Ok, so I do have a love affair with upright and uptight plants. In smaller gardens, air space needs some volume – so let’s go up. Let’s compare three similar plants today that grow tall and skinny.
I started out using Ilex crenata “Sky Pencil”. This is a Japanese Holly that looks good when you first buy it but it just can’t hack winters. It starts to lose inner branches and look flea-bitten. Out with you.
So now I use Buxus ‘Graham Blandy’. This is aboxwood and maintains itself remarkably during the winters. The medium-sized glossy leaves are a good attribute as well as remaining pretty tight-growing and full. We often think of boxwoods as a clipped hedge, but here the boxwood can stand alone. This is my new love.
But then there is the Thuja occidentalis ‘DeGroot’s Spire’. I am not a fan of Arborvitae, but like I said, upright and uptight is ok with me. So this Arborvitae stays quite tight and dense. It will get to be more like 10’ to 15’ tall and is a duller green, but is a winner. And less expensive.
If you want to highlight the verticality of these plants even more, consider using our landscape lighting design services to create a stunning nighttime display that shows off their height and shape, or incorporate them into a modern garden design.
What’s not to like with these three plants? What would you pick for your garden?
