Plant User Handbook: A Guide to Effective Specifying

392 Pages·2003·4.068 MB·English

Plant User
Handbook
A Guide to Effective
Specifying
Edited by
James Hitchmough
Reader in Landscape, Department of Landscape,
University of Sheffield
and
Ken Fieldhouse
former editor of Landscape Design Journal
Blackwell
Science
© 2004 by Blackwell Science Ltd
a Blackwell Publishing company
© Chapters 16 and 17, Pruning ShrubsandClimbing Plants, Tom La Dell.
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First published 2004
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Plant user handbook : a guide to effective specifying / edited by Ken
Fieldhouse and James Hitchmough.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-632-05843-9 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Landscape plants—Handbooks, manuals, etc. 2. Planting
design—Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Fieldhouse, Ken. II. Hitchmough,
James.
SB435.P59 2003
715—dc21
2003011786
ISBN 0-632-05843-9
A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library
Set in 9.5/12 pt Sabon
by SNP Best-set Typesetter Ltd., Hong Kong
Printed and bound in India using acid-free paper
by Replika Press Pvt., Delhi, India
For further information on Blackwell Publishing, visit our website:
www.blackwellpublishing.com
This book is dedicated to Ken Fieldhouse who worked unstintingly to dissemin-
ate knowledge and understanding of landscape so that genius and creativity could
flourish.
Contents
Foreword by Christie, Hartel and Porter v
Preface by Tom La Dell vii
Acknowledgements ix
Contributors xi
I Preliminaries to Plant Use and the Landscape 1
1 Introduction to Plant Use in the Landscape 3
James Hitchmough and Peter Thoday
2 Selecting Plant Species, Cultivars and Nursery Products 7
James Hitchmough
3 Procuring Plants for Landscape Projects 25
Nick Coslett, Tom La Dell and James Wilson
(with contributions from Mike Smith, Mike Browell and John Parker)
II Managing Plant Growth on Landscape Sites 45
4 Amelioration of Underperforming Soils 47
Tony Kendle and Bob Sherman
5 Soil Drainage 63
Gordon Spoor
6 Weed Control in Amenity Landscapes 74
Bob Froud-Williams
7 The Long-term Health of Plants 89
Tony Kendle
III Establishment and Management of Trees 93
8 Establishment of Planted Nursery Stock 95
James Hitchmough
9 Tree Roots and Buildings 113
Glynn Percival
10 Semi-mature Trees 128
James Wilson, Caroline Swann and Peter Thoday
11 Trees in Paving 143
Tony Edwards and Tim Gale
iv Contents
12 Creating Urban Woodlands 152
Nerys Jones
IV Establishment and Management of Smaller Woody Plants 163
13 Shrub Mosaics and Woodland Edge 165
Nigel Dunnett
14 Ground Cover 175
Peter Thoday
15 Hedges and their Management 184
Tom Wright, Terence Henry and Jed Bultitude
16 Pruning Shrubs 194
Tom La Dell
17 Climbing Plants 211
Tom La Dell
18 Roof Gardens 221
Steve Scrivens
V Establishment and Management of Herbaceous Plants 245
19 Wildflowers in Rural Landscapes 247
Neil Bayfield
20 Wildflower Landscapes in the Urban Environment 258
Richard Scott
21 Aquatic Planting 267
Kevin Patrick
22 Direct-sown Annual Meadows 283
Nigel Dunnett
23 Bedding Plants 292
Richard Bisgrove
24 Bulbous Plants for Use in Designed Landscapes 310
Fergus Garrett and Rory Dusoir
25 Herbaceous Perennials 325
James Hitchmough
26 Amenity and Sports Turf Seed 343
John Hacker
27 The Management of Amenity Grasslands 354
Andy Boorman
Index 371
Plant index 381
The color plate section can be found opposite p 172
Foreword
There is a wide constituency of potential users for Planting is only one element and material in the
this long awaited book; we offer a landscape archi- creation of space. It has the unique potential to
tect’s perspective on it. The information contained impart particular character to space (of beauty,
within its chapters forms an essential and scientific mutability, dynamism, unpredictability, grace,
reference for more appropriate and imaginative mysteriousness, impermanence).
plant use. It formulates positions on ‘appropriate- The inseparable nature of this relationship
ness’ that could be the basis for endless and inter- between art and science means that on a funda-
esting discussions (within practices and across mental level one must inform the other. Landscape
disciplines) making reference to plant tolerances architecture becomes fragile when it is not under-
rather than ideal growing conditions. pinned by solid knowledge.
