Type of Plants for Your Secret Garden

Choosing the right type of plants for gardens can overwhelm even the most experienced among us. It is even more challenging when it comes to secret gardens, where privacy, comfort and ease of maintenance play a crucial role in the decision making process. To help make your task easier, we’ve compiled below a list of five plants that will make an amazing impression to your secret garden.

Bamboo

Bamboos are excellent choices for walls. They are sturdy, have beautiful colours, and require little maintenance. In fact, after the fifth year (sooner for many species), you can stop watering them, as their roots spread deep and wide underground in search of water and nutrients. In addition, not only can bamboos grow up to 15 feet tall, their lifespan can easily extend a couple of dozen years (longer, for many species). Of course, if you have pandas around the house, then your bamboos will likely be stripped bare. Aside from that small concern, however, bamboos are robust natural alternatives for concrete and brick walls.

White Birch Trees

White birch trees are arguably the most sought-after ornamental tree by professional designers these days. The most appealing feature of the long-lived specie (around 50 years) is its foliage. Instead of spreading all along the thin bark, its leaves cluster at the very top - not unlike coconut trees. This provides green, canopy-like foliage at the roof of the garden without eating up space at the bottom. A group of strategically placed white birches can even provide shade for dining tables or lounge chairs without eating up any walking space.

Akebia Quinata

Climber plants provide added depth to secret gardens. Akebia Quinata goes a step further by drowning walls, fittings and furniture with beautiful deep maroon flowers that will take your breath away every spring. As a bonus, the flowers also secrete a calming, vanilla like scent which will trigger flashbacks of childhood, park benches and cakes.

Austrian Pine

The Austrian Pine is the perfect centrepiece for large secret gardens. The deep drilling roots of this hardy tree guarantees that it will thrive even under terrible soil condition. With its white bark and dense dark green needles, a fully matured Austrian Pine is a showstopper that will command your garden with its quiet beauty and stature. Also, it will probably outlive you and your children.

Sweet Gum

As soon as the Akebia Quinata ends it show late in the spring, the Sweet Gum will move in for its autumn starring role, when its maple-like leaves turn into a fiery shade of red and orange that will dominate everything else in the neighbourhood. Plant a few of them, and your guest will think they’ve been transported to the New England region of the American east coast.