).
Shrubs that reach a manageable size without much trimming, and then stay that way (more or less) for years and years. Combinations of texture and form in various shades of green and variegation, with touches of bronze, chartreuse and such mixed in. Steadier, less changing throughout the seasons, but also less work for overwhelmed people (are not we all, nowadays?)
Yep. I can feel it.
We passionate gardeners will all want gardens that look like the gardens of people who don't garden. The difference will be that our shrubs will be trendier than their shrubs.
Far less care and time than all those perennials, less climate-specific and more luxuriant than succulents, reflecting the more subdued, more anxious mood of the times.
Plus, Monty Python And The Holy Grail jokes!
The Trend after that will be easy--we'll all be dying for colors besides green, chartreuse, black, bronze, or burgundy in a few years. But that is then.
"because we're approaching the time when we're all going to start feeling succulents are a little played out" I need to sit down. For once I get to hope you are wrong.
ReplyDeleteI'm not thinking of such as us, the true aficionados, but instead the general thing you see in new installations, what the hot designers are doing, what the biggest section in the garden centers contains--that sort of thing.
DeleteI love pruning. Hence, I love shrubs. As a garden coach, when people want low-maintance and lush, I suggest shrubs. From now on I will certainly include more Monty Python shtick in my services. Lol.
ReplyDeleteTho you may need to explain to some who Monty Python is!
DeleteI wish! But you know what? I kinda think it's going to be Begonias, or something similar.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking general trend, but Begonias (I adore them) are often not the easiest plants, especially the most beautiful ones.
DeleteShrubs? I'm pre-trendy! That's so much easier for me than begonias.
ReplyDeleteYes, exactly. I was looking at pictures of your garden when it hit me...
DeleteBeautiful images, I really love foliage plants and shrubs, they dominate my garden and are more heat and drought tolerant in the Australian climate.
ReplyDeletexoxoxo ♡
And there are so many botanical treasures from Australia that we grow and love here. Thanks for sending them! :)
DeleteI'm putting back in some small shrubs (I hope they're small!), but I seesaw like this all the time. What I have stopped doing are containers for summer, other than succulents of course, 3-4 pots of tropicals and a few begonias, and that's it. I used to get really ambitious, but the past couple summers I keep two pots by the front porch filled with shrubs. Last year it was ozothamnus that performed so spectacularly well under horrendous conditions that I moved it to the garden. In its place this year went a variegated westringia, also doing amazingly well in awful condtions of heat, neglect. I've always wanted a little bit of everything, trees, shrubs, herbaceous stuff, and still do, but just change the proportions ;)
ReplyDelete