Tag Archives: containers with mixed flowers

A Brown Bowl…Planted 2 Ways For Sun

The other day I noticed we only had two midsize, light-weight brown planter bowls left in stock,  and they were just calling to be planted. Since summer is relatively slow and we have time on our hands, we’ve been planting all sorts of mixed containers with annuals, herbs, perennials, and everything in between to tempt folks coming in; and I thought one of these might be just the right size for someone.

Usually if I plant two of something for display, I make them similar, but, with these, I decided to play off the brown color of the bowls with two different plantings – both for sun, but each quite different, using annuals. Here’s what I came up with. Of course, there are endless variations of plants out there; these are  simply my two versions using annuals available mid-summer.

The first planting uses light colors that are quite harmonious – white, blue and yellow. A variegated Swedish ivy and yellow duranta are the all-important foliage accents here, and the white flowers of the angelonia will add a spiky bloom in the center (The yellow duranta will need some clipping eventually to keep it at the right proportion for this planting.). Pretty blooms of a blue daze trailing over the edge complete the picture. If the container were larger, I might have added a silver thyme as well.

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Color is an interesting thing. You can either go big, bold, and wild and mix many together, or you might choose  two or three very opposite colors (Think purple and orange, for example.). Combinations can also be fairly calm, using colors closely related.

Flowers obviously add color to any composition, but don’t forget the importance of foliage too. Many times I’ll begin a design by pulling foliage plants to accent a particular planter, then add blooming plants to play off of those  leaves. In fact, leaves and their shapes are extremely important  to the overall look of a planter once it’s completed and growing out.

Lightweight Brown Bowl Planted - Babywing Begonia White with Bronze Leaf, Euphorbia, Yellow Joseph's Coat and Silver Dichondra

The second is quite different, though once again there’s a yellow foliage (Yellow works so well with brown!), this time a dwarf Joseph’s coat, and white blooms too, represented here by a dark leaved baby wing begonia. Its  leaves match the color of the bowl almost perfectly. The begonia is a heavy presence in this planting; so, to lighten it up, an airy blooming white euphorbia went in next. Finally, the silvery foliage of a trailing dichondra spills over the edge, adding  a nice contrast to the brown of the pot.

So, there are now two fairly simple, yet quite dissimilar plantings in the same bowl. At another  time of the year, the choices would have been even more different…yet another reason container gardening is so entertaining!

Stop in and take a look at our container planting designs if you’re in the Birmingham area. We try to have as many made up as possible to give you ideas and inspiration! 

 

Summer Container Gardens…The Heat Is On

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Owner, Billy Angell’s deck might not be finished yet, but his pots are!

It’s high summer with the 4th of July just past… time for vacations and lazy days at the lake, the beach, or maybe just spent lolling by the pool with a good book. I’m off on a much anticipated vacation to visit family and friends too, but I wanted to share a few more plantings first. If you are off and away, be sure to make arrangements for a friend to tend your plantings and container gardens so they’re as pretty when you return as when you left. No one wants to come home to a sad garden, after all.

Here, then, are a few plantings we’ve done recently:

All flowers...Pinkie's creations for a customer

All flowers…Pinkie’s creations for a customer

Flowers obviously add blooms for bees and butterflies. Pinkie used an assortment of flowers for a customer’s containers. She included pentas, lantana (The butterflies love them!), angelonia, million bells (calibrachoa), purslane, plumbago and salvias for loads of color. With plantings like this, it’s necessary to keep old blooms cut off (deadheading).

Container Planting for SunMany of the container plantings we do are in light, mâché pots that can either be used on their own or placed in another planter. Here’s one with a mix of sun coleus, a dracaena (Barely visible in this picture, it adds a spiky leaf.), lantana, red million bells to trail,  and a white angelonia. This planting will get much larger and fuller as the heat of summer settles in, and daily watering will be necessary.

The coleus will also need pinching back as it gets larger. This may seem difficult at first, but it’s really quite good for the plant and will allow it to grow fuller rather than getting leggy and scraggly. Think about it this way: Every time you cut it back, there will be two stems of colorful leaves rather than just one. It rewards you for your efforts!

Hanging Basket for Sun - Rhoeo spathacea, String of Pearls, Echeveria, ChivesThe white, cone-shaped hanging basket shown here is now home to a common houseplant, an herb, and some succulents. While it may seem an unusual combination, it’s working quite nicely and has a cool, summery look. The houseplant is a pink and green tradescantia (It’s also known as Rhoeo spathacea.), sometimes called Moses In The Cradle.

It’s keeping company with some succulent echevarias and trailing string of pearls, just beginning to peek over the edge of the basket in this picture. I added a pot of chives in the center, just for its spiky green leaves. This is hanging in the nursery waiting for someone to give it a home.

Container Planting - Summer - Part SunWe have a few tall, lightweight planters still available, and this planting shows one of them off. A tall, white ruellia (They’re sometimes called perennial petunia.) is combined here with a caladium whose leaves will get very large. The name of this one is ‘Garden White’, and it’s impressive! The large leaves will contrast nicely with the smaller leaves of the ruellia. Another foliage contrast is provided by the silvery-purple leaves of a strobilanthes, sometimes called Persian Shield. A beautiful foliage plant, it benefits from a cutback every now and then if it gets to lanky in the planting. To trail there’s a blue fanflower, scaevola.

Container Planting - Sweetheart Pink Caladium, Alternanthera 'Little Ruby', Blue Daze, Lime Potato Vine, under 'Carolina Sapphire' CypressFinally, since we had a few ‘Carolina Sapphire’ cypress left, they were candidates for a planting using smaller plants at the base to add fullness, color, and trail. These planters will be in the sun and can be changed out in the fall with the addition of pansies and other cold weather plants for the winter season.