It also supports the principle that plant selec- The sharing of knowledge, in terms of the
tion and use could and should be imaginative: research and practical experience of other profes-
constantly experimenting with plant palettes; sionals, represents an invaluable resource. The
analysing the suitability of plants for the site information contained within this book, and the
microclimate; considering existing soil conditions; discussions that it will inspire, can only lead to a
being receptive to the dynamic seasonal patterns better understanding of the living materials and
and changes; being mindful of long term mange- processes that form the basis of our profession. We
ment issues and implications; and ultimately by look forward to seeing landscape architects and
acknowledging the requirements of the perceived horticulturalists apply these ideas and principles
users, and reflecting on the changing ways to future project: leading, we hope, to richer,
in which people use parks and other urban more diverse and sustainable landscapes. And
landsapes. inevitably, to further editions of the book.
While these principles provide a scientific frame-
work and a series of guiding tools for the land- Frances Christie
scape architect, the framework has to be part of Sibylla Hartel
an overall design vision. This implies a creative Gustafson Porter
interpretation, sensitivity and instinctiveness in July 2003
response to the objective conditions of the place.
Preface
Tom La Dell
Landscape practice has long been in need of a
Cultivation and the environment –
book that not only gives a guide to plant specifi-
from crops to design
cation but also shows how they are developed
through an understanding of plants and their It is useful to place the relatively recent concept of
cultivation. This book is primarily aimed at landscape planting in the long history of plants
professional designers, scientists, horticulturists and their cultivation for food and pleasure; it
and managers, who whilst needing to produce shows a sense of continuity in what we do.
precise specifications on plant use also need to Plants are fundamental to our survival: all life
maintain a big view of plants, people and their on the planet depends on them. They trap energy
environment. from the sun to form the organic molecules that
The design and management of landscape fuel their growth. All other forms of life (includ-
planting are relatively recent concepts. Planting ing humans) depend on this energy to grow,
associated with public spaces and new develop- survive and reproduce. Early humans selectively
ment has evolved slowly over the last two hundred gathered and prepared wild plants as their staple
years. Planting and management for nature con- diet. They survived in the landscape in small
servation is even more recent and has made its numbers but in a very wide variety of habitats. As
first steps in the last fifty years. Both have to be they spread out across the globe they learnt how
based on an appropriate knowledge of plants and to use plants in each of the varied environments
the environment in which they grow. Designers they occupied. The big change in their relationship
need to know the relevant facts about the materi- to their environment, and to each other, came
als they design with if they are to use them effec- when people realised they could cultivate plants
tively. The function and performance of any rather than just collect them in the wild. They
materials are as important as their aesthetic impact could get a higher yield of energy for a given area
and how their form and character are expressed in and support a larger population. This could be
the design. done in less time than it took to harvest wild plants
This book aims to make sense of plants and and with less effort.
their cultivation for the designers and managers of A new type of society evolved, organised around
landscape planting. It provides the factual and sci- production and sharing and creating time for
entific background for practical planting design leisure. Villages and then towns grew up around
and its implementation through specification productive farmland. As cultivation spread, wild
writing and contracts. Each chapter covers a well- and cultivated plants became more distinct and
defined topic about the plants themselves, their plants began to be grown for their beauty and not
establishment or their management. They all focus just for food or medicine. At the same time wild
on a creative approach to problem solving by plants came to be regarded as an expendable
design and practical implementation. resource first for exploitation and soon for over-
viii Preface
exploitation to extinction. Whole eco-systems, When the first public parks were created in
whether forest or grassland, have been and are still Britain fashionable designs and horticultural tech-
being destroyed on a huge scale, without a thought niques were being developed for the rich. They
for their long-term value. It is only relatively were creating ornamental parks, full of the latest
recently that wild habitats have been seen again as plant introductions from around the world,
being important to our survival. displayed in shrubberies, flower gardens and
Most food plants are cultivated in monocul- arboreta. The first formally commissioned public
tures, with areas devoted to a single plant. This is park, the Derby Arboretum, was intended to
true of agriculture and the more intensive systems educate but this was soon eclipsed by the more
used in horticulture. Areas of plants can all be flexible, ‘ornamental’ parks from Birkenhead
given the same treatment from sowing to crop- onwards. The designers of both (Loudon and
ping. Agriculture and horticulture have been Paxton) had been apprenticed in large private
mechanised, followed by the use of chemical fer- gardens. They brought garden horticulture into
tilisers and then chemicals to control the pests, the public arena. A new horticulture developed as
diseases and weeds. tropical plants were introduced, carpet bedding
Control of soil conditions has always been part became the main attraction and horticulture
of cultivation. For example, the irrigation of desert became an entertainment. The management of
soils has been practised from very early times. public parks was handed to this new breed of
Techniques have developed, to the extent that horticulturist.
