Many years ago existed an elderly lady who insisted her variegated holly be 'pruned' every year into a 4' x 4' cube !! She expired sometime ago and when I last saw the 'cube' it had somehow grown out into a normal shaped medium sized tree . A plants resilience can be quite impressive !
Oh yes, you are not alone disliking the ‘prune everything within an inch of its life’ as it must all be box hedging, right? Then they wonder why it doesn’t flower..
Luçon council is heavily into tree torture. They have trained perfectly normal trees along some roads to make a 90° turn across the road. The older ones have already met in the middle and are pruned to make an upturned U across the road, in a line. Others are still growing to catch up. They also have a magnolia pruned as a cone and other trees as squared columns and there's a newish roundabout where the trees are being pruned to have cubed tops.............
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
@Hostafan1 yes it was me that dislikes coral, sorry, not converted, but it does look a good healthy plant. I like your glads.
On the subject of municipal planting/bedding, my regional capital, Olot, clearly has some talented gardeners, they have a gorgeous living wall outside the market and a stunning roundabout planted with a mix of annuals, perennials and bedding - rudbeckia, Californian poppy, marigold, coreopsis, heuchera, gazania to name but a few. A roadside verge planted with c. poppies, nigella, cornflower and all sorts of stuff. It’s just goes to show it’s what you do with plants that counts.
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
A former owner of this place came by one day and was almost in tears when he saw that subsequent owners had ripped out the beautiful jardin à la française his aunt had made. Turns out a jardin à la française is a bit like Versailles with everything planted just so in rows and blocks and clipped within an inch of its life and loads of bare earth between so I expect the locals think it's normal to torture trees and quite inventive to make the Us.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Your mention of box-hedging reminds me of an event a few years ago ; our local freemasons hall had a (seldom seen) 15' high box tree (complete with beautiful pale brown bark) growing near the door . To facilitate easier access it was clear-felled as it was deemed a 'danger' to visitors .
People who perform acts like this are , in my opinion , worse than 'naff' , and have no respect or regard for plants .
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She expired sometime ago and when I last saw the 'cube' it had somehow grown out into a normal shaped medium sized tree .
A plants resilience can be quite impressive !
That sounds like some surreal arboreal nightmare ; doesn't anyone complain ?
On the subject of municipal planting/bedding, my regional capital, Olot, clearly has some talented gardeners, they have a gorgeous living wall outside the market and a stunning roundabout planted with a mix of annuals, perennials and bedding - rudbeckia, Californian poppy, marigold, coreopsis, heuchera, gazania to name but a few. A roadside verge planted with c. poppies, nigella, cornflower and all sorts of stuff. It’s just goes to show it’s what you do with plants that counts.
Your mention of box-hedging reminds me of an event a few years ago ; our local freemasons hall had a (seldom seen) 15' high box tree (complete with beautiful pale brown bark) growing near the door .
To facilitate easier access it was clear-felled as it was deemed a 'danger' to visitors .
People who perform acts like this are , in my opinion , worse than 'naff' , and have no respect or regard for plants .