Landscape Planting Design

Planting Design
Plant Choices begin, based on:
Reinforcing the physical design of the plan
Meeting functional needs, screening, cooling, heating
Creating backdrops
Strengthening circulation patterns
Creating focal points,
Framing views, softening architecture
Choosing plants based on location and environmental conditions of site ie. soil types, sun or shade exposure, wind exposure, clients wishes etc.

Function – Windbreak
Environmental – wind
exposure

Function- Sun/Shade for House Environmental -Direction of exposure for
plant

Function: Planting to buffer temperatures

Function/Environmental – Windbreaks

Environmental – Air Movement, Humidity

Planting Design Client Criteria
Usual dislikes:
No prickly or thorny plants
Plants that collect leaves in them
Plants with large leaves to clean up.
Plants with messy fruits, pods etc.
Plants that are floppy - over walks etc.
Poisonous plants
Plants that require high maintenance
Plants that are only semi-hardy
Plants with specific colors the client dislikes
Malodorus plants, flowers, leaves or other.

Planting Design-Client Criteria
Likes:
Low maintenance plants
Plants that flower for a long period of time
Sequential bloom – color in every season
or plants with year around interest.
Favorite colors of plants
Plants with a lot of fragrance, lilacs, Daphne etc.
Fast growing or planting more mature sizes for “instant” landscape.
Sentimental favorites.
Plants they’ve seen in a book or in another garden

Planting Design - Site Criteria
Environmental – sun/shade, wind exposure, hardiness, soil pH, annual rainfall
Water availability
Flat or sloped site & direction of exposure
Traffic & compaction near plants
Winter snow removal or chloride use
Pets or not
Deer vulnerability
Function of the plant
Focal point
Wildlife attractant

Planting Design
Physical Properties of Plants
1.) Form
2.) Size
3.) Texture
4.) Color
5.) Value

Planting Design
Form
Much of the shape of trees is determined by how the branching structure occurs as branches leave the trunk ie. narrow upright branches have a narrowly angled crotch and more rounded forms have wider angles.
Form Types: Round Oval Columnar
Conical Pyramidal Fastigiate Weeping
Vase-shaped Irregular Horizontal

Planting Design - Form
The form of plants in silhouette must be of
use functionally ie. for shade, wind
protection, screening, enclosure etc.
Don’t just pick a plant for its’ unusual shape.
In nature, plant forms often reflect the
natural terrain around them.
In the mountains – lots of pyramidal evergreens that repeat the mountaintops.
On rolling hills – we see a lot of round headed trees or windswept trees.
On the plains it is common to see horizontal rather flattened trees- also partly sculpted by winds on the open plains

Planting Design
Size of Trees
Small Trees – 12’-25’
Medium Trees – 25’-40’
Large or Tall Trees - 40’-120’
Size of plant is important because one must choose the right plant for the right place.

Planting Design – Size/Scale of Trees
Single story house require plants in scale ie. medium or smaller trees
Double story houses can handle medium to tall trees
Tall or large trees are best at the back of the house or property or large estates.
Shade trees are best near the patio, near car parks in the drive and at the front of property for framing the house or on south or west sides of a home to give shade
Size of important in proximity to sidewalks
Large trees create a broader canopy of shade
Large trees are much more expensive to remove
Large trees generally have a more invasive root system than smaller ones.

Planting Design -Texture
Tree texture is found in:
Stems – coarse, thorny, hairy, fine, glossy
Leaves – coarse vs. small or lacy, foliage density becomes important also.
Bark – flaking, ragged, sluffing off bark, colored barks
Buds – large & fuzzy, fine and glossy
Flowers – large Magnolia vs. small Spirea
Fruit – Sweet Gum balls, pods, beans, osage orange etc.

Planting Design -Texture
Patterns of light and shadow are effected by stems, leaf coarseness and bark
Texture can be felt, not just seen ex. leaves vs. needles
Texture becomes less obvious at a distance and most defined close up.
Texture can be used to create distance or closeness
Texture can be rugged or refined, Catalpa
leaves vs. pinnately compound ferns
Softscape texture can mimic hardscape colors and materials.

