The vernal equinox occurred last weekend and it's high time to acknowledge the new season. Let's redo container gardens for spring.
Remove ratty evergreen boughs and other plant material and toss on the compost pile. Store light strands and other decorations for now.
While it's too early for many plants to be outside, there are still options. Use fresh willow, birch, forsythia, viburnum and dogwood branches. Cut from your own garden or buy from a flower shop or greenhouse. Find potted tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, grape hyacinths (or muscari) and other bulbs. Add greenery with English ivies and hardy ferns.
(Note to self: Choose a favorite or three from the 600 bulbs in Anna Pavord's book (see below) and pot some up next fall.)
And of course, the stalwarts of spring–pansies and violas–are available now. Use lavishly. Nothing is more cheerful than those bright blossoms.
This also appeared in the Askov American, Askov, Minnesota.
The winter holidays mean different things to different people and they celebrate and decorate accordingly. Some families adorn their homes with themed linens for the bedroom and bathroom and haul out boxes of special dishes and crystal. Others prefer a low-key approach. My hair stylist laughed when I asked him. "I might buy a poinsettia," he commented.
Whatever one's traditions, it does seem the season inspires us to do something.
My favorite outdoor winter feature is container gardens. Other options include wreaths, swags, garlands and filling window boxes if you're fortunate enough to have them (and I'm jealous if you do!). Another bonus–outside container gardens created now will add life and greenery throughout winter.
Following are five steps to creating the perfect winter container garden.
Location, location, location. The main front entry to your home is de rigueur. Nothing is more welcoming to guests than a gracious entrance filled with beautiful containers. Think also about the side or back door that you always use. Other options include flanking garage doors or by entrances to pole sheds or other outbuildings.
Container, style and colors. The first and most important consideration is the container itself. I can't emphasize enough the value of a good pot. Spend the money up front for aesthetically pleasing, heavy-duty containers that will last several seasons–and look good, too.
Then think about the style–or the feeling you want convey–and any associated colors. Here are some ideas. • Northwoods/Lodge: pine cones, twigs and other natural accents. • Traditional: simple greens with red and green accessories. • Elegant: touches of silver, gold and crystal. • Winter: snowmen, snowflakes and cute mittens. • Fanciful: bright colors and whimsical touches.
Gather contents. Now comes the fun part of choosing what to put in the containers. Check out favorite nurseries and greenhouses, in addition to gathering from your own garden. Here are ideas. • evergreens including spruce tips, white pine, Norway pine, balsam fir, Colorado blue spruce, Port Orford cedar, incense cedar. • other greens such as eucalyptus, boxwood and magnolia. • bare branches of deciduous shrubs like birch, curly willow, dogwood (red, yellow or 'Winter Fire'). • fruiting branches of winterberries, roses (hips), pepperberries, junipers or tallow trees. • dried flowers of hydrangea or sedum. • something to add a touch of pizzazz like sparkly, glittery branches. • pine cones, dried lotus pods (very cool!) and ornaments made especially for outdoor use. • strands of small, fairy lights.
Consider design principles and elements. Even though this project is merely winter container garden design, certain design principles and elements remain germane.
Scale and proportion are critical, not only when considering the container size vs. volume and height of its content, but the placement of the container in the landscape. An arrangement 18-inches tall will look silly in a grand, two-story entry.
Simplicity and its counter, variety, also are considerations. A container garden that is too simple is boring while one that has too much variety looks messy.
Another principle that shouldn't be ignored is emphasis, or the use of a focal point. A focal point gives the eye a natural place to rest. It can be as simple as a big bow or a group of pine cones.
Key elements to bear in mind are color and texture. If all components have the same texture–for for instance, feathery and fine-textured–the design could be, again, dull. But add bold boughs of Norway pine and immediately the arrangement has contrast and interest. Consider color, too, even among similar-seeming evergreens. White pine is a soft, light green, Colorado blue spruce can be very blue and incense cedar looks bright due to its yellow cones.
Pot 'em up. Fill the container about ¬? - ¬æ full with potting soil. Old potting soil can be re-used. Re-cut fresh greens and push into the soil. When all components have been added, water thoroughly and keep watering until the soil in the pot freezes. The greenery, for the most part, should stay fresh all winter.
