If you want to create rooms in a garden, hedges are a good way to do it. Hedges can also provide screening, sculpture and a barrier as well as a windbreak and sun protection.

ROOMS

Rooms, windows and doors can be created with plants in the garden.

SCULPTURE

Italian Cypress, boxwood and Cotoneaster make good sculptures in the garden.

SCREENING

Italian Cypress makes a good wind screen.

PARTERRES

Parterres as art in a formal garden in Italy.

EDGING

Boxwood hedges in Italy are excellent edges.

SCREENING

Primrose Jasmine (Jasminum mesnyi)

Shiny Xylosma (Xylosma congestum)

English Laurel (Prunus laurocerasus)

BARRIER

California Holly Grape (Mahonia pinnata) is very prickly and makes an excellent barrier.

BOXWOODS

There are 2 major types of boxwoods: Japanese and English.

These are Japanese Boxwoods. They are more yellow green than the English Boxwoods and need to be pruned 2 or 3 times a year.

This is the English Boxwood (Buxus sempervirens). There are many different varieties and this one is B. s. ‘Suffruticosa’ the True Dwarf Box. It is very slow growing and needs pruning much less often than the Japanese Boxwood. This hedge is at the edge of the Rose garden at Dawn Gardens and gets pruned once every 1 or 2 years.

Boxwood hedges are often used as ornamental art in European gardens and sometimes are called knot gardens.