Specimens

Selecting A Show-Stopper

As a highly creative landscape designer, I get super excited when one of my clients gives me a free-hand to select some show-stopping specimen plants to their garden.  A specimen plant should be eye-catching enough to draw attention to its unique qualities. For me it’s like choosing an exquisite piece of art to add something totally unique, whimsical or dramatic to finish off an outdoor area. 

We often have to crane these special specimens into place as they usually are mature and therefore a pretty decent size.  Some of the criteria I use to choose a unique or rare specimen plant are that it should be a native or adaptive plant – I’d want it to thrive and grow well so it has to be suited to the unique growing region.  The location it will be planted into in your garden has to be chosen very carefully – it’s not only the ‘wow-factor’ for the garden, but it should also compliment and not detract from the overall landscape design.  Specimen plants can anchor, balance and give definition too.

More often than not, these advanced specimen plants will be on the expensive side as they are unique and not commonly found through general nursery trade.  They are usually grown and nurtured in specialised nurseries and of course if they need to be craned into position, that’s an additional cost.  However, they give an instant quality of maturity to a newly planted garden and they have a ‘jewel-in-the-crown’ effect – the singular superstars that are the standout surprise within the mass planting.

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Kentia Palm

Howea forsterana

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Dwarf Date Palm

Phoenix robellini

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Cloud Tree

Cupressus

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Dragon Plant

Dracaena draco

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Olive Tree

Olea europaea

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Japanese Black Pine

Pinus thunbergia

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