Finally… Decorating with real plants is responsible and sustainable. Plants are a renewable resource with strong, eons-old processes and chemical responses that trigger regeneration. In addition, when redesigning container gardens in the spring, toss old plant branches, boughs, fruits and flowers on the compost pile to foster another, eons-old process–decomposition.
This also appeared in the Askov American, Askov, Minnesota.
Late September finds most summer annuals looking a bit ragged around the edges and, really, who can blame them? For several months the plants have given their all–flowering and flourishing–despite the cooler-than-normal temperatures.
But there's a time for everything and now it's time to redo container gardens. Newly planted pots should last well into November and, perhaps, until Thanksgiving if we're lucky.
In my column about a month ago I detailed more than 30 plants with outstanding fall features. With the exception of some tender annuals, all are terrific options for a fall container garden and, in addition, there is the bonus of using the plants later in the garden.
Listed below are additional design ideas for fall container gardens. • Plant frost-tolerant herbs like thyme and rosemary. • Consider small-sized woody trees and shrubs. • Try an evergreen (also easily transitioned to a winter container garden). A lovely and graceful plant with bright foliage is 'King's Gold' False Cypress (Chamaecyparis pisifera 'King's Gold'). • A distinctive accent is a grouping of berried branches. Look for rose hips, cranberrybush viburnum, crab apple (love the cultivars with golden fruit), bayberry, glossy black chokeberry or bittersweet which also can be curled artfully about the pots. • Display containers with cornstalks, gourds or big, colorful pumpkins.
Container gardening has been hot for many years, and I could argue, has matured from trend status to become a permanent, bona fide component of the landscape.
One of the niftiest aspects of container gardening is that everyone can have one. Space, climate and difficulty all become moot points. Sydney Eddison wrote in Gardens to Go, "…an in-the-ground garden of trees, shrubs, and perennials always means a four-season commitment and year-round work….A container garden can be tailored to fit the individual gardener's time, energy, and lifestyle."
She added, "Movable, manageable, and versatile, they provide almost instant gratification."
The demise of the utterly boring combination of three red geraniums and a spike is long overdue and almost complete. Thank goodness. After studying the recent edition of The Taunton Press' Container Gardening, and perusing the StarTribune's Home+Garden section on May 13, 2009, perhaps we're veering off on another, equally wearisome tangent.
Both publications are full of useful tips (Try a false bottom in a really big pot to save on soil but don't be afraid to use them. Big is better.) and practical ideas (Mix your own potting soil.). The photographs are lush and lovely. But I noticed a terrible dearth of flowers.
Fact: 20 off the 51 featured containers in Taunton's publication were planted with only green plants (ivies, grasses, succulents, ferns, coleus) and no (zero!) flowering plants. Of the remaining 31, most included one paltry flower in an unsatisfactory attempt at mollification. Fact: Of 40 "Favorite Plants" to incorporate into container gardens, only five were noted for flowers. Fact: Martin Stern, a featured designer in the StarTribune, said, "Flowers are not a major concern."
What?
Flowers are essential. Flowers are compulsory. Flowers are vital. Especially after six months of winter, I want to see flowers. I need to see flowers.
Although many would regard container gardening as a continuing hot trend, I disagree. Container gardening has far surpassed trend status and is now settling in as an integral aspect of the way we all garden. A garden is simply not complete without large, lovely containers enhancing front doors, back doors, garage doors, pergolas, porches, terraces, decks and docks. One can't have too many containers.
Plant selection is one aspect of container gardening, however, that is still maturing. Today's containers are not your mother's red-geranium-and-green-spike combinations! Savvy designers and gardeners are utilizing all sorts of plants in their containers–woody trees and shrubs (especially those not hardy in our climate…what a nifty way to experiment with different-zoned plants), perennials and tropicals–to achieve unique color, texture and flower combinations.
As you prowl the greenhouses and nurseries this spring, be on the lookout for cool plants to use in containers. I've compiled a list of intriguing new cultivars, other (perhaps familiar) hybrids and old favorites. Be open! Have fun!
