Image

Over 14,000 fountain grass plants (Pennisetum alopecuroides ) are set in linear squares between olive trees. Morning and evening light turns the grasses to a mesmerizing silvery pink. Seen from above, the strict geometry of the fountain grass beds becomes clear. While the lines may be severe, the planting is silky soft, and therefore succeeds in creating what Giubbilei calls a “modern parterre.”

A Garden of Shape and Light

MARRAKECH, MOROCCO

Luciano Giubbilei • 2.3 acres (0.9 hectare) • 2008

IN THE FLATLANDS OUTSIDE Marrakech, before the land rises to the Atlas Mountains, an Italian designer based in London has created a garden for a New Zealand family that also lives part-time in London. Such a confluence of internationalism, reflected in the Islamic and Italianate garden and decorated with Moroccan pottery and French sculpture, is not uncommon in this age.

Moroccan domestic architecture is usually simple, with facades facing the street, in what Western observers might be tempted to describe as minimalist. Houses are private, life happens inside. Unadorned red-clay houses with small windows and doors disguise elaborate decoration within. Morocco’s famous multilevel houses with rooms arranged to surround a planted interior courtyard, or riyad , are frequently ornamented with colorful zellij tilework and balanced by the focus of a round or octagonal marble fountain. These basic features are symbols of Islamic paradise.

This house features all of these, as well as a courtyard full of orange trees and bougainvillea weaving through an arabesque screen. The sitting rooms and bedrooms are open and rectangular. Kilim rugs and Berber carpets fill the tile floors and adorn the walls like pictures. The house is full of light and air. So is the garden.

Luciano Giubbilei, born in Siena, Italy, and educated at the Inchbald School of Design in London, has taken the simplicity of the house and designed a garden that reflects it. His design is formal—Moroccan and Italianate, at once—a combination of two cultures that share a love of geometry. And yet, despite the straightforward axial plan and rigid individual elements, the overall garden is softly erotic and mysteriously seductive. Old, gnarled olive trees (Olea europaea ) grow in straight lines on a grid pattern, ghosts of a former plantation. The olives create a dark counterpoint to squares of fountain grass (Pennisetum alopecuroides). Over 14,000 of them are planted in precisely framed squares centered exactly between trees, availing themselves of the grid and indeed bombastically exploiting it as an organizational concept in a way only the most confident of garden designers would ever dare. There are a few blocks of roses, planted at the back and sides of the garden, seemingly relegated to an undignified post until you experience the way their perfume fills the hot evening air.

Image

The soft texture of the fountain grass contrasts with harder edged blue agave and the dark green clouds of olive leaves above. The hues of the three combined create a decidedly unique and appealing color scheme for this dry location deep in the Atlas Mountains.

Image

An intimate courtyard fountain bordered with tile is surrounded by orange trees.

Image

A traditional Moorish entryway leads into a formal courtyard garden.

Image

The large, abstract toupies (or tops) sculptures were created by French artists Serge Bottagisio and Agnes Decoux.

Close to a small swimming pool and poolhouse, a sculpture of two spinning tops, 6 feet (1.8 meters) high and 8 feet (2.4 meters) across, created by French artists Serge Bottagisio and Agnès Decoux, tilt the formality with grace and humor. The wide grass paths and blocks of grasses make orderly space a visual and physical conservation of energy. The geometry does not challenge; the garden is not a mystery. It is not meant to be.

It is the light that is the primary element. The dark olives absorb, seeming to pull the light into them, bringing it down from the desert sky while the play of sunlight on the grasses is nothing short of choreographed. At dawn and sunset the grasses burn red. With a little cloud cover, soft light brings the slight pink in the grasses upward and outward. When the clouds roll away and the light becomes harder, the silver of the grasses rises up: 14,000 fountains of sparkling light in the desert. An earthly paradise.

Image

Aloe’s tubular flowers open from the bottom, often changing hue as they do. Planting different aloes together creates a spectacular display of varied colors.