some topsoils are relegated from being complex Meanwhile, in the late nineteenth century, the
growing media to become lifeless templates to idea of the garden city was being developed by
which water and nutrients are added as required. Howard in ‘Garden Cities of Tomorrow’. This
This loss of complexity leads to vulnerability to envisaged a complete landscape structure for new
dramatic environmental changes. Land may be- cities. The green public realm would be every-
come unproductive, for example, due to erosion of where, not just in parks or ‘green lungs’. The
topsoil, acidification or salt accumulation. original concepts have been expanded for new
Landscape planting has learnt from these ration- conditions and contexts. We now include the
alised cropping systems and most designs use mass regeneration of the old areas of the cities – and
planting – if for no other reason than they are even quite recent ones where the areas were unlive-
cheap to maintain. With a better knowledge of able or the industry has moved on.
plants, designs can be more complex, interesting Landscape horticulture has grown from both
and responsive to their site and location. traditions: the public park and the green city. It has
evolved from these and from garden horticulture
into a new branch of the science, using plants in
From gardens to landscape
new ways and developing techniques for plant
The cultivation of ornamental plants in gardens establishment in new site conditions to make new
developed alongside the cultivation of crops in landscapes. But as these skills have developed, the
fields. The hanging gardens of Babylon were rationalised management of the labour to imple-
surrounded by the first agricultural areas in ment and maintain the schemes has led to a de-
Mesopotamia. As garden designs and concepts skilled workforce. This trend will only be reversed
developed in different cultures and environments, if planting is well detailed and specified.
horticulture evolved with them to create new It is not only towns and cities that need regen-
garden styles. Landscape horticulture developed eration. The ecology and wildlife of rural land-
later from garden practice at a time when designed scapes have lost their diversity from the 1950s
public spaces became part of the fabric of indus- onwards, as farming became mechanised and
trial towns and cities. dependent on chemical controls. Habitat creation
Preface ix
and restoration are becoming more common, to economical as possible while the establishing land-
redress the balance in favour of wildlife and create scape should require lowest possible energy inputs.
rich environments for people. Some of the tech- There is no crop to be taken off so the outputs are
niques in the book are relevant to this evolving low. There should though be a high aesthetic
discipline and more are being developed. output and cultural value as these are simply down
There is no separate science for ornamental or to the skills of the designer, by making best use of
ecological planting. It follows the same under- the available physical resources.
standing of biology and ecology that has allowed Low-input systems like these can and should be
us to develop the crop plants and cultivation sys- designed to respond to the environmental condi-
tems that feed huge populations. The book shows tions of the site and the plants available to make
how the science they have in common can be them diverse and complex. These systems are
understood, interpreted and used by the majority described as being well ‘buffered’. The impact of
of landscape professionals without a scientific change in one part of the plant/environment rela-
education. The examples are all in the temperate tionship will be absorbed by the rest of it, with a
landscape but the approach can be used in any much reduced risk of catastrophic failure. This is
climate. built in to the design by creating the right soil
conditions for good long-term growth and by
selecting plants that will survive in these condi-
Landscape planting principles
tions and have predictable maintenance inputs.
This science enables us to design the public land- We return to the fact that designers need to
scape, and revitalise natural ecosystems, responsi- understand the materials they design with. Good
bly and effectively, using techniques that create design is an expression of many things but the
sustainable solutions. Landscape professionals materials are the basis of that expression. Man-
work with a great variety of initially unfamiliar agers have the same need to understand what they
conditions, trying to select and establish appro- are managing; they are the custodians of both the
priate plants (unlike gardeners who develop a aesthetic and practical qualities of designed and
long-term relationship with their site). ‘natural’ landscapes.
The principles of sustainable development can Landscape aesthetics is about the beauty of
be applied to landscape planting. A simple over- using materials but it is also about wildlife and
view of sustainable landscape techniques is to see the expression of the human spirit in our instinc-
the process as inputs and outputs. tive relationship to the environment. Science and
In modern agricultural systems the output is rationalism gives us the facts to work with.
high when the crop is taken off for food or fuel or Expression through design and management can
grazed by animals. The input is also high, in the then be whatever we wish to make it for pleasure
energy used in cultivation of the crop and the and enlightenment.
