With the idea of creating a new feature to the blog, I thought I would show various garden, landscaping, plant and house plant photos and ask you what you think, do you "love it or hate it?" So, here is my first entry, a tightly pruned holly. I guess the idea behind this style of pruning is to produce a holly tree that takes on the conical form of a child's image of a Christmas tree- holly, with its red berries is a botanical decoration for the holiday and has some symbolic elements that comemorate the season. Think for a moment- love it or hate it? Or feel somewhere in between? My answer:
I am big on allowing plants to have a natural form and I don't like this holly. At best, it can look cute one month a year, but after that it has a tortured look. Let the holly be a holly and a Christmas tree be a Christmas tree. This aversion goes toward all those Disney-esque sculpted trees and shrubs called topiaries- cute at Disney or an amusement park, but silly in the home landscape (though, if some one is passionate about them go for it).
Happy gardening!
3 comments:
My first impression was not that of appeal either.
When I look out my window to see the tall, natural, gangly trees in my back yard - they seem to have more of a personality; a story to tell.
I am not a fan of this...I say, go natural as much as possible without looking sloppy.
The American style of landscaping is to be wild and natural, but many European horticultural traditions involve extensive pruning- probably not like this, though! I don't like it either...
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