The Aloe Farm

HARTBEESPOORT, SOUTH AFRICA

Andy De Wet • 210 acres (85 hectares) • 2005

DEPENDING ON WHO YOU talk to or what taxonomists tell you, there are 300 or 400 or more than 500 species of aloes. Most are native to South Africa, with a few species scattered throughout the Arabian Peninsula and Madagascar. Many species and cultivars are widely grown in gardens in the dry subtropical and tropical regions of the world. Hybrids and cultivars, improvements on the species, are easy to grow, requiring considerable sunlight, very little water, minimal fertilizer, sandy or gravelly soil with a bit of compost, and predominantly frost-free conditions. They are beautiful, robust plants that flower in the cool season. For those who wish to garden in a sustainable manner, they are fast becoming one of the most widely grown plants for Mediterranean climate and xeric gardens.

South African flora is one of the most diverse and spectacular in the world. Many fine garden plants have been produced from the native species of the region, including Protea , Pelargonium , Plumbago , and Kniphofia , and there are many more.

Andy De Wet has spent over forty years selecting and breeding horticulturally superior aloes, agapanthus, and other varieties for the landscape and retail industry. He does so with great diligence and passion and has taken South African plants to new heights of horticultural development. His nursery near Hartbeesport is a botanic garden of his plant selections, highlighting two of the most emblematic genera of the country.

Hartbeespoort is about an hour northwest of Johannesburg, on the slopes of the Magaliesber Mountains. Many species of aloes grow in the mountains; Aloe peglerae , a stemless plant with red flowers and purplish stamens, and A. davyana (syn. A. greatheadii var. davyana ), with white-spotted leaves and pale pink flowers, can be seen dotting the dry slopes. Aloe peglerae is endangered in the wild, mostly from overcollecting. Aloe davyana is not under threat. Yet.

Image

Aloe ‘Peri Peri’ is an excellent long- and profuse-flowering aloe of a compact form.

Image

Sunbirds, with their long, curved bills, are one of the only organisms capable of pollinating aloes. They feed on the nectar produced in the tubular flowers.

De Wet started breeding aloes in 1973, and in 2005 he bought a 210-acre (85-hectare) farm on which he selects, grows, and sells South African native plants. He has devoted a large portion of the farm, which sits on the side of the mountain, as a conservation area—something he is also passionate about.

In recent years, he has produced a slew of aloe cultivars. To produce a good and sale-worthy plant, he selects the seed parents, then hand pollenates with a carefully selected parent. The cross-fertilized flowers get marked and recorded.

He has produced many fine aloes. ‘Peri Peri’ is one of his most successful. It has a long flowering season, from early autumn through winter. The flowers are red-orange on a small plant 8 by 8 inches (20 by 20 centimeters). It grows well in part shade and is an excellent plant when grown in a mass, where its profusion of flowers and expanding clumps of foliage quickly fill a tough area. It is now being used as a street planting in some cities in South Africa.

‘Hedgehog’ is the product of Aloe humilis and three other parents. It grows rapidly and is good for massing or as a container plant since it only reaches a height of 8 inches (20 centimeters). The vibrant coral-red flowers bloom throughout the winter, and the spiked leaves grow upright and curved inward in a ball.

‘Bafana’ is a big succulent shrub, growing up to 6 feet (1.8 meters) high and 5 feet (1.5 meters) wide. Its large, tubular yellow flowers bloom in winter. It was named after the nickname for the South African soccer team.

Agapanthus is a summer-flowering perennial with evergreen, strap-shaped leaves and big balls of flowers. All of the six or so species are native to Southern Africa, so De Wet has decided to try his hand at breeding these as a sideline. When not grown in the ground, they make excellent container plants. His selections include the stunning ‘Blue Ice’, with pale blue flowers with a darker blue base. Its name describes it. ‘Bingo Blue’ is a short plant with multitudes of bright blue flowers on 11-inch (30- centimeter) stems, and ‘Great White’ has large white floral balls with yellow stamens.

To flesh out the display gardens at the nursery, a garden that seems always to be in bloom, De Wet also showcases Plectranthus , a genus in the mint family, and Tecoma , of the trumpet vine family. He also likes other South African natives and is fond of the Natal lily (Clivia ), a member of the amaryllis family, and Lachenalia , the Cape cowslip.