fertilisers and pesticides applied to it. This is a
high-input/high-output system. The crop may be
Acknowledgements
taken off annually, or even more frequently in the
tropics. In forestry it may be cropped decades after Many people have given their time freely both in
planting. Gardens and ornamental horticulture writing the original Specification Guides in Plant
tend to be high-input/low-output as they are pri- User and updating and expanding them for this
marily decorative. book. Some chapters have been written specially
Landscape design should follow the principles to ensure that we have a comprehensive coverage
of sustainable development and aim for a low- of plants in landscape design and management.
input/low-output energy system. The implementa- Every chapter has a fresh approach to its subject
tion and use of resources should be as effective and to ensure that it is relevant to landscape and
x Preface
horticulture professionals. It makes each subject at the Landscape Design Trust and he straight-
clear and accessible to those with no scientific away said ‘Come and see me’. We wanted a
background. weighty core to each issue of Plant User, as it
Weare fortunate that so many both within and became. The Specification Guides were the way to
outside the landscape professions have given their get a specialist to explain the background to each
time and expertise to help us be more competent topic and get the benefits of a sound approach to
in the work we do. It should also be a long-term readers. The editorial board met to plan each issue
foundation for better landscape planting and more and these have always been lively affairs, pushing
adventurous design. forward the ideas of the skills needed for success-
A lot of people, from many professions, helped ful landscape planting.
to launch the professional Plant Users Group in When we suggested a book, Ken took this
1987. We all agreed that we needed a stronger forward and James Hitchmough agreed to edit
voice in the industry. Many plants being used were it with him. He has carried this through since
quite unsuitable – largely because we accepted that Ken’s tragically early death, with editorial assis-
we had to provide the growing conditions for tance from Janet Prescott.
whatever nurserymen produced. Every discussion Thank you to everyone involved who have
about how we could change this came up against made the Specification Guides, and now the book,
the lack of knowledge in the profession about possible and to Professor Tony Bradshaw, Peter
plants and how they should be cultivated in land- Thoday and Derek Patch as a botanist, horticul-
scape schemes at any scale. There was little litera- turalist and arboriculturalist respectively, who
ture and selective teaching of this on landscape have long shown the need for a scientific basis for
and related courses. this aspect of landscape practice. The test is the
When we agreed that a magazine would be a difference this book will make to the quality of
good start, I approached the late Ken Fieldhouse landscape planting.
Contributors
Neil Bayfieldis a Principal Scientific Officer at the Ken Fieldhouse was an experienced landscape
Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Banchory, architect and town planner, and Editor of the
Scotland AB31 4BW. Landscape Design Journal until his death in
2002.
Richard Bisgrove is Senior Lecturer and Course
Director for Landscape Management, at the Bob Froud-Williams is Senior Lecturer in Weed
Centre for Horticulture and Landscape, University Science at the Department of Agricultural Botany,
of Reading, PO Box 221, Reading RG6 6AS. University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AU.
Andy Boorman is Senior Lecturer in Horticulture Tim Gale is a Director of Whitelaw Turkington
at Writtle College, Chelmsford, Essex CM1 3RR. Landscape Architects, 354 Kennington Road,
London SE11 4LD.
Mike Browell is Principal Landscape Architect at
Fergus Garrett is Head Gardener at Great Dixter
Weddle Landscape Design, Landscape Research
gardens, Northiam, Rye, East Sussex TN31 6PH.
Office, 27 Wilkinson Street, Sheffield S10 2GB.
John Hackeris Director of Professional Sportsturf
Jed Bultitude was a Country Manager for the
Design (NW) Ltd, 42 Garstang Road, Preston PR1
British Trust for Conservation Volunteers at the
1NA.
time of writing.
Terence Henry is Lecturer in Biology and Envi-
Nick Coslett is an independent landscape con-
ronmental Science at Greenmount College of
sultant at 5 Gun Back Lane, Horsemonden,
Agriculture and Horticulture, Antrim, Northern
Tonbridge, Kent TN12 8NL.
Ireland, BT41 4PU.
Nigel Dunnett is Senior Lecturer in the Depart-
James Hitchmough is Associate Professor in the
ment of Landscape, University of Sheffield,
Department of Landscape, University of Sheffield,
Sheffield S10 2TN.
Sheffield S10 2TN.
Rory Dusoirworked at Great Dixter gardens after Nerys Jones is Chief Executive of the National
his Classics degree and is now at the Royal Urban Forestry Unit, The Science Park, Stafford
Botanical Gardens at Kew. Road, Wolverhampton WV10 9RT.
Tony Edwards is Director of EDCO Design Ltd, Tony Kendle is Mission Director at the Eden
16 West Barnes Lane, London SW20 0BU. Project, St Austell, Cornwall and a lecturer in the