The Garden Design Hack You’ve Never Heard Of – The Blobbery…

The ‘blobbery’ is a stylish garden design trick that offers year-round interest and impact. The Architectural Plants nursery and garden design company has been using blobberies for several decades – in fact, they probably invented the term. So I asked MD Guy Watts to tell us about blobberies and what they can do to give our garden the ‘wow factor’. Watch the video and see what you think?
00:00 Welcome
00:14 Architectural Plants nursery and garden design: https://www.architecturalplants.com/
00:29 What is an architectural plant?
01:26 What is a ‘blobbery’?
02:03 How to use a blobbery in garden design
02:50 What plants to use in a blobbery?
03:16 Video on recognising and treating box tree moth caterpillar: https://youtu.be/8mHbpNwfoQ4
04:56 What other architectural plants are there?
06:30 Turn an established shrub into an interesting shape
07:30 Use an architectural plant as a focal point
07:50 What’s the most popular architectural plant?
08:30 Consider a multi-stemmed ‘blob’
11:00 Do ‘blobs’ grow well in pots?
12:31 Architectural plants for shade
13:43 More good plants for blobberies
14:48 Think about risk when planning your planting
15:21 Are architectural plants and blobberies part of ‘English garden style’ or it is international?
16:04 Lollipops or full standards
17:34 5 Top Garden Design Tips video: https://youtu.be/HtsqXEMeocM

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Spikes, balls, blobs – plants with strong 
sculptural shapes – are known as architectural plants, and they give your garden year round 
interest and impact. So I’ve come to the home of architectural plants, a nursery which 
is actually called Architectural Plants, to talk to Managing Director Guy Watts, about 
how to use blobberies, balls and architectural plants in your garden design. It’s Alexandra here 
from The Middle-Sized Garden YouTube channel and blog. So Guy, can you firstly define what an 
architectural plant is for me? So, it’s a term that’s been used for many years, but we just deem 
it is about shape and form. So it’s about having structure in a plant. It doesn’t necessarily mean 
it has to be evergreen, although the majority of plants are because they’re easier to shape and 
see. Then, so we use deciduous plants too. And it can be multi-stems, can be balls, blobs – it 
can be anything really – but it’s shape and form and structure. I first heard about blobberies when 
Architectural Plants were exhibiting at the Garden Press Event, and I thought this sounds wonderful, 
and I looked it up and Google said – rather sort of condescendingly – did you mean how to grow 
blueberries. And then it went on to tell me that actually some garden designers use the 
term blobberies quite in a way to denigrate, to say it’s very shapeless. But if I look at 
the groupings of blobs you’ve got here, they are actually very defined – they’re very structural 
and strong. So could you tell me what blobberies are? We believe that we actually coined the term 
blobberies. It’s something Angus used many many years ago, and was in our catalogue into the 
1990s, because it’s that sort of formation of lots of plants together. Often they’re wider than 
they are taller, which gives you that lovely sort of squashed ball look. And they are exactly that 
– they’re blobs. But we then mix them together. So it could be different types of plants, different 
shapes, and they often merge together. So yeah I agree, a blob to us is something that’s very 
defined. It’s beautifully clipped, often quite a lot, you know quite a few times a year, depending 
on the species. And how would you use a blobbery in a garden design? It could be planted under 
a tree, if you’re using sort of shade tolerant plants for a blobbery, or it could be in a very 
sunny position. Again, just as a sort of almost a piece of living art, sculpture. You can add other 
elements to it that are perhaps deciduous. So you get pops of autumn colour, or viburnum tinus is 
a great plant to use in a blobbery, because you get that lovely white flower in the winter. Is 
there a sort of, like you’ve got to have three, or you’ve got to have five, you’ve got to have 
uneven amounts, or are there any like rules like that? Generally we use odd numbers for design, 
and I know lots of people do. We do that, but blobberies are different, because imagine this as 
being one form that’s clipped together over time. So initially yes, you may use an odd number, but 
it becomes a singular form over time. So it’s not as important as it is in other design aspects. And 
what plants do you use for blobberies? We use all sorts. So taxus baccata which is yew, which is an 
evergreen. Prunus lusitanica is a big one for us, although it has slightly larger leaves. There’s 
ilex crenata which a lot of people are using – we find it a little bit unreliable so we don’t use it 
on a big scale. Obviously box is completely out, because of caterpillar and box blight. I know 
gardens are still starting to use box again, but I’m a little nervous of that at the moment. 