“Plant breeding has great possibilities, but it is much harder, more expensive, and slower than most people realize, and I believe one should be very patient and passionately dedicated to get the results that are acceptable to the horticultural industry. We often work on a genus for several years and then walk away from it and discard all material as we realize that we cannot achieve the goals we thought were possible. That’s plant breeding for you. It’s hard work but a lot of fun,” he says. De Wet continues to breed plants for the betterment of ornamental horticulture. In doing so he is expanding our knowledge of and appreciation for some of the world’s most beautiful plants. His work is deeply South African, yet he and others are spreading the word of the value and wonderful beauty of South African plants around the world.

Image

With stout, gray-green leaves that curl in on themselves when the weather is dry, Aloe peglerae is stemless and often produces only a single flower stalk. The flowers are brick red with purple stamens. It is listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being in danger of extinction.

Image

The Aloe Farm is a display garden, nursery, and botanical garden in one.

Image

When life gives you lemons, make a windmill and a replica of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

The Miracle Garden

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Akar Landscaping Services • 18 acres (7.3 hectares) • 2014

FORTY-FIVE MILLION PETUNIAS and geraniums in the desert. A mirage, a madness, a Garden of Eden, a paradise?

Dubai is a modern desert city, seemingly always under construction with one glorious or inglorious thing after another. The weather is wonderful in the autumn, winter, and spring and appallingly hot in the summer. The temperatures relate directly to the population’s available avenues of recreation. In the cooler seasons, many flock to see the Miracle Garden.

There is a British slang word that may adequately describe a person’s reaction to the Miracle Garden: “gobsmacked.” There is no doubt that entering through the petunia-laden gates is a jaw-dropping experience. The visitor from afar would do well at this point to remind himself or herself that color is cultural. In the West, white is the color of brides, weddings, and peace. In the East, it is symbolic of sadness, death, and mourning. It is very evident here that the bright colors of millions of annual plants is a cultural phenomenon that sits uncomfortably in Western culture but delights, in general, those from an Eastern culture. And if all you normally see is desert—dry and dusty—all these flowers and yes, even petunias, might seem luxurious, a feast for the senses.

Approximately 70 percent of the UAE’s highly international population is Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and Filipino. And this demographic fits the average visitor to the garden. With that demographic comes a range of cultural biases that generally favor displays of bright colors. So here, they get their money’s worth. Seemingly endless archways of petunias lead to crossing hearts writ with geraniums. Igloos, too, and pyramids, domes, and a village of flower-strewn cottages. Let us not forget pink flamingos, and let us pay attention to a somewhat alarming fountain of an upside-down automobile penetrated by a thick column and pouring water. There is dried fruit too—thousands of lemons clothing what looks like a Tyrolean castle, and, in another piece, a model of the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, also made from lemons. For the romantic ornithologist there are pink swans and white peacocks. It is remarkable what can be done with petunias.

Image

Archways of petunias seem to stretch to infinity.

Image

The extraordinary show of millions of flowers in almost every conceivable arrangement makes this garden one of the most popular in the world.

Sometimes we take ourselves too seriously. Garden designers talk about sustainability, whatever that actually means, and design intent, and invasive versus native plants, and so on. They question whether garden design is an art or a craft. Meanwhile, the overall population, oblivious to these back-room conversations, just wants to have fun, a place to take the kids, and an opportunity for selfies.

The Miracle Garden succeeds. It is for the enjoyment of beauty without the complications of intellect, and it doesn’t pretend anything else. It’s honest. With Dubai’s children having such little access to truly green space, any time spent outdoors, even at this riotous and fantastic garden, is an appropriately laughing matter.

Image

A pink peacock of petunias—in the desert, less a bird of paradise than a bird of paradox.

Image

The garden is filled with replicas of Japanese, English, and Tyrolean villages, all laden with flowers on every available surface.

Image

Bismarckia nobilis ’s silvery-blue fronds look at home in a garden based on clear geometry.

Al Barari

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Zaal Mohammed Zaal, Kamelia Zaal, Second Nature Landscape Design • 321 acres (129 hectares) • 2009

“Some wine, a Houri (Houris if there be),
A green bank by a stream, with minstrelsy;
Toil not to find a better Paradise
If other Paradise indeed there be!”