Planting Design - Color
Foliage colors:
Cool
2. Warm
Cool Colors, blues, grays, variegated whites
Plants with dark blue-green foliage reflect very little light and are therefore dark.
Lighter blues to gray foliages give a sense of distance or contrast.
Variegated foliage green/white, green/yellow
tend to “lighten up” an area

Planting Design - Color
Cool Colors:
Cool colored foliages are more compatible with a natural landscape
Cool colored foliages are great to create a sense of distance as do fine textured foliages also.
Cool colored foliages can be used to draw attention away and afar.
Flowers, fruit bark, and seeds also produce color in the landscape, especially nice in winter landscape

Planting Design - Color Tips
Warm Colors, reds, purples, yellows, orange
Plants with bright colored foliage reflect a lot of light and also produce lighter shade
Bright colored foliages can be used to draw attention to the foreground as can large textured foliages.
Bright colored foliages are best reserved as a focal point where you would like to focus attention or to use as dramatic. contrast.

Planting Design - Color Tips
Warm Colors:
Bright colored foliages in an exotic or contrived landscape are more appropriate,
as are tropical looking foliages.
Bright colored foliages in a naturalized landscape usually look out of place
Bright colored foliages should be used sparingly and in non rhythmic or repetitious ways which become monotonous!
Bright colored foliages alternated with cool colored foliages as above, can be in bad taste.

Planting Design - Value
Value = weight or heaviness of a plant in the landscape
Value is more evident and especially important during the winter months
Value becomes less evident when deciduous trees are leafed out
Value is predominantly evergreen shrubs and trees both needled or broad-leafed.
The amount of evergreen mass or size also determines how effective “value” is in the landscape
Value is used to highlight flowering trees or lighter colored foliages for contrast.

Planting Design -Value
Value can create the most decisive visual lines to enclose or define a space.
Value can be used to strongly reinforce design elements
Value can complement hardscapes
Heavy value plants can overpower a landscape – Balance is important – a mix
of deciduous and evergreen plants is best.
Plants with a strong Value can cast a lot of shade/ may not grow grass under them .

Planting Design
Broad-leafed Evergreens for the North
Rhododendrons- Catawba, PJM’s, Yaku’s
Blue Hollies- Ilex Blue Boy/Girl, Emerald Magic
American Holly
Southern Magnolia, (hardiness borderline)
Oregon Grape Holly- Mahonia
Euonymus- Manhattan, Spreading, Bigleaf Wintercreeper- Purpleleaf Wintercreeper
Viburnums - Prague, Alleghany, Willowway
Japanese Pieris
Wm. Penn Barberry
Daphne’s
Groundcovers/vines - Myrtle, Pachysandra, English ivy, Halls honeysuckle

Needled Evergreens
Spruces- Picea, Colorado, Norway, White Spruce
Firs – Pseudotsuga, Douglas, Concolor etc.
Pines- Pinus, White, Scotch, Austrian, Table etc.
Arborvitae – Thuja, Mission, Western etc.
False Cypress, Chamaecyparis, many species
Junipers – Juniperus, Eastern, Pfitzer, Chinese,
Yews – Taxus, Japanese, English, Pyramidal etc.
Cedars – Cedrus, Blue Atlas, Lebanon etc.
Plum Yew – Cephalotaxus
Hemlock – Tsuga

Tree Combinations
To Maximize Flowers of Trees
Use evergreens as a backdrop, the darker the better. Pink & white flowering trees show up the most against dark evergreens
Spring shrubs such as forsythia & Jap. Kerria are also showy used in this way.
Place flowering trees like Magnolia, Crabs, Pears, Serviceberry, Dogwood etc. close up in the landscape. All are small to medium trees in scale to use in the foreground or middle ground
where flowers may be seen from closer up.

Tree Combinations
to Maximize Flowers of Trees
Place small flowering trees so that a few of the branches protrude into window space
Plant more than one tree of a variety so that you create a “cloud ” effect. Three to five of the same kind spaced so that the branches interlace at maturity gives depth and mass.
Repeat the same tree used in one spot in the landscape in one or two other spots for continuity of color throughout property.

