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Symmetrical plantings and the use of clipped and stylized plant forms, such as hedges and topiary, help to define and link elements within the Formal Garden. Ornamentation such as statues, sculpture and water features provide focal points within the garden. Simple colour themes dominate planting design in a Formal Garden, with seasonal highlights often provided by annuals and perennials. Durable surfaces such as paving and gravel provide for a range of uses and can also reduce water use. These plants were selected to be suitable for gardens in eastern and southern Australia.
A savewater!® Formal Garden is designed to reduce water by using plants that have low water needs. This means selecting plants from low rainfall climates or those with special water conservation features. Some of the major plant groups used in a Formal Garden includes columnar evergreen trees, low hedges, topiary plants and annuals and perennials.
This plant list and text was prepared by Burnley Campus, School of Resource Management, University of Melbourne.
Columnar evergreen trees are distinctive elements in a Formal Garden. They have a definitive shape that provides accent or contrast, or when close planted can be used to form a tall hedge or screen.
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Richmond Cypress Pine Callitris columellaris
A tree from coastal northern New South Wales and southern Queensland, this erect tree can grow up from 12 m to 16 m in height. It has dark green foliage and tiny round cones. It is slow growing this tree and best used in a sunny, well-drained garden location.
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Pencil Cypress Cupressus sempervirens, Stricta Group
The dark green, upright spires of the Pencil Cypress are a common sight in Formal Gardens across the Mediterranean. Growing up to 20m in height, it thrives in hot and dry garden locations.
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Topiary, a form of managing plant forms into clipped shapes, is often a focus in the Formal Garden. Techniques can include ‘standard’ forms, pruned to 1 or 2 m in height, or rounded plant forms clipped into particular shapes and forms. These provide a dramatic contrast in texture and form to other plantings in the garden.
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Bay Tree Laurus nobilis
Clipping a Bay Tree into a shape, avoids it natural habit, which is an evergreen tree growing up to 10 m in height. Whilst initially slow growing, the bay Tree is an excellent choice for topiary as it is long-lived and any clipped leaves can be used in the kitchen.
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Rosemary Rosmarinus officinalis
A common hedging plant, Rosemary is also useful as a plant for clipping into shapes and forms. With many different varieties, the best choices for topiary are small-leaved upright forms of Rosemary. It can also be grown over a frame to develop a particular desired shape or form.
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Low hedges help to define space and provide direction in a Formal Garden. Growing up to 1 metre in height, factors influencing plant choice include growth rates and vigour, foliage colour and maintenance requirements (especially the frequency of clipping).
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Common or English Box Buxus sempervirens
The Common Box is one of the most useful low hedges for the low water use landscape. Slow growing, with deep dark green leaves it clips well and generally needs around 2 cuts per year to manage its form. Many different varieties are available.
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Correa pulchella
A small, Australian shrub growing to 50 cm in height. This produces small, delicate tubular red-orange flowers during late winter-spring. Useful as a low flowering hedge it needs careful establishment, then around 3 to 4 cuts per year.
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Butchers Broom Ruscus aculeatus
Butchers Broom is a tough, suckering shrub growing up to 1 m in height, originating from southern Europe. It is excellent as a ‘barrier’ hedge in dry shade due to its spiny green leaves and woody stems. Whilst not requiring clipping to maintain its form it does require pruning of suckers to stop invasion of nearby planted areas.
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Lavender Cotton Santolina chamaecyparissus
A small, grey-leaved shrub from Mediterranean regions, Lavender Cotton grows up to 50 cm in height. It has tightly clustered foliage and form and produces yellow heads of flowers over spring-summer. It generally needs around 4 cuts per year to manage its form.
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Much of the colour in a Formal Garden is provided through the use of flowering herbaceous plants, planted as infill inside hedges or parterres or used in containers. These can be semi-permanent by using perennials or as seasonal highlights through using annuals.
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Golden Everlasting Xerochrysum bracteata
An annual, sometimes perennial plant growing up to 1 m in height, the Golden Everlasting is found across much of Australia. It produces yellow, papery heads of flowers up to 3 cm across during summer. There are many different varieties available.
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Common Sage Salvia officinalis
Common Sage is an upright, shrubby perennial growing from 0.5 to 1 m in height. Originating from North Africa and the Mediterranean it has grey-green leaves (useful in the kitchen) and clusters of
pink-white flowers during spring. A number of different leaf and flower colour varieties are available.
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Correa pulchella
A small, Australian shrub growing to 50 cm in height. This produces small, delicate tubular red-orange flowers during late winter-spring. Useful as a low flowering hedge it needs careful establishment, then around 3 to 4 cuts per year.
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Rosemary Rosmarinus officinalis
A common hedging plant, Rosemary is also useful as a plant for clipping into shapes and forms. With many different varieties, the best choices for topiary are small-leaved upright forms of Rosemary. It can also be grown over a frame to develop a particular desired shape or form.
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