—OMAR KHAYYAM

AL BARARI IS A SURPRISE. It is situated in a desert in suburban Dubai, and it’s as lush as an English botanical garden: it holds thirty-four individual gardens and more than four million plants.

Kamelia Zaal is the garden designer and, with her father, Zaal Mohammed Zaal, she has created a garden overflowing with plants in what must be the greenest place in the United Arab Emirates. Perhaps this has something to do with a desire to imprint some of her own heritage on the relatively blank slate of the desert, because she is half Scottish and half Emirati.

Al Barari, which means “wilderness,” is wild with layers of horticulture. These envelop a residential compound comprising 216 villas, a gourmet restaurant, a health club, and the region’s largest privately owned plant nursery. New villas and gardens continue to be constructed.

It has been described as a botanical haven, and it is. What is remarkable is that all this is happening in a climate with an average summer temperature of 106°F (41°C) and an average annual rainfall of 6 inches (15 centimeters). But inside the compound, it is shaded and cooler, on average 3 to 5°F cooler. How is this accomplished? There are lots of trees and shrubs, creating shaded tunnels, and the high density of the plantings as well as freshwater streams and 10 miles (16 kilometers) of landscaped lakes create an environment that differs greatly from the surrounding desert.

Image

For centuries, open pools of water in the desert, where water is a scarce resource, have been synonymous with luxury. This one, near the complex’s main restaurant, contains cattails (Typha latifolia ), papyrus (Cyperus alternifolius ), and pencil grass (Juncus effusus ).

Where does all the water to support this design come from in the desert? Treated sewage effluent (TSE), in this case. It is better than it sounds. Black water from a nearby sewage treatment plant is filtered through a reverse-osmosis process, pumped to an on-site treatment plant, and used for irrigation. No potable water is used on plants. There are six open waterways in the development as well: lakes, streams, and waterfalls. The waterways also have a TSE source, but there is no smell except the perfume of flowers. Algae growth in the nitrogen-rich water is controlled using water recirculators, aerators, and ultrasonic devices that use high-frequency sound to agitate the water, freeing it of pollutants. Gray water from the residences is also recycled, and also feeds the irrigation system. It is a complex and intelligent system; plants get the correct amount of water, and the streams and lakes are clean and appealing.

Image

Cactus-like desert euphorbia and Euphorbia tirucalli ‘Sticks on Fire’, with the red-gold stems, planted among palms and more water-dependent trees and shrubs, reveal broad diversity in close quarters that is a testament to good garden management.

Al Barari is a sensitive development that focuses on ways to be as sustainable as possible. Aside from the water, all green waste is composted and returned to the planting beds. The gardens are designed to look naturalistic and are generally low-maintenance, and, although there are formal areas, they are designed to be consciously ecological in their relationships among water, plants, birds and animals, and residents and visitors. The endangered Arabian killifish (Aphanius dispar ), one of three freshwater fishes found in the UAE, is thriving in the lakes and streams.

The high concentration of planting is practical, with its shade-giving qualities and humidifying effect, as well as aesthetically pleasing. Trees provide sheltered areas from the burning sun for an underlayer of shrubs, and they, in turn, create cooler, shaded environments for herbaceous plants.

The property is divided into a series of themed gardens—Balinese, Contemporary, Mediterranean, Renaissance, Showcase, Water, Woodland—with streamside pathways and avenues of trees connecting them to one another. Bamboo pergolas with cushioned seats are strategically placed. It may be cooler in Al Barari, but it’s still blisteringly hot at times.

Image

A recirculating water system with streams, pools, and ponds, lowers the ambient temperature in the garden, making it cooler and temperate enough for outdoor enjoyment.

Image

The fading flowers of Agave americana grow naturally in decorative espaliers.

Image

There are many tropical hibiscus hybrids and cultivars represented at Al Barari, ranging in height from 2 to 16 feet (0.6 to 4.9 meters). This specimen may be a sport of Hibiscus ‘Sylvia Goodman’, which can grow to a height of 6 feet (1.8 meters).

