When selecting plants for a garden site, quite a bit of emphasis is placed on flower color and plant size. Sometimes gardeners will be looking for certain fragrances or foliage textures. It is also good to step back and consider the overall form of the plant. Will the plant swell up like Star Wars’ Jabba the Hut as is the case with this blue spruce? When planting a young specimen, don’t put any other permanent plantings right next to it so that it has the room to develop those rolls of fat.

There is something mysterious about the Nootka false cypress form. I envision an old man in a cloak.  Or perhaps the creatures from The Village that the elders were so worried about.  Either way, I personally like seeing this specimen partially obstructed in a garden bed instead of standing out on its own. I guess that add to its mystery if it can be seen emerging from grouping of plants.

How about that giant octopus that grabbed the sub in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea? There are plants with similar tentacle-like forms that can twist their way through your garden. Just don’t accidentally get in their way while gardening. I have a giant limbed-up yew that is obviously going to grab whatever it can reach.

A weeping katsura can be a dead ringer for the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Can’t you just imagine the algae dripping off of him?

Okay, so it takes a little imagination to see these creatures in plants. But when abiding by “the right plant for the right site” rule, it is very helpful to step back and consider the ultimate form of your new selection.

These and many more sci-fi plant forms are on display out in front of the Cleveland Botanical Garden in the Campsey-Stauffer Gateway Garden.

Posted by Bob Rensel

Tags: Gardens & Movies, Plant Forms

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 27th, 2008 at 1:06 pm and is filed under Bob Rensel, Gardens & Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.