Cloud Gardens — Our Modern Mediterranean Take on Topiary
Cloud Gardens — Our Modern Mediterranean Take on Topiary
Have you ever heard of a cloud garden? If not, imagine a fluffy white cloud floating through the sky but replicated here on the ground using plants.
In Mallorca, cloud gardens are synonymous with Mashamba. Our Landscape Designer, Alexander Warren-Gash, has been reimagining the traditional topiary technique for nearly 15 years, all with a modern Mediterranean twist.
To create the Mashamba magic that makes our cloud gardens so special, Alexander likes to plant seasonal flowers like Rosa ‘KORbin’ (iceberg rose) or a feature plant, like an Olea europaea (olive tree) among the clouds.
We prefer to use native or drought-tolerant plants in our cloud gardens. The hardy plants grow rapidly given the right conditions, usually with just quality topsoil and minimal irrigation. Within a year, the plants begin to come together and form a mass that can be shaped.
Want to plant your own cloud garden? Use a combination of two or three shrubs and plant each variety in groups of three or five. A top tip for encouraging plant growth is to clip regularly – you want the shrubs to grow in a compact and dense form without long offshoots. The plants also need adequate spacing, so avoid the temptation to plant them too close together. Then with a little patience and time, you’ll have your own little piece of the sky.
Our favourite plants for a Mediterranean cloud garden
Pistacea lentisicus (mastic)
An indigenous plant that you see growing in the wild all over Mallorca. It’s a sturdy evergreen that is often overlooked, but with clipping it creates lovely cloud formations.
Teucrium fruticans (germander)
A beautiful shrub with a blue flower and pale silvery-green foliage that contrasts well with the darker greens of other plants in our cloud gardens.
Rosemarinus officinalis (rosemary)
Rosemary has a different leaf structure to the germander and mastic. Its slender needle-like grey-green leaves and fragrance add a lovely sensory experience to the cloud garden.
For more plants that are ideal for cloud gardens, download our Mediterranean Plant Guide.
A Mashamba cloud garden transforms classic topiary into something softer, modern and deeply connected to its Mediterranean landscape. Each design is tailored to its surroundings, creating form, texture and movement that evolve beautifully over time.
If you’d like to bring this modern Mediterranean style to your own garden, get in touch and let’s start planning your Mashamba cloud garden.