Plant shapes play a key role in Houston landscaping.  The way a plant looks matters just as much as its color and size.  Some garden designs require specific geometric patterns to success.  Plants have to be selected whose overall appearance reinforces these shapes.  It is not a matter of a particular plant being “pretty,” but rather being appropriate to a given element that it is planted to support.

The highest priority of any Houston landscaping plan is unity.  The house is the preeminent structure in the yard around which all softscape and hardscape design revolves.  These designs must support the home by complimenting its architecture.  They must also work in agreement with one another for the landscape master plan to work.

Unifying hardscapes and outdoor buildings with gardens, tree growth, ground covers, and ornamental grasses is no small order.  There is an obvious gulf between the organic and the inorganic that must be overcome.  To a certain extent, stone hardscapes help bridge this gap because stone is found alongside of plants in nature.  However, complex stone structures, and hardscapes made of other materials, need additional aesthetic linkage to work with living matter.  Plant shapes often fill this gap with just the right geometric forms to make a garden look naturally situated next to the most complex of outdoor building designs.

Now understand that when we say plant shapes, we are not talking so much about the shape of the leaves.  Rather, we are talking about the impact that the plant makes on the mind’s eye.  Essentially, there are only a few basic geometric shapes in nature.  These shapes repeat throughout the universe and can readily be seen in any natural object.  Plants are no exception to this rule. Some look linear, almost like straight lines.  Others look round, like near perfect spheres.  Still others look like little green boxes, which is why one species of shrubs even goes by the name, “Boxwood.”

The direction in which vegetation grows represents another dynamic that falls under the designation of plant shape.  Some plants are strictly vertical, climbing upward to the sky like living pillars of green.  One of the most familiar examples of this is the Italian Cypress tree.  It is almost as if the branches of the Italian cypress simply refuse to stretch outward, but rather hug the trunk as closely as possible as they climb toward the sun.

Vegetation like this which contributes powerful vertical impact to Houston landscaping design is a major part of privacy walls, garden focal points, and boundary areas between special zones of interest in large luxury estates.  Sometimes too, long driveways that wind toward a home set far back from the street are lined with shrubs and trees that form an organic corridor that guides guests toward the motor court.

Another basic plant shape is a low, spreading appearance.  Many of the smaller shrubs are characterized by this type of growth.  Quite the opposite of the Italian Cypress, it is almost like these plants want to spread out over the ground.  Many actually run across the top of the ground, which is why they are classified as ground cover species.  These plants play a major role in the development of lawn alternatives for eco-friendly landscaping, low maintenance landscaping, and custom garden designs.

By mixing linear growth with vertical impact, and by combining plants whose innate appearance impacts the subconscious with impressions of geometric building blocks, Exterior Worlds can support any size yard with garden designs, softscape borders, and lawn alternatives that form an organic mirror to the sophisticated architecture of the house and the carefully developed structures of hardscape design.