The Contemporary Garden has, as its focal point, a large Bismarck palm (Bismarckia nobilis ), with beautiful silver-blue fans. It is a large palm and its formal appearance, placed as it is in a square container in a geometrically sharp streambed, is a strong focal point for an angular garden. Pleached silver buttonwoods (Conocarpus erectus var. sericeus ), a tree adapted to high heat, are trained to look like hedges on stilts, framing the waterway and extending the geometry upward. An entryway is framed by an avenue of fiddle-leaf fig (Ficus lyrata ), offering softness with its large, round, leathery and veined leaves. It is the most formal of the gardens, all angles and steps, complementing the modern Mediterranean-Arabesque villas.

The most delicately designed of the gardens is one that surrounds the Farm, the high-end restaurant at the heart of Al Barari. The restaurant itself is stylishly modern with wooden decks, glass balustrades, large umbrellas, and topiary plants. The view from the restaurant could be of California, with small pools framed by palms and containing cattails (Typha latifolia ), papyrus (Cyperus alternifolius ), pencil grass (Juncus effusus ), and the thick, egg-shaped leaves and lavender flowers of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes ). There are formal rows of topiary. Clerodendrum inerme , sorcerer’s bush, flowers constantly with fragrant white flowers, and is attractive pruned into a globe, as is the golden curtain fig (Ficus microcarpa ‘Golden’) with waxy green and yellow leaves. The restaurant garden is beautifully lit at night with uplights illuminating date palms (Phoenix dactylifera ), Mexican fan palms (Washingtonia robusta ), California fan palm (Washingtonia filifera ), and the magnificent traveler’s palm (Ravenala madagascariensis ). This could be Beverley Hills.

There is no question that a lot of time, design, and horticultural awareness, and, of course, financial investment, has been spent to make Al Barari an extremely pleasing and botanically diverse environment. The work done to make the development as environmentally sensitive and sustainable as possible is exemplary.

Walking under a bower filled with the delicious perfume of sweet acacia (Acacia farnesiana ) and the ultramarine flowers of clustervine (Jacquemontia violacea ) entwined around a robust bougainvillea with bright red flowers is a little bit of paradise. It is reminiscent of a Paradise Garden of Islam that we see at the Taj Mahal, the Shalimar Gardens in Pakistan, and, most famously, at the Alhambra in Spain. Al Barari is a meeting place of East and West, and while it may be precocious to state that it indicates a new achievement in the gardens of the Middle East, it certainly points the way toward a greening of the entire peninsula.

Image

The roots of Arnebia hispidissima , the Arabian primrose, are used to make a deep red dye.

Oman Botanic Garden

AL KHOUD, OMAN

Centre for Middle Eastern Plants (CMEP), Atkins Global, Annette Patzelt and garden staff • 1,045 acres (423 hectares) • 2004–2017

THE OMAN BOTANIC GARDEN is certainly one of the largest and arguably one of the most important new botanical enterprises being developed in the world today. It will be an impressive garden when it is completed, not because of the size of the site, but rather for the substantial and serious work in plant conservation, the sensitive display of plants endemic to Oman, the focus on the region’s ethnobotany, and the traditional relationship between the Omani people and their native plants.

The Sultanate of Oman is bordered by the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman to the east, Yemen to the south, and Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to the west. Being isolated from the floras of Africa and Asia, the region has developed a diversity of bioregions that those who might otherwise assume it to be a barren, harsh country would find surprising. These consist of desert and semi-desert, with mountain ranges and a subtropical region in the south, Dhofar, which is lush and green during the monsoon season. Oman is home to more than 1,200 species of plants, eighty of which are found nowhere else in the world. The Jebel Akhdar, or Green Mountain, part of the Hajar Mountain range that runs along the country’s northern edge, gets enough precipitation to have sponsored the development of many native plants.

The garden is situated a few miles from the city of Muscat, in the northern gravel-desert region. This area is comprised of light-colored limestone basins and mountains and darker ophiolite, an igneous rock thrust up from the oceanic crust. Oman is, in fact, a geologist’s dream.

Image

This umbrella thorn tree (Acacia tortilis ) is a dominant feature of the Omani landscape. It spreads up to 42 feet (13 meters) wide and 16 feet (5 meters) tall.

