Formal garden designs are very restful on the eye, containing high levels of symmetry and clearly defined, repeated shapes. Many of the plants used in the design are evergreen, clipped into formal shapes. Lawns are highly manicured and edged to give a crisp, clean look. The opposite of the relaxed feeling a lawn made up of long grass filled with wildflowers gives to informal designs.
Hedges, too, are tightly and precisely clipped. They bring structure to the garden as well as creating boundaries for borders. Low-clipped evergreen hedges are often used to enclose a flower border. Which can then be filled with a riot of summer-flowering plants to brighten the area without destroying the formality of the overall design.
Evergreen plants
Box plants were, until recently, the popular choice for both topiary and hedging. Unfortunately, box blight disease and box tree caterpillar have been decimating established plants to the extent that gardeners are opting for alternatives. For example:
- Euonymus ‘Jean Hugues’, a lovely evergreen ideal for low-growing hedges.
- Ilex crenata is ideally grown for taller garden hedging.
- Pittosporum ‘Golf Ball’ is perfect for reliably rounded evergreen shapes to grow in part shade.
- Hebe ‘Green Globe’ is suitable for positions in full sun.
- Taxus baccata, Yew, is another widely used evergreen plant in formal garden designs. It grows quickly when young and can easily be clipped into topiary shapes as well as hedging, tall and short.
Pleached trees
The definition of ‘pleach’ is to entwine (tree branches) to form a hedge or provide cover. Branches are tied horizontally onto a square frame attached to the main trunk of the tree. This leaves a clear stem below them, creating a slim profile rather than a dense overhead canopy.
As a result, the garden feels light and airy. It is a time-consuming, skilled job, which is why mature pleached trees are expensive to buy. However, it is possible to make your own if you have the patience and time to wait for them to mature!
Pleached trees are an elegant, formal way of dividing spaces within the garden. They are often planted in rows to define pathways, or alongside walls and fences to extend ultimate privacy height. The clear main stems below the framework of trained branches give the impression of a hedge on stilts.
Hornbeam and lime are two of the most popular and readily available pleach trees. Less common, but very handsome, is pleached purple leaf beech.
Espalier trees
Espaliers are another tree formation with side stems trained horizontally onto a frame or wall, often found on fruit trees like apples and pears.
The difference between these and pleached trees is that the spacing between each horizontal espalier layer is wider. The aim is to allow sunlight to reach ripening fruit, whereas with pleached trees, the aim is to create privacy.
Cloud pruning
The traditional Japanese technique for shaping trees and shrubs into a cloud-like form looks wonderful in any formal garden design.
But particularly so in a Japanese theme design. Yew, privet and box are most used to create this effect. However, any dense leaf evergreen tree or shrub that can withstand heavy pruning is ideal, such as pine or juniper.
Holly
Evergreen, slow-growing and easy to clip into a rounded shape, holly is another excellent choice in a formal garden design. There are also cultivars with silver or cream-edged leaves, such as Ilex aquifolium ‘Argentea Marginata’ and Ilex altaclerensis ‘Golden King’.
Each is perfect for brightening up a partly shaded section of the garden.
Shrubs
A selection of shrubs with a strong, neat form and/or shape should be included in the design. Hydrangeas are an excellent choice for medium-height shrubs. There are hundreds of cultivars to choose from, most with broadly rounded shapes and flower heads. They are generally undemanding to grow, provided the soil stays reliably moist.
One of the most popular cultivars is H. arborescens ‘Annabelle’. It’s smothered in huge creamy-white flower heads during the summer, and recently, a pink cultivar of ‘Annabelle’ has become available.
Most hydrangea prefer part shade, but the paniculata’s, such as H. paniculata ‘Limelight’, will happily grow in full sun.
Viburnums are another popular choice for a formal garden. They will grow well in most soil types in either full sun or part shade. A tall cultivar with spectacular white flowers appearing from May to June is Viburnum opulus ‘Roseum’. This is commonly called the snowball tree because the flowers resemble white snowballs.
A taller evergreen viburnum is V. tinus with small, scented white flowers and dark green leaves.
V. davidii is often seen planted at the edge of supermarket car parks because it is evergreen and undemanding. Planted in a garden, it can look extremely elegant with its large, distinctly veined, dark green leaves. It flowers from December right the way through to April.
An excellent value, evergreen, slow-growing, easy to shape shrub, with highly scented winter flowers, is sweet box, Sarcococca confusa. It prefers a partially shaded location and is best planted near the house or pathways to appreciate its sweet scent.
Bright flowers
Most types of brightly coloured flowers can be included in a formal design. And they work well if the flower bed is edged with low-growing, evergreen plants that hold their shape well. For example, Euonymus or the herb hyssop. Planting one cultivar of flower en masse, such as spring-flowering tulips or summer-flowering snapdragons or salvias, is another way of adding to the formal design.
Certain lavender cultivars, such as Lavandula ‘Hidcote’, are low-growing with a natural, highly curbed shape. This makes them the perfect choice to edge stone slab pathways.
Grasses
Mass planting of the same cultivar of grass, such as Molinia ‘Paul Petersen’, can be highly effective. Especially if the space available is large. Hakonechloa macra, (Japanese Forest Grass), is a lush, low-growing evergreen grass. It looks particularly good planted at the base of a tall, fastigiate beech. This is because the leaves of beech and grass turn glorious shades of burnished bronze during the autumn and winter months.
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David Domoney is a Chartered Horticulturalist, Broadcaster, and Author. David has worked with a number of the UK’s leading garden retailers as a plant buyer and strategic consultant. With more than 30 years experience, in horticulture, David is as passionate about plants now as he was when he bought his first plant at a village fete.
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