Vines and Shrubs in the Landscape – Make Best Use

There have been many discussions and articles written centered on the special usefulness of shrubs and vines in enclosing the garden. However, it would be foolish to think that these plants are limited to defining the broad outlines of your property.

Let us consider the many other ways in which you can employ shrubs and vines in your garden. Here you should remember that one plant can perform several functions. Shrubs separating the public from the private area, for example, can also serve as a background for a display flower border. Therefore, when you are making your decision as to what kind of shrub or vine you want to use in a specific place, you will have to weigh all its possible functions in your overall landscaping scheme.

Specimens – Definition

The word “specimen” as far as we are concerned is, simply, a plant used in a landscape plan that is considered important enough to stand by itself. Note the phrase “in a landscape plan.” A shrub that is planted all alone merely because the gardener was careless is not a specimen. In this, as in every phase of landscape gardening, intelligent planning is of the essence.

Small Properties

The specimen plant is usually selected because it has some unusual quality. To emphasize this, it must be allowed to take up a great deal of space. Unfortunately, people with small lots rarely have the enjoyable opportunity to choose among the possible specimen plants. If they are used in a small garden, they are commonly trees or accent plants placed at either side of steps, doors, gates, or other garden features.

Larger Properties

Free-standing specimen shrubs can be featured on the lawn of a larger piece of land. They can serve as points of interest in bays or nooks where they are concealed by promontories extended out from the border planting. There, they satisfy the observer’s curiosity and make a walk through the garden doubly rewarding.

Special Care For Specimens

Because they are free-standing and are expected to be more spectacular than plants used as components of a border, specimens deserve extra attention. If, in spite of all your ministrations, a specimen does not thrive – or if the mature plant does not come up to your expectations – replace it. An unsuccessful center of interest is far worse than none at all. Landscaping’s main purpose is to provide a pleasant vista.

Locating a Specimen

Put your specimen plant in a place where the rest of the garden will give it prominence and stress its importance. Imagine, for example, a garden vista where the eye moving across the lawn panel is kept within the area by wisely chosen and properly placed trees and shrubs and then guided to the far end of the property. That would be the place for a fine specimen of some particularly favored flowering shrub, especially one that is attractive at all seasons.

Vines as Specimens

A vine can be used effectively as a specimen if located where the observer’s undivided attention can be given it. A Wisteria vine would be attractive growing up the corner of a garage and across the doors. However, it would be far more effective if skillfully trained over a niche in a brick wall at the end of a garden, a location that would stress its importance as a specimen.

Not Too Many Specimens

But remember that specimen shrubs and vines must not be overused in the home grounds. Too many of them scattered over a property give it the appearance of a museum instead of a garden. They should be used for their own sake, not to make a general display garden.

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