RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2007 - Conifers by design at Hampton Court

The Association of British Conifer Growers is bang up to date with a contemporary garden at the Hampton Court Flower Show. The 'Conifers by Design' garden uses a wide variety of shapes and colours to illustrate the ability of a wide range of conifers to create a modern feel for any garden. The garden is designed and built by ABCG committee member, designer and conifer grower Roger Griffin.

Conifers by Design features cube, ball, spiral, pyramid and cloud tree shapes planted alongside unpruned conifers in raised sleeper beds. Members of the Association will be demonstrating the correct way to prune conifers twice daily during the Show whether visitors want to know how to produce a cube-shaped conifer or simply want to know how to best prune a hedge.

Roger Griffin, on behalf of the Association of British Conifer Growers, said: “Conifers are among the most versatile of plants and are being constantly re-invented by growers. In fact some of the spiral conifers and one of the ball shaped conifers were created from Leylandii, demonstrating that, with pruning, this is a very versatile plant and worthy of much better press than it has been subjected to! Rather than use traditional box hedging, with its associated issues of box blight, why not use Thuja occidentalis Danica which is ideal for low parterre type edging? Too busy for weeding? Why not use ‘Juniperus communis Green Carpet’, ‘Juniperus squamata Blue Carpet’ or ‘Juniperus x media pfitzereana Carbury Gold’ all of which make colourful weed suppressants? Conifers by Design is a modern chic garden which highlights how conifers have been brought up to date.”