Containers
Accent container. Quickly add color to a shaded area by setting a bright container into an all-green planting bed. For this container garden in Chicago, the designer used white-flowering peace lily, pink impatiens and begonias and feathery Sprenger’s asparagus fern to form a shimmering display. Plant combination: Peace lily (Spathiphyllum sp.) Impatiens (Impatiens sp.) Begonia (Begonia sp.) Sprenger’s asparagus fern (Asparagus densiflorus ‘Sprengeri’, zones 9 to 11) Water requirement: Moderate to regular; keep soil moist for impatiens and begonias. Light requirement: Partial shade to full shade
Ruffled red cabbages and kales combine with trailing and upright junipers, bronze ornamental grass, chartreuse ‘Ascot Rainbow’ spurge (Euphorbia x martinii ‘Ascot Rainbow’) and a small button-shaped mum (Chrysanthemum sp.) in this container by Joseph Basone Landscape Design & Garden Maint. Although it was designed for a fall show, this container could easily transition into winter by removing all plants except for the junipers, filling in the gaps with mounds of preserved moss or clipped conifer branches and adding a few springs of decorative red berries.
Edible element. The brilliant leaves of edible ‘Bright Lights’ rainbow chard are just as stunning in a fall container composition as in the kitchen garden. To keep the arrangement looking good, and to encourage the chard plant to keep producing, harvest leaves at the base with a sharp knife or kitchen shears. Also planted in this Seattle container are coral-colored hypericum berries (Hypericum sp.), ruffled red ‘Fire Alarm’ coral bells (Heuchera ‘Fire Alarm’), ‘Blue Star’ juniper (Juniperus squamata ‘Blue Star’), ‘Tom Thumb’ New Zealand flax (Phormium ‘Tom Thumb’) and ‘Rheingold’ arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis ‘Rheingold’). Water requirement: Moderate Light requirement: Full sun
Black and gold. This bold container composition has an unusual mix of black mondo grass (Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’), brilliant gold ‘Delta Dawn’ coral bells (Heuchera ‘Delta Dawn’), yellow-leaved ‘Baggesen’s Gold’ box honeysuckle (Lonicera nitida ‘Baggesen’s Gold’) and white-flowering heather (Calluna vulgaris). The most unexpected part is the sweet, citrusy perfume of ‘Eternal Fragrance’ Daphne (Daphne transatlantica ‘Eternal Fragrance’), which blooms well into fall. Water requirement: Moderate Light requirement: Partial shade to full sun
The designer used a fantastic variety of foliage in terms of shape and color. Plants included in the planter arrangements are white geraniums, dusty miller (Jacobaea maritima, syn. Senecio cineraria), common thyme (Thymus vulgaris), sweet potato vine (Ipomoea batatas), white vervain (Verbena urticifolia), rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) and creeping thyme (Thymus praