More hedges: This one is from the Getty Center in Brentwood. A design in azaleas created by artist/designer Robert Irwin. (Readers of this blog probably already knew that.)
This is where it all began: Below, the castle may be post-Olympian but Zeus surely would've been at home in the garden. Symmetry and linearity rule here along with softened corners and open space.
Nature as She is sculpted, trained, ordered, tweeked, and tweezed into submissive perfection.
Rows of santolina, above: Traditionally, evergreens were most often the hedge material of choice. When compared to deciduous plants, evergreens are low maintenance, easy to grow, and require less training and pruning. And even in depths of winter, their robust green reminds us that Spring still hides within.
A parade of yellow flowers highlight this patch of lavender cotton. The shape is more rakish and organic than the structured forms above but the effect is the same: Depth, boundary, screening, and texture.
Enter Spring: A riot of red.
Here, an intersection of hard boundaries, low borders, espaliered flowers, against a backdrop of a screening hedge. Shadows and depths are stunningly built through the use of height and texture.