We need to categorize plants in a more effective
way – presenting more information about growth
habits, visual form and uses – to build skills and
competence in planting design.PLANTS: MORE
THAN TREES,
SHRUBS AND
GROUNDCOVERS
TEXT JEANNIE SIMH
ow can landscape architects improve their
skills in planting design? The answer is to
learn more about plants and to appreciate
their full potential as a design material.
I have a few ideas about how to help this learning
process – all that is required is time and effort and a
willingness to experiment.
Landscape architects receive effective training in
basic design in general and the theoretical underpin-
nings that explain the difference between good and
bad outcomes, but their skills vary as designers using
plants. To design with plants a designer must know
about plants. Learning about plants takes time. This
knowledge building is a combination of documentary
research and firsthand experience. A good plant
designer is an active gardener and observer of nature
and natural processes. While professional horticultur-
ists are scientific experts on plants and their growing
needs, they are not necessarily good designers.
Good planting designers must combine sound
plant knowledge and effective design skills. Inno-
vations and exciting ideas occur when these dual
aspects are working together. Planting designers
will continue to thrive only when the learning contin-
ues. Open, receptive minds aid the designer and the
plant enthusiast.
I have been a landscape architect since 1988 andhave been teaching landscape horticulture at the
Queensland University of Technology for many years.
I have spent decades pondering what makes good
planting design, good designers and good reference
texts. After all that time, I have concluded that if land-
scape architects do not engage with plants, they won’t
succeed as planting designers. I believe it is a special-
ization within our profession and that we need more
planting designers. I am still searching for a really
good planting design book.
There are thousands of plants available to land-
scape designers and even more that are rarely or never
used. The limits of choice must relate to climate and
site suitability. Novice designers often fall back on a
checklist of plants that quickly becomes a repetitive
palette. Better selections can be made when you learn
the ranges of plants suitable for certain purposes and
locations. Maybe we need to categorize plants in more
effective ways, to enable landscape designers to select
what is the best or more appropriate in a particular
design scenario.
As landscape designers we often think about
plants in short cuts, which is why many design
schemes are reduced to three sorts of plant groups:
trees, shrubs and groundcovers. Instead of this simpli-
fication, maybe we should be thinking of more plant
groups in relation to their design usefulness as well as
their visual form and growth habit.
References written by botanists and horticultur-
ists focus on important descriptive data about plants
that captures their identity and how they grow.
Interestingly, the longevity of plants is often missing
from this data. Do you know the lifespan of a
Jacaranda or an Agathis (kauri)?
Designers need to know how they can use plants
in various situations for different effects. Humans
have found numerous ways of using plants and I have
sorted them into seven groups of functions:- Plants for modifying microclimate
- Plants for solving technical problems
- Plants as spatial definers
- Plants for visual effects
- Plants for satisfying other senses
- Plants for the mind or heart
- Plants for food, fibre, fuel or sustenance
(traditional useful or economic plants).
Novice planting designers would benefit from a
clear statement of known design uses for a plant,
which would also describe what the plant looks like.
This is the information hidden away in the minds of
seasoned planting designers. We need to gather the
data and spread the word.
AGENDA
20 MAY 2017 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AUSTRALIA