Plant you must grow: Barakura edition
Inspiration for your next container!
Hey guys, for this week’s PYMG, that’s the funky name for “plants you must grow”, we aren’t looking at plants in particular, but a planting style. This style is called BARAKURA, and it’s a style that I learnt in Japan, as I was asked to speak at Barakura Garden Centre, where they have built a fully English garden in their grounds!
They wanted me to teach them English gardening style, in containers, but of course I don’t think we really have a good style… maybe we put a Pelargonium in the middle, a bit of Nepeta filler, and then wait for it to grow. When I arrived in at the garden centre in Japan, I realised they were doing something a whole lot more interesting…
You see, shock horror, they weren’t following any rules. At the gardening school attached to the garden centre, the students were running all over the nursery choosing their plants for the containers; they were not just confined to the patio plant section… it was mind blowing, I couldn’t get my head around this different type of planting, they would be using small trees, shrubs, perennials in flower, totally not thinking long time with the container, but heck why did they need to? Let’s just have fun!!
The horticulturalist in me was shuddering though, but I soon realised that what they had was a beautiful freedom. Their intention for the container was for it to look good for around 3 to 4 weeks, perhaps just a little bit longer than a vase of flowers. The price point was in some cases not much more than a beautiful bouquet of flowers, despite seeming expensive at first glance. I guess, in essence, they were just arranging flowers, but with roots attached!
And, the density, oh my gosh, the density, students were squeezing in as many plants as possible, sometimes squeezing the root balls, making them into oblongs, really maxing out on the container with plants. But - it was all for the instant effect!! And, boy, it was fun!!
When I got back to the UK, I tested out the concept with a few containers of my own, and emulated this style. I was actually pleasantly surprised at how long those containers looked good for, the idea is they look good for about four weeks, but many of them still looked good for four months. And, at the end of the day, why can’t you replant some of the things in a container? Why does it have to be planted up for the whole season? Things can be amended along the way - call it editing, perhaps.
If you were being bold and including a shrub in your container, perhaps you would plant that into the garden in the autumn, and refresh it with something new - editing really gave that freedom as well.
Anyway, I wonder dear reader, if you’ve tried this concept at home with your own containers? Or, do you patiently wait for your Verbena to stitch together, for your Geraniums to get buxom?
This weekend, at Gordale Garden Centre, I introduced this concept to their customers. I think they were pretty impressed, I have to say! So, for this addition of PYMG, I’m showing you containers that I created this weekend, with a little description of each…
VIP subscribers get access to 7 barakura style containers below - including one which brings a new perspective to orchids (side note: they don’t need to be planted alone!)