The vegetation of the country is dominated by the flat-topped, small tree Acacia tortilis and outcroppings of the light green evergreen shrub Euphorbia larica . Higher in the hills, the rare and threatened Barleria aucheriana, with its pink-blue flowers, adds a little color as does the atil (Maerua crassifolia ) with its sweet-scented white flowers. Small villages frequently have groves of date palms (Phoenix dactylifera ), persimmons (Diospyros sp.), and apricots (Prunus armeniaca ), as well as small terraces of wheat, garlic, and lentils, all which help to pepper the arid landscape with green.

The botanic garden is the leading organization for plant conservation in the Arabian Peninsula, and as such has been at the forefront of protecting native species in a region that is fast undergoing change. The usual reasons why plants are disappearing everywhere also apply here: Habitat loss is a result of human expansion, pollution, and overgrazing—here by cattle, goats, and camels. Also, it has already been observed that climate change is making the country hotter and drier. This is not good news for a country that can experience searing summer temperatures reaching up to 120°F (48°C), and although plants have adapted over millennia to survive the climate, such fast-acting change is beginning to cause havoc in the more fragile plant communities. Small villages exist only thanks to perennial springs or by harnessing seasonal water running through wadis (ravines or dry creeks that turn into streams and oases in the rainy season). One moment they can be dry gravel beds, the next, when dark clouds bump up against the mountains, they can channel torrents.

The botanic garden uses the wadi running through it to divide the plant display. To one side, a large conservatory keeps cool plants native to the northern mountains. This is combined with a heritage village, a place to display and educate about Oman’s long history and rich culture. On the other side lie thematic gardens representing a sand desert, a northern gravel desert, a central gravel desert, and a conservatory dedicated to plants from the southern mountains of Dhofar. In this case, the purpose of the conservatory is to keep the plants cool and wet. A large number of wetland-dependent plants, such as the rare eastern marsh helleborine (Epipactis veratrifolia ), an orchid, are in danger of extinction and will be protected here.

Only 15 percent of the land will be developed as a cultivated garden; the rest will remain a vibrant nature preserve. Because of the environmental fragility and the work on plant conservation, the garden has attracted attention from other botanical gardens and organizations around the world, notably Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI), based in Kew, London, and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh. Both organizations have played an important role in providing support throughout the development of the garden.

The botanic garden is in the process of researching how the country’s plants have been used for food and shelter, medicine and dyes, perfume and magic. Ethnobotany will be kept alive through educational offerings at the heritage village and will be accompanied by basketry and weaving, music, poetry, and rituals. It is part of the garden’s mandate to capture as much of this ancient knowledge as possible before it disappears. The peoples of Oman still regularly use the dye of Lawsonia inermis , or henna, to decorate their skin, particularly on a bride’s hands and feet. Frankincense, the resin from the olibanum tree (Boswellia sacra ), is used as medicine as well as incense. Walnuts (Juglans regia ), grown for their nutritious nut, are also used to treat scars and open wounds. Aloe whitcombei , a plant used to treat skin diseases, is now reduced to growing in a single site in the wild and would be threatened with extinction if it weren’t for the garden’s propagation program. Dracaena serrulata , a species of dragon tree still used to make rope and as camel fodder, is threatened by aridification brought on by climate change and road construction.

Garden staff have propagated over 100,000 plants in the nursery, making it the largest documented collection of Arabian plants in the world. In the Oman Plant Red Data Book , Annette Patzelt, the garden’s director, writes: “Biodiversity loss is one of the world’s most pressing crises. Species are declining to critical population levels, important habitats are being destroyed, fragmented and degraded, and ecosystems are being destabilized through climatic change, pollution, alien invasive species and direct human impact.”

Image

Used to feed camels, Maerua crassifolia is fast disappearing. It is also used as a medicinal plant for humans and is eaten as a cooked vegetable.

Image

Tecomella undulata is a tough tree with vibrant blooms that produces high-quality timber; because of this, it is becoming increasingly endangered in the wild.

Image

A member of the four o’clock family (Nyctaginaceae), Boerhavia elegans subsp. stenophylla is a desert plant with tiny red-pink flowers on numerous long stalks.

Image

Euphorbia larica , a euphorbia that can be found clustered in crevasses, is notable for its green, pencil-like stems.

Image

The flora of Oman is surprisingly varied. Fully 85 percent of the botanic garden is devoted to nature preserves like this one.