Statuary in a garden, if correctly used,
will enhance foliage simply by contrasting with it. Bits of statue and
other stone stone peeping out of lush, exotic foliage are evocative of
far-away lands and romantic legends; feeling of nostalgia soon begin to
take over. Plants visible in the photograph include the following: Acer
palmatum, Phormium 'Bronze Baby', Fatsia japonica, Melianthus
major, Ceanothus impressus, Aralia elata, Cyperus alternifolius, Phormium
'Tricolor' and the triennial Echium pininana. Whilst the overall
effect of this scene is remakably exotic the facts speak for themselves:
that beyond some losses of top growth on the melianthus not one of the
perennials has been damaged over the past twelve winters. |