Tree Combinations
to Maximize Flowers of Trees
Choose only those trees with the most reliable and spectacular flowering for your focal points or as a specimen tree in a prominent position in the landscape.
For a single focal point, one tree that is spectacular, is enough.

Landscape Planting - Layers
Layered Trees and Shrubs
Observe examples of nature
- layers within the woods or at woods edge
- thickets or colonies as nature plants them (observe this succession along roadsides)
Learn what the regional climax forest is
Arrange shrubs and trees by graduated heights from front to back with shorter plants as the understory
Remember that understory plants must tolerate shade and competition for moisture & nutrients.

Planting Design
Layering Trees
Nature creates “layers” naturally in the woods and woods edge. Inside we find tallest trees (climax forest) trees such as Beech/Maple, then medium sized trees like American Hornbeam, Ironwood, Hophornbeam etc. in their shade, and at the woods perimeter, small trees such as
Serviceberry, Pin cherry, Chokecherry, Amercian Cranberry Viburnum, Staghorn Sumac etc.

Planting Design - Layering Trees
We can replicate what nature does using
“layering” techniques to good effect with
hardwoods, then moderately sized trees
that tolerate some shade underneath and
small flowering or understory trees underneath that again, creating graduated heights.
Layering creates a “finished” landscape effect in home landscapes.

Planting Design –
Creating Interesting Shrub Borders
Plant in a transition of sizes from shorter or dwarf shrubs at front of border to midsized &
taller shrubs at back – “layered” . Meander these shrubs in and out of each other so as not to be contrived in a straight line
Mix both evergreens and deciduous groupings in the same plantings.
Mix both flowering shrubs and those which
may also have twig or special foliage color.

Planting Design -
Creating Interesting Shrub Borders
Plant groupings of 3 to 5 or more of a kind
so that an appropriate mass of one is appreciated before switching to another
Plant for sequential bloom through spring, summer, fall and seasonal interest as well.
Plant for more than just flowers. Plant also for fall color, fruit or berries, twig color, interesting bark or seed pod in the winter etc.
Plant for wildlife to add bird activity in the shrub border.

Planting Design -Winter Interest
Trunk interest can be nice when bark is colored or becomes patchy or flakes off.
Ex. Birches, Paperbark Maple, Stewartia
Flowers are a rarity but there are a few that bloom late fall to early spring.
Ex. Autumn or Spring WitchHazel, Seven Sons Tree in Sept./Oct., Cornelian Cherry in March, Red Maple flowers in February
Birches and Hazelnuts put out catkins in late winter, Shrubs include spice bush, pussy willow,
winter honeysuckle, forsythia etc. as some of the earliest.

Planting Design - Winter Interest
Any tree or shrub that holds berries or fruit into winter should be considered for adding color at this drab time of the year.
Evergreens add much value and color to the landscape in winter. Broadleafed shrubs are even more interesting than needled evergreens, but are somewhat limited in the north
Winter twig and branching structure that make interesting silhouettes, are of interest. Ex. Jap. Maple, Contorted Hazel

Planting Design- Screens/Windbreaks
Quick growth poplars may be used for “instant” effect and a quick screen, but are short lived.
Wildlife Conservation packets attract wildlife, using native shrubs, trees, evergreens – but are small & take years to mature.
An excellent screen/windbreak should include fast growing evergreens such as White Pine, Norway Spruce planted 12’-20’ apart in rows that are staggered.
Behind the windbreak, plant evergreens with fast, thickly branched, medium to large shrubs, such as Tea or Cranberry Viburnum, Nannyberry, Privet or Autumn Olive

Screens & Windbreaks
Deciduous shrubs behind the evergeens
catch snow for additional moisture, provide wildlife habitat and decrease wind force to prevent evergreens from lodging
Plant on closer spacing than normal for a quicker screen.
Choose fast growing varieties with dense branching
Select evergreens that are adaptable to site, soils, exposure etc

Landscape Planting Design
Reinforcing Circulation Routes
Choose specimen flowering shrubs/trees as a focal point near the destination point to create
interest and direct the pedestrian toward it.
Emphasize entryways with evergreens or larger
plants to make it clear where the front door is, or
punctuate a path at turns or periodic points to
assure the pedestrian he is still on the right path.