Annuals • Angelonias (many with a sweet fragrance) • Bonfire begonia, Begonia boliviensis • Coleus (fabulous choices!) • Hakone grass, Japanese forest grass, Hakonechloa macra 'Albo Striata' (beautiful, elegant striped grass) • 'Tutti Frutti' Hyssop • Purple heart vine, Setcreasea pallida 'Purple Heart' • Eucalyptus • Euphorbia 'Diamond Frost' • Herbs, especially rosemary and variegated and purple cultivars sages • Nasturtium • Lime Green flowering tobacco, Nicotiana alata 'Lime Green' • Oregano 'Kent Beauty' • Petunias, Shock Wave hybrids • Zinnias, 'Profusion Orange' and 'Profusion Cherry'
Perennials • Artemesia 'Powis Castle' • Bergenia 'Solar Flare' • Echinacea 'Tiki Torch' (great name and the best orange coneflower) • Heuchera 'Southern Comfort' (gorgeous foliage that changes colors from cinnamony-peach to burnished copper to amber) • Golden moneywort • Little bluestem 'Prairie Blues' (foliage won't flop!) • 'Angelina' sedum
Tropicals • Angels' trumpets, Brugmansia spp. and cultivars • Citrus trees • Colocasia • Australian tree fern
Woody plants • Kolkwitzia 'Dream Catcher' • 'Tiger Eyes' sumac • Japanese maple
If you're like me at all, the summer hanging baskets and containers look scraggly and frankly, I'm bored by them. It's time to create a couple of sensational new containers that will be planted full of fresh, seasonal plants.
The business of container gardening is huge, in both a horticulture and marketing sense. Books and magazines, television and radio shows, have all devoted plenty of ink and air time to container gardening. In my opinion, this behemoth can be distilled down into these three key points, The Container, The Design and The Plants, each of which I'll detail below.
#1. The Container. This will seem far too obvious but the most important consideration in designing a container garden is the container itself. You can't hide an ugly, fake terra cotta plastic pot no matter how many fabulous plants you stuff into it. Spend the money up front and purchase a good quality container. Not only will it look better but it will last longer.
In fact, I think the container is so important that a fabulous antique Grecian urn can look perfectly beautiful and elegant when planted with a simple pot of Algerian ivy. The reverse is not true.
Hopefully, the container will be used year-round and will be planted with a varying mix of plants to correspond with the changing seasons. Some container materials can handle freezing temperatures while others become susceptible to cracks. Be sure to check the manufacturer's recommendation before purchasing the container.
Finally, think about where the container will be placed in the garden and then take into account its surroundings. It should enhance, match or blend with both the landscape and the architecture of the house and other structures.
#2. The Design. The design of the container garden should be treated as a mini landscape and should incorporate the design principles of simplicity, variety, balance, sequence, rhythm and scale. The application of emphasis–use of a focal point–is critical in container garden design. Remember the unity in odd numbers tip!
#3. The Plants. This is, for most gardeners, the best part of the whole project. You get to go to the nursery and buy plants! Sometimes it might be good to have a clear design in mind before you head out but be open to impulsive influences.
I find it highly inspirational and loads of fun to push my cart around all the benches, choosing one plant here and another plant there. I experiment with different groups of plants and create test designs right there in my cart!
Listed below are my ideas for plant materials choices in container gardens. • Consider the use of plants other than annuals, including tropicals, perennials (a great way to satisfy zone-envy and enjoy non-hardy perennials), ornamental grasses and both evergreen and deciduous shrubs and trees (again including non-hardy plants). • Use lots of green plants. Green is nature's most prevalent color and I find it unifying, soothing and the perfect backdrop for colorful flowers, fruit and changing fall foliage. Consider ferns, ivies, tropical green plants, grasses, herbs, groundcovers and, again, both evergreen and deciduous trees and shrubs. • Consider the use of plants with colorful foliage ('Tiger Eyes' sumac, Rhus typhina 'Tiger Eyes', is gorgeous!), unique fruit (Ever seen purple beautyberry, Callicarpadichtoma? Unforgettable!) or just a big, bold presence. • Depending on the specific use of the container garden, plants that can survive light frosts or hard freezes might be important.
For a fall container one year, I used a non-hardy (who cares?) cultivar of nandina, Nandina domestica 'Fire Power', which is a cool semi-evergreen shrub with delicate, clean foliage that turns a fiery (get it?) shade of red. I combined that with switchgrass (graceful and upright), sedum 'Autumn Joy' (chunky and rather bold), three (uneven number again!) chrysanthemums in bright magenta and some English ivy plants to add lots of green.
That container garden continued to beautiful throughout November. Then I did a little maintenance. The switchgrass, sedum and nandina (foliage was still red) remained and I added winterberry branches and boughs of pine and fir. Wow! It was spectacular, especially when dusted with a fresh sprinkling of snow.