Deciduous plants I really like, things like an evergreen form, lonicera, but there’s vulgari 
which is a deciduous form. So honestly almost anything as long as it doesn’t mind being clipped. 
I’d never think of honeysuckle as being a clipped plant, but it’s very clipped. I think lonicera has 
got a bit of a bad reputation now, and we’ve been growing for many many years – I stopped selling 
box through Architecture Plants 10 years ago, that’s how long it’s been going for us. So 
lonicera is something that we go to because it’s a really robust plant. Yes it’s quite fast growing, 
that’s the only thing, but it does have small leaves and you can clip it incredibly tightly. So 
it’s a fantastic plant for that. But I quite like a mixed blobbery. So yew is excellent, because 
it’s a little slower, bit more traditional, and if you mix that with lonicera then you’re 
not having such a huge maintenance cost. Because that’s the other thing you got to bear in mind. 
Someone does need to clip this, and it can often be between two and four times per year. And I’ve 
also seen some really lovely ones, with beech and hornbeam and things like that – because those go a 
lovely autumn colour don’t they. Absolutely, yeah. Of course they never lose their leaves do they? 
Beech is better for that, unless it’s a carpinus that’s been bred to hold its leaf longer, which a 
lot of them are now in Northern Europe. But beech is a brilliant plant – adds that lovely colour. We 
just built one recently in Kent, a big garden with a lovely blobbery of mixed evergreens, and we use 
fagus as our deciduous option. And they give you, as you said, that lovely coppery brown colour 
throughout the winter as well. And in terms of other architectural plants, how would you sort 
of divide them up? So we’re very much design led. We mix plants together. That fusion is 
really important. So jungly and tropical I think you mentioned, with big leaves, they 
definitely act as it. You can also have English topiary – we definitely would call that 
an architectural plant. Japanese topiary, which tends to be niwaki – so it’s like a big bonsai 
in the ground – garden tree is the definition. This is one here – it’s an osmanthus niwaki. So 
niwaki is garden tree, that’s the translation, and it’s a large bonsai – would be the best way 
to describe it. So that’s very Japanese. And then obviously the jungly side is, you’ve got to have 
the right environment for that, and we do quite a lot of jungle tropical gardens in London and on 
the south coast. And bear in mind that, almost, our beginning of our business was very much 
that – it was big leaf exotics. Some plants are born architectural, and some we say are thrust 
upon them – but through creative maintenance. It depends. How long does it take, and how old 
is a tree like this one for example? The form, the art form of niwaki is obviously a lot slower. 
It’s a slow process. The idea is you take a plant that has some qualities – that means it could have 
maybe some multi-stems, some loose branching – and niwaki tends to have these lovely horizontal 
branches with cloud forms on them. So you’re starting to find a plant that looks like you could 
do that to it, and then over time you develop this product. This plant is somewhere between probably 
15 to 20 years old. You can create a niwaki quite quickly with an existing shrub, but it will take 
many years for it to form and fill it – fully put its clouds out essentially. Other plants – and 
one of the things we really pride ourselves on is going into someone’s garden seeing a shrub and 
then turning it into something architecturally beautiful. So it might just be a simple hedging 
plant, elaeagnus ebbingei being one. We might see it’s got some really nice stems below. So we’ll 
remove the foliage and create a multi-stem. We may then shape it from above with our shears. So you 
can create an architectural plant quite quickly, unless it’s a form like this which takes time. In 
terms of using an architectural plant as a focal point, have you got any advice? Absolutely. We 
like to have sort of focal trees, specimen trees, at the end of avenues for example. And that’s 
where a solo plant – whether it’s in the ground or in a pot – can work really really well. So finding 
little vistas in the garden, little viewing points where you have a solo plant, an architecture plant 
works beautifully in that way, because you get to see it from all sorts of angles. However, we also 
just build planting beds where it can be made up entirely of architectural plants. And I think 
that’s when I’m driving around and I see gardens, I can often point out our gardens, because we 
almost entirely use architectural plants in them. We possibly sometimes add a few bits of 
softening with hebes or grasses, but we try and use them almost everywhere. And that’s 
what most of our customers come to us for, is to have shape and form in the garden. So what would 
you say is the most popular architectural plant, what’s the one that people think of first? Oh 
that’s a hard question. I think the most obvious one now is niwaki, just because they stand out. 
