Herbaceous Border
You’re looking at one of London’s longest herbaceous borders! This stunning showpiece has been here since 1925. Let’s find out more…
What is a herbaceous border?
This horticultural term applies to eye-catching borders filled with colourful herbaceous plants. This means plants that are soft, rather than those with woody stems. Herbaceous plants tend to fade or ‘die back’ in winter and re-emerge in sequence with fresh leaves and flowers from spring through summer and autumn, each plant with its own flowering season. However, the stems and seed heads that follow the flowers provide architectural interest to borders into the autumn and early winter, whilst also providing over-wintering habitats for invertebrates such as ladybirds and lacewings.
The herbaceous border here at Greenwich Park follows the line of the old Queen’s House ‘ha-ha’. What is a ‘ha-ha’, you might ask? It’s a fair question!
A ha-ha is a sunken brick wall that creates a boundary within a landscape without interrupting the view. You can see how this worked in the image above. The ha-ha is said to have got its name because people were surprised when they came across one.
This particular ha-ha once separated Greenwich Park from the Queen’s House, a former royal residence that is now an art gallery and part of the Royal Museums Greenwich. It’s filled with masterpieces – some depicting Greenwich Park. The ha-ha was popular in deer parks as it keeps the browsing animals away from tender plants.
Award-winning garden designer Chris Beardshaw redesigned the herbaceous border here in 2013. His scheme used muted yellows and pale pinks to complement the buildings that sit behind it – the Queen’s House and the National Maritime Museum, as well as the Old Royal Naval College beyond.
What can you see at the Herbaceous Border?
Who better to answer that question than Greenwich Park’s Head Gardener…
Shaped evergreen hedges
Most of these are yew hedges, but some are Thuja – an evergreen shrub. Over the last five years, we’ve done a lot of pruning to create their distinctive curved tops and neat edges. The hedges are an important part of the border design – they act as a partition for the waves of planting in between. The repetition of their shape creates a sense of unity. Throughout the year, they are also home to several nesting birds – including friendly robins.
Eulalia (Miscanthus sinensis)
These large grasses at the back of the border give height and provide movement when the wind blows through them. They will be kept until the late winter, providing food for wildlife and nesting material for birds like finches and blackbirds. Clump-forming grasses like this are also great for overwintering invertebrates. When they are cut down, early spring flowers will emerge – look out for chionodoxa, dwarf narcissus and tulips.
Globe artichokes (Cynara scolymus)
These large architectural plants provide an exotic feel – harking back to the Victorian origins of the herbaceous border style. When they flower, they’re a fantastic food source for pollinators like bees, wasps and butterflies. They flower in late July and early August.
Day lilies (Hemerocallis)
Despite their name and their trumpet-like flowers, day lilies are not actually lilies! They are a member of the family Asphodelaceae. They provide lots of nectar down a deep tube, so are perfect for long-tongued bumblebees. They flower throughout the summer from May to September.
The Head Gardener explains that it takes a lot of work to look after the herbaceous border:
From March to October, it will be tended by a gardener all day every day. Pruning, deadheading, weeding, edging the lawns, clearing leaves, shaping the hedges – it’s a lot of work! We’ve recently taken on a volunteer gardener to help with this work, providing a great opportunity for experience in the most detailed ornamental part of the park.
Why do pollinators love it?
The herbaceous border is a haven for pollinators. The wide variety of flowers provides pollen for a range of different insects.
Worldwide many plant species depend on pollinators, like insects, birds or bats, to spread their pollen from the male part of the plant to the female part so that they can reproduce. This process is called pollination. Here in the UK, only insects act as pollinators.
The insects perform this process as a by-product of foraging for the precious nectar and pollen at the centre of the flower. The art of pollination between plants and pollinators has evolved over millions of years.
Some plants can be pollinated by many types of insects, whereas others have co-evolved alongside a particular species and can only be pollinated by them.
Colour and scent are the main forms used by flowers to attract a pollinator, and the shape of a flower will determine which insects can access the nectar and perform pollination.
Some of the insects you might see in the herbaceous border include:
Butterflies
They can see all colours but have a weak sense of smell. This means that butterfly-pollinated flowers are usually brightly coloured but odourless. Flowers are often clustered so that butterflies can walk around and feed quickly from many different flowers. Each flower has a suitable tube length for a butterfly tongue.
You might spot them on the yellow giant scabious (Cephalaria gigantea). The best time to see butterflies are on sunny days, from June to October, however some species are known for their early arrival in Spring, such as Brimstone and Peacocks.
Bees
Bees can’t see the colour red, so bee-pollinated flowers are usually other colours. These kinds of flowers often have narrow tubes to fit the length of a bee’s tongue. They usually have a delicate, sweet scent too. Some flowers that are pollinated by bees have shapes that only allow these stronger insects to get inside them and access their nectar.
You might spot them on the pink glory flower (Clerodendrum bungei) or gravel root (Eupatorium purpureum). Bees can be seen throughout the summer and autumn.
Moths
Moths are predominantly nocturnal, so flowers pollinated by moths are pale in colour to make them visible at night. They also have a strong, sweet scent. Petals are often flat or bent back to allow the moth the enter, with deep tubes for the moth’s tongue.
In the evening, you might spot them on the globe artichoke (Cynara scolymus), which releases nectar at night. Some moths are day-fliers, such as Tiger moths and Hummingbird hawk-moths. They have been spotted in in the late summer months in the park.
Flies and ants
Some flowers near the ground are pollinated by ants or ground beetles. Flowers which do not have an attractive colour, and have the odour of rotting flesh, are pollinated by flies – they’re attracted to this smell!
Generalists
Many plants produce generalist flowers, which have not evolved to be pollinated by a specific insect species or group. Examples include open, daisy-shaped flowers. These are visited by a wide variety of bees, butterflies and beetles.
If you want to attract more pollinators to your garden, try planting a wide range of different flowers too.
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