The Royal Bank of Canada - The RBC New Wild Garden

By Dr Nigel Dunnett and built by Landform Consultants. A visually-striking garden studio, created from a refurbished shipping container, with habitat walls and green roof, forms the garden’s centre-piece, sitting within waves of colourful, impressionistic naturalistic planting.

The garden combines ecological awareness with artistic, and sculptural use of materials. A strong sustainability theme runs throughout. The design is for a rain garden, with reflecting pools capturing all the rainwater and sculptural ‘drystone’ walls presenting ever-changing views.

The garden takes the planting ideas of Victorian horticulturist William Robinson and looks afresh at the tradition of quality and craftsmanship of the ‘arts and crafts’ movement to create a forward-looking interpretation of ‘The Wild Garden’.

The garden contains a wide diversity of planting types, with a common naturalistic character, and with a predominantly herbaceous perennial character. A contemporary re-interpretation of the traditional herbaceous border runs along one side of the garden.

Designed and colour-themed meadow-like plantings form the garden’s core, with a matrix of native wildflowers and grasses forming a backdrop to a range of exotic or garden plants, naturalised within. An open birch woodland creates a canopy over a carpet of spring woodland flowers, and the sitting area in the garden is ringed with flowering crab apples.

The green roof on the garden studio is planted with both wildflowers and garden plants to attract insects and birds, and the dry stone walls and paved areas are liberally interspersed with alpines and more wildflowers.

Plants list    

Perennial Planting
Orange, lime green, purple, with a touch of white

Allium hollandicum 'Purple Senstation'
Allium schubertii
Clematis recta 'Purpurea'
Euphorbia griffithii 'Fireglow'
Euphorbia schillingii
Ferula communis 'Dixter Form'
Geum 'Princess Juliana'
Euphorbia ceratocarpa
Verbascum phoeniceum 'Violetta'

Dry Meadow Planting
Mostly blue, with red and pale yellow,  grey shimmering grasses

Armeria maritima
Erodium manascavii
Festuca amethystina
Lychnis coronaria 'Alba'
Paeonia tenuifolia
Oenothera odorata superba
Sanguisorba menziesii
Salvia nemorosa
Sesleria caerulea

Wet Meadow Planting
Purple and orange primulas with predominantly white and blue flowering plants

Deschampsia cespitosa
Euphorbia palustris
Geranium sylvaticum
Geranium sylvaticum 'Album'
Iris sibirica 'Tropic Night'
Lychnis flos-cuculi 'Alba'
Polemonium caeruleum 'Lambrook Mauve'
Osmunda regalis
Primula pulverulenta
Primula beesiana
Primula florindae
Primula florindae 'Ray's Ruby'

Woodland Planting - perennial planting

Tiarella cordifolia 'Chocolate Spot'
Tiarella cordifolia 'Pink Bouquet'
Tellima grandiflora 'Forest Frost'
Ajuga ‘Catlins Giant’
Dicentra eximia ‘Alba’
Dryopteris filix-mas
Epimedium ‘Frohnleiten’
Lunaria rediviva
Luzula nivea
Matteuccia struthiopteris
Myrrhis odorata
Omphalodes cappadocica ‘Alba’
Polystichum setiferum
Tulipa sprengeri
Viola cornuta ‘Alba’
Hesperis matronalis 'Alba'
Synthyris missurica var stellata

Trees and Shrubs

Betula pendula 'Dalecarlica'
Malus hupehensis
Rosa glauca
Phyllostachys nigra 'Hale'
Rubus odoratus

Wall and Paving Planting

Aceana inermis ‘Purpurea’
Scabiosa columbaria ‘Nana’
Sedum
Centranthus ruber 'Albus'
Campanula portenschlagiana 'resholdt's variety'
Sempervivum
Thymus
Clematis 'Moonbeam'
Festuca mairei
Scabiosa columbaria ‘Nana’