Case study
Landscaped podium, Barbican Centre

Bright red tulips mix with the yellows of Euphorbia polychrome, Euphorbia characias and early perennials such as cowslips and pasque flowers, while the shrub Amelanchier lamarkii shows off its blossom and coppery young leaves.

The purples of Allium globemaster, Verbena bonariensis and Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’ blend with the whites of Lychnis coronaria Alba and Melica ciliata in a sea of drought-tolerant beauties.

The oranges of Kniphofia ‘Tawney King’ and Achillea ‘Terracotta’, red of Crocosmia Emberglow, now start to stand out from the purples of Verbena bonariensis and Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’ and the blue spheres of Echinops ‘Veitch’s Blue’.

People relax amid the summer blooms of Lychnis coronaria Alba, Gaura lindheimeri ‘Whirling Butterflies’ and Scabiosa columbaria enjoying the aroma for the fragrant flowering shrub Philadelphus ‘Belle Etoile’, which is planted around all the public seating areas.

As autumn approaches the trees and shrubs take centre stages as Amelanchier lamarkii becomes a beautiful orange, and Cornus kousa a dark crimson red. Lower down the Anemone x hybrida ‘Honorine Jobert’ and Gaura lindheimeri ‘Whirling Butterflies’.

• All these gorgeous gardens are underpinned by green infrastructure supplied and installed by P&P:
  • Root protection layer which was heat welded
  • Protection fleece
  • 60mm drainage board
  • Zincolit granular infill (drainage aggregate)
  • Filter sheet
  • Substrate for intensive planting: approximately 1000 cubic metres in total was required.