For now, though, the underplanting includes dwarf ‘Sweetheart Pink’ caladiums, trailing blue daze, lime green potato vine, a new silver helichrysum, and the purple foliage of an alternanthera ‘Little Ruby’. Watering, clipping out caladium seed pods (It’s best to cut them off so the energy of the plant goes toward making new leaves.), and keeping the potato vine cut back (if desired) will be needed.

These are just a sampling of the plantings we’ve done this season. Plants that are available from growers change rapidly, and so do our offerings. Hopefully you’ve planted a few pots this summer and are enjoying them now!

More Container Gardens…Foliage, Flowers and Pizazz!

The last post highlighted a few shade planters, and I hope this one will give you ideas for your hot, sunny spots. Even with large planters maintaining a set watering schedule is important when plantings are sited in full sun.  If your plantings wilt as a result of being too dry between watering over and over, eventually they’ll become so stressed they won’t recover. So, if you’ll be leaving for any extended period, ask a neighbor or friend to check your plantings and water regularly.

This planting is easy to hand water since it needs to be dry...

This planting is easy to hand water since it needs to be dry…

The first planting is a classic “Thriller, Filler, Spiller” combination, designed for a tall urn, using a silver foliage plant called cardoon. It will get very large, creating a dramatic centerpiece while the  mounding, succulent echevarias fill the middle with their pinky gray rosettes. The beautiful heat tolerant trailing dichondra creates a waterfall of shimmery silver over the edge. This is the most drought tolerant of the plantings shown here but still needs attention – even succulents need water!

Planted Container for SummerThe next uses a red fountain grass for height in a tall planter with the addition of white Profusion zinnias and white euphorbia as fillers. Spilling out are blue daze and potato vine. This planting will bloom continuously with regular water and periodic deadheading or clipping back of the zinnias. Late in the summer the grass will begin to bloom for an end of the season finale.

Wheelbarrow - Planted For Summer

 

This wheelbarrow is a fun and bright mix of flowers and herbs and will provide a riot of color through the hottest months. This type of whimsical container calls for a jumble of color,  and here it’s provided by zinnias, vinca, fanflower, rudbeckia, ornamental oregano, purple basil, and thyme. It would be perfect in the middle of a cottage kitchen garden! It will be necessary to deadhead the zinnias as they fade, cut back the fan flower periodically, pinch the vinca if necessary, and harvest the basil and thyme. Watering daily will be a must, since it’s planted very intensively with many plants.

Urn - Chamaecyparis and Summer AnnualsMany of you have pots that have shrubs in them that live year round, and just need some color added each season. In this example, the Chamaecyparis adds yellow foliage and is complimented through the summer with yellow million bells, white narrow leaf zinnias,  silver dichondra and some euphorbia. The million bells and zinnias will be cut back when they get too leggy (There’s no need to deadhead each individual bloom on these.) and it will be watered daily, since the Chamaecyparis has been in this planter for a few years and it’s roots are filling the planter quite extensively.

Planted Container for Summer - AlocasiaThe final planting uses a dramatic, and very large Alocasia – this speaks for itself, though it has supporting players as well, including dracaena, epescia, nepenthes, and alternanthera. It’s quite a combo.

I hope this and the previous posts will give you the confidence to try new plants and combinations, to be braver about cutting plants back (Yes,  they do need it every now and then!) and the understanding that these types of intensive plantings need regular water whether you’re home or not to keep them looking their best. 

More Arrangement Inspiration – What We’ve Been Creating This Summer!

photo (2)This summer’s wet, cool weather might have kept many of you out of your gardens, but we’ve managed to stay busy in the greenhouse putting together arrangements filled with orchids, succulents, houseplants, and so much more…here’s a peek at some of them. We regularly have folks who stop in just to see what we’ve been working on! All of these arrangements are composed of live plants, no cut flowers here.

Orchids add elegance to any container, and  we love working with them. Here, the beautifully patterned leaves of a calathea contrast with the dark selaginella trailing over the edge. The houseplants shown with the orchid are actually planted in the container to make the care easier – our advice is always to feel where the plant is in the arrangement and water a bit when dry. Of course, some plants will need more or less water than others. For example, orchids last longest when they’re not overwatered!

glass, pebbles, orchid and succulents...

glass, pebbles, orchid and succulents…

The terrarium arrangement shown here was presented as a going away gift and was planted using pebbles, larger stones as accents, soil  and aquarium charcoal to keep the potting soil fresh. Here the care will again be to monitor the soil moisture carefully and water when it’s completely dry. The various leaf textures and colors of the succulents in the glass container make this arrangement interesting.

Yes, that's Thai basil with the orchid...

Yes, that’s Thai basil with the orchid…

As you can see, we’ll put orchids in just about any container and with just about any plant! In fact, the next arrangement shown uses a combination of houseplants, herbs, annuals and perennials with orchids. It was one of a pair used for a wedding anniversary celebration. So the celebrants were able to continue to enjoy the arrangement even after it was taken apart. Hopefully the Thai basil went in containers or the herb garden, and the perennial miniature grass-like acorus and purple leaf trailing annual irisene found new homes in the garden as well.

photo (3)Finally, the silver container was given in  memory of someone…the longlasting and low maintenance  houseplants of trailiing pepperomia and cryptanthus make excellent companions. It’s gratifying, also, to know that whoever is on the receiving end will be able to enjoy this longer than a fresh flower arrangement could ever hope to last.

We’re looking forward now to a new season, with fall right around the corner, and a whole new world of possibilities for creative arrangements – we’ll keep you posted. Meanwhile, if you’re in Birmingham, stop in – there’s always something going on in our design area!