But I do feel that’s probably more of a trend, and I think it’s very very hard to beat a 
beautifully clipped ball or blob. You know they traditionally work in most gardens. So I 
think they will stand the test of time. You know, your blobs and your balls. They’re fantastic 
And what you’ve got here is some blobs that have sort of grown up and are now multi-stemmed 
blobs as well, haven’t you? And that’s rather lovely. As well as a garden centre and a nursery, 
we are true growers. So it’s really important to imagine you’re a nursery, and you have a hundred 
hedging plants, and maybe you sell 80 of them and there’s 20 left. And then they get potted on, 
and then you start to see that well that would look quite nice as a multi-stem. So as a grower we 
get this incredible opportunity to take a plant, a simple hedging plant like I said earlier, and we 
turn it into something special. It might even be a niwaki, if it’s got the right form. It might be a 
multi-stem. We’ve got some very interesting sort of single solo pieces that are topiarised into 
shape, and we let the plant do the talking. We let it create its own form by it having grown 
in that way. So that’s our favourite thing. That’s creative maintenance basically. It’s taking 
something and making it more beautiful, or more aesthetically pleasing. And really listening to 
the plant telling us, seeing what it wants to do. And you said that sometimes you’ll go into 
someone’s garden, and there’s a sort of lump of a shrub, and you’ll see the shape of it, and then 
you’ll cut it. I had one of these in my garden. It was literally a holly golden king, and it was just 
a lump, and Charlotte Molesworth came and said “Oh you should topiarise that.” And it has been, and 
it’s been really successful. What sort of shrubs could you turn from a lump into a lovely shape? 
So the art of reduction – which is what it’s about – is looking at your garden and thinking: 
rather than removing that, what can we do with it? Honestly, we’re very experimental. That’s 
a huge part of what we do – is to look and try and experiment. So I would experiment. If you’re 
not happy with what you have, I would experiment. General rules are if it’s flowering, maybe wait 
for it to finish flowering. Avoid very hot days. Avoid very cold days. Other than that, unless 
you’re very precious about a plant, I would have a go. And I would be, when we talk about reduction, 
I always look at the volume of a plant, and I say 10 to 20% removal is quite safe. In terms of go-to 
plants – that you definitely should do – holly, yew/taxus, prunus – except in June. So no “prunus 
in junus”. Generally speaking, though I say experiment, have fun. We have an apprenticeship 
scheme here called AP Homegrown, and part of that is about making mistakes. That’s a really 
important part of a garden, is to make mistakes, learn from them. Maybe clip it and it doesn’t 
work out, but it’s going to grow back. So yeah, almost any evergreen, really. Lovely. Sculptural 
architectural plants and blobberies in pots – you have loads of lovely pots here. So presumably they 
all work in pots? The most important thing with pots is, I think about plants that have qualities 
that can be clipped. So they might be a niwaki, they may be a ball or a blob. Acers are quite good 
in pots – check on the variety. Olives, and I’m thinking here about plants that can be clipped. So 
you’re naturally taking some of the weight, some of the foliage off, which means that they’re going 
to be able to last longer in those in those pots. So pots generally are okay, as long as the plant 
can be clipped, maintained, and you’ve got to get a good drainage, and good watering. Irrigation 
systems are definitely something we recommend. They allow more consistent flow of water, and 
equally fantastic drainage. So good perlite, a bit of grit, with the compost when you plant. And 
also we use mycorrhizal a lot, which helps root development. And is there a point when they grow 
out of the pot, and you really have to put them in the ground? Yeah, I’m afraid so. Some plants 
no. Some plants you really can get away with it. I always tell people to kind of really keep an eye 
on what happens with the plant. It might lose its leaves, or start yellowing slightly. You can of 
course increase the longevity of a plant through adding food and various subs. We use a silicon 
gel here now, which is really really fantastic. So you can do that, but there’s definitely going 
to come a point where a plant needs to go in the ground – and it will be far beneficial for it 
longer term to do that . So yeah, big pots, as big as you can go. Are there any particularly 
good architectural plants for shade? So yes, absolutely, I mean we have two shade houses here. 
