CONIFERS BY DESIGN

The Association of British Confier Growers showcases contemporary confiers at Hampton Court.

The Association of British Conifer Growers was bang up to date with a contemporary award winning garden at the Hampton Court Flower Show. The ‘Conifers by Design’ garden used a wide variety of shapes and colours to illustrate the ability of a wide range of conifers to create a modern feel for any garden. The garden was designed and built by ABCG committee member, designer and conifer grower Roger Griffin.

Conifers by Design featured cube, ball, spiral, pyramid and cloud tree shapes planted alongside unpruned conifers in raised sleeper beds. Members of the Association were on hand to demonstrate the correct way to prune during the Show whether visitors wanted to know how to produce a cube-shaped conifer or simply want to know how to best prune a hedge.

Roger Griffin, on behalf of the Association of British Conifer Growers, said: “Conifers are among the most versatile of plants and are being constantly re-invented by growers. In fact some of the spiral conifersand one of the ball shaped conifers were created fromLeylandii, demonstrating that, with pruning, this is a very versatile plant and worthy ofmuch better press than it has been subjected to! Rather than use traditional box hedging, with its associated issues of box blight, why not use Thuja occidentalis Danica which is ideal for low parterre type edging? Too busy for weeding? Why not use ‘Juniperus communis Green Carpet’, ‘Juniperus squamata Blue Carpet’ or ‘Juniperus x media pfitzereana Carbury Gold’ all of which make colourful weed suppressants? Conifers by Design is a modern chic garden which highlights how conifers have been brought up to date.”

We were grateful to the companies that have supported the garden with plants and materials. Their details are in the PDF of the Show leaflet, please click here to view.