Undressed elegance....the case for deciduous trees!

Over the years I've been really fortunate to spend a lot of time in London. It's an amazing city of history and culture. Beautiful buildings, museums and galleries, and of course wonderful gardens and parks. Wandering through Hyde Park or St James Park is a delight at any time of the year....in spring the blossoms are bursting...in summer London is in full bloom.....in autumn the trees are awash with oranges, reds and yellows......and in winter it's positively 'skeletal'. But that in itself has its own beauty....the silhouette of bare limbs against a grey sky. Yesterday I wandered around the streets of Kensington, and even though it's now spring, the bare trees were quite fascinating.  

I love the patterns that deciduous trees create against the afternoon sky. Some trees have an multitude of branches that create a spider web of pattern, others are bold and bare and give a sense of strong rigidity.

Deciduous trees are used extensively throughout London for the shade they provide in summer, and for the architectural design element they provide to the landscape in winter. They are not so common in Sydney, however many streets in Surry Hills and Redfern in the city are planted with rows of Liquidambar trees which help to shade the old terrace houses from the hot Aussie sun in summer, then drop their leaves to allow the sun shine through in winter. If you travel to the Southern Highlands outside Sydney you get a true sense of the seasons with the colder weather turning the trees all the colours of autumn. 

If you live in Sydney and love the look of deciduous trees and find their bare branches in winter a sculptural element to a garden you could choose a species such as a Largerstroemia Sp., commonly known as the 'Crepe Myrtle'. In summer these trees have lovely lime green foliage and abundant flowers in white, pink or red. In winter the branches are completely naked, giving only a hint of what they were in summer and will be again next year! 


So with autumn now upon us and winter just around the corner, watch the changing landscape as the leaves start to fall, and appreciate the undressed beauty and sculptural elegance of deciduous trees.