Structure and formality is returning to favour in gardens. Plants trained into hedges or along trellises or pergolas have become very fashionable. A pinnacle of garden achievement is a pleached walk. ‘Burke’s Backyard’ recently visited a garden which features a pleached laburnum walk.
Pleaching creates an effect of a living arch or tunnel. To achieve the effect a row of plants is grown up and their tops intertwined. A temporary wooden or bamboo framework is used to get the plants established. The word pleach is actually derived from the French word to plait or plash and has been used since the 15th century.
The pleached walk we saw had been created using the golden chain tree, Laburnum x watereri ‘Vossii’ (also sold as L. vossii). This is a cool climate plant that produces cascades (known as racemes) of yellow flowers during spring. The flowers hang down beneath the plant in the pleached walk. The racemes can be 45-50cm (20″) long.
At the end of the walk and framed as a vista is a classical statue.
Other plants that are traditionally used in a pleached walk are limes or lindens (Tilia sp.), hornbeams and yews.
Growing laburnum
Laburnum is at its best in a cool, humid climate. The plants we saw were growing at Bowral in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. Laburnums would also grow well in other mountain gardens and in parts of Tasmania.
They could possibly grow in cool micro-climates in gardens in Melbourne and Adelaide. They need regular water, particularly in the warmer months, and well-drained soil.
The laburnum is a member of the pea family and is deciduous in winter.
The laburnum or golden chain tree should not be confused with a tree that has a similar common name, the golden rain tree. This plant is a tree called Koelreuteria paniculata. It grows into a tall tree (10-15m or 30-45′ high) with panicles of yellow flowers in late spring and summer.
Laburnum walks to visit
These inspiring arches of colour are in flower now in many gardens around the country.
Our segment was filmed at Busker’s End, St Clair Street, Bowral, NSW, 2576, phone: (02) 4861 2942. It is open every day to visitors from now until the end of November, entry costs $4.
In South Australia, Stangate House, corner of Edgeware Road and Euston Road, Aldgate, 5154 has a laburnum arch; phone: (08) 8370 8112 to arrange a visiting time.
In the ACT, the Newman Garden, at 4 Tarana Street, Narrabundah, is open under the Australian Open Garden Scheme on 7-8 November 1998, from 10am to 4pm, entry costs $3.50.
Further information
For further reading on Laburnums see the article by Sarah Guest in the November 1998 issue of the Burke’s Backyard Magazine on page 46.
