Article content In January I visited the world’s largest horticultural show in Essen, Germany, and came away with some great take-aways, but I was especially impressed with the significant trend of pruning, training and grafting certain plants into new and unusual forms. These techniques can transform many plants into more vertical screening shapes or into striking focal points. This makes them far more valuable on our patios for privacy, or as feature plants.
This is particularly relevant as we move out to our patios for the summer, to enjoy our containers and garden plantings. Focal plants, or thrillers, are the key element in any planter and having something more permanent will allow us to change our containers for the seasons. Tall, narrow forms of broad-leaved evergreens like boxwood, euonymus and Japanese hollies can add a charming touch to any container, even just by themselves.
Closely-cropped shrubs like yews, upright blue junipers and Hinoki cypress can be amazing feature plants, as can deciduous trees like Twombly’s Sentinel maples and columnar beech like fagus Dawyck’s Gold. The tall vertical look not only adds impact to a container, but it also allows for accessorizing with ornamental grasses, trailing euonymus and many annuals like trailing petunias, verbenas and begonias — giving the look that has eluded many of us. Various shrubs, trained and grafted into topiary forms with rounded tops and long, elegant stems, were highly popular at this show.
Top-gra.
