A Tale Of Two Borders
These two garden borders - the Apple Tree Border (on the right) and the Wattle Woods (on the left) both started life with large New Zealand Phormiums planted at their end points, like vegetative bookends....
A great idea, but one which did not stand the test of time. The snow storm in 2006 flattened the big brown Phormium, and I dug it out, with no replacement. It was a species variety, and they get big, fat, and messy very quickly. I should have known that, and chosen a more modest hybrid.
Cream Delight...
A later photograph, taken in spring, 2010, shows how beautifully behaved a teenaged Cream Delight Phormiums could be. This striped hybrid was much more worthy of ornamental status in a foliage garden, after all.
Wattle Woods and Apple Tree Garden Borders - 2010
It stayed shapely and well-controlled for another sixteen years, before breaking apart and having to be dug out. I've just planted a Phormium Tricolor (a more upright variety) in its place. The evergreen tree on the right above the Phormium is a New Zealand evergreen Pseudopanax, and that's still there. It's one of those equally delightful shrub-trees which resprout after being severely chopped down.
Early Days - 1998
Below is an early archive photo of the narrow rising stretch of lawn which separates the two borders. I thought the gap in the grass would allow cars with trailers full of compost (for example) to drive through. But none ever did. Oops - perhaps it was just a tiny bit narrow...
Wattle Woods and Apple Tree Border - 1998