Mature Plants & Their Importance

Elevating Landscape Design with Established Greens

When opening a new landscape design, we apply fundamental principles—balance, focalization, simplicity, rhythm, proportion, and unity—to create functionally beautiful spaces.

Your plantings are the ultimate tool.

While every project is different, we typically spec more mature plants as the starting sizes for a host of reasons:

Key Benefits

Instant Impact

One of the ways we apply principles of design is through layering plantings. Creating layers using a variety of heights, widths, colors, and textures builds interest and increases the appeal of a landscape bed. By choosing mature specimens for our installations, we are able to display that layering on day one and gain that curb appeal without having to wait years for it to fill in. A general rule for all new plantings: sleep, creep, leap; meaning it takes years for a landscape to become established so having it look good on day one is critical.

Consistent Establishment

Transplanting/installing new plants is a stressful process for these plants as they acclimate to a new environment. Typically mature plants have larger root systems that are able withstand short term changes like drought or wet conditions better and give you more time to make any necessary adjustments in your care routine before environmental stress causes them to expire.

Professional Finish

Mature plants look better than immature plants. Like your teenagers at home, many plants go through an awkward adolescent stage where they can appear thin or gangly. By allowing plants to mature at the nursery, we're able to correct any deficiencies and ensure a consistent and quality finished product is being installed.

Blending

Oftentimes we are tasked with adding onto an existing landscape. In these installs, there is no perfect substitute for time. Installing small starter trees and shrubs next to a mature landscape only increases contrast between old and new so we prefer to utilize larger specimens to better blend the additions and give a more cohesive feel to the space.

Detailed Care & Planning

The Benefit of Time

Large plants save time, giving the garden the look of maturity straight away. Many clients move house before a traditional garden reaches maturity; large plants ensure the vision is realized now.

Choosing the Specimen

It is vital to select the right variety for site conditions. Plants must thrive in their environment, and site conditions are key to their survival and environmental benefits.

Large Plant Functions

Evergreen shrubs provide privacy screenage or windbreaks. Deciduous trees offer an elegant summer outlook while in leaf and a striking silhouette in winter.

Form and Size

Consider the space available for future growth. You could consider:

A low spreading tree
A narrow evergreen
A clear stem standard tree

Planting & Maintenance

Leave the top of the root system proud of the soil surface. Watering is vital in the first year—allow the ground to start drying before watering again. For feeding, add fertilizer around the root system (not on top) every 4 weeks during the first growing season.