Acers are particularly good, although acers need sun from above and cooler roots – so as long as 
it’s dappled shade. We use aucuba a lot. We have some really nice forms. Longiflora – it’s got 
lovely long leaves – that we’ve been growing for many years. What else? Viburnum tinus I use 
in dappled shade. Again good clipper. We use lots of grasses such as luzulas. I really like adding 
those in – a swath of those. Yew, taxus – I use quite a lot as well. So there’s lots. Elaeagnus – 
again that’s a funny plant because people see that as a hedging plant – it’s a coastal hedging plant. 
I think it’s brilliant as an architectural plant because it’s so, so easy to clip it. It’s a tough, 
tough-as-old-boots plant really. Cryptomeria is a plant we use quite a lot. Now everywhere you 
read about conifers, they want full sun. I think cryptomeria can be in dappled shade too. That’s a 
fantastic plant – it holds its shape really well. The form I’m thinking is globosa nana, not the 
tree form, and that’s really fantastic. We did a garden at Chelsea last year where we showed all 
the box alternatives. So I think that’s quite a big sort of trend, is to look for alternatives. 
I’m a little concerned that ilex crenata is being used so much. I find it’s a little unreliable in 
our wet winters. It’s okay as a niwaki. It seems to be okay probably because they tend to go in 
pots. So you can control the watering. Pittosporum is a plant we haven’t talked about. Pittosporum 
is a fantastic plant, brilliant for clipping, but it had a bit of a rough ride in December or 
November of 22, because beyond minus 5 or below minus 5, if it is consistent, it can knock it 
back, especially because it’s a plant that we clip hard. Same with hebes. If you clip something 
really really hard, you probably sometimes do it a little bit late in the season, and if you have an 
early very cold period like that, you’ve got to be careful. But pittosporums are brilliant plants. 
I mean they’re so adaptable as trees and blobs, balls. But just, I now warn people just to 
don’t clip it too late. Leave it a little bit bushier for the winter. I suppose one of the big 
things that’s really important – I like this idea especially with box – is thinking about risk. 
So how can you mitigate that risk of having one variety? So using a mixed variety in a blobbery, 
I would say, is a really important lesson for us. I love using evergreen and deciduous plants in a 
blobbery. I think it also helps to mitigate the risk. So something goes wrong with a variety, 
you haven’t decimated your whole garden, and I think we need to probably be considering that. 
Thinking about what plant choice you have, to adapt with our environment, is really important. 
To what extent is architectural plants – topiary, blobberies etc – seen as a sort of English style 
gardening, or is it really quite international? So in Japanese gardens they use a lot of that 
swath, the blobbery style – I think it’s called carakomi. So that is quite Japanese, something 
you see. Of course niwaki – it’s got Chinese and Japanese heritage actually. I’d say you see it 
quite a lot in European topiary. You see that all over Europe – obviously, in the big gardens 
Versailles etc. And I don’t think it’s completely international. I think also even in England we 
quite like trees with balls on. We call them full standards, or lollipops. Now my understanding is 
that lollipops actually were devised as a means to get plants from Europe into England in a really 
efficient manner. So you put lollipops in a lorry. What I mean by that is a clear stem and a ball on 
top, and they used to put them into lorries so it was a quick way of getting them here. And actually 
the English customer base went “oh they’re fantastic, I really like those”, and they carried 
on clipping them. But the intention was actually just to make them easier to transport. So that’s 
quite an interesting thing about the difference in tastes. We tend to like things clipped more in 
the UK. In the rest of Europe they’re probably slightly looser, in terms of their habit they 
let their plants grow to. And the United States? I personally think the standards of gardening 
in Europe and England – they’re slightly more developed possibly, in terms of topiary forms. 
I think we’ve been doing it traditionally for longer. But again some of the gardens I’ve been to 
in California are incredible. And a lot of America has that – it depends where you go. But rewilding 
is obviously the complete contrast of what we do, as a company, it’s completely opposite. We 
definitely added slightly more elements to that in our design. So sometimes architecture 
plants can work beautifully with meadows, or with movement of grasses. And I mentioned 
earlier about acers, that colour. So I think we’re trying to sort of slightly develop our 
garden design style to include a bit of both. But always at the forefront is the architectural 
plant. So if you’re interested in garden design, don’t miss this video coming up next, with a 
great range of garden design tips and tricks that will help you make your garden look better 
than ever. And thank you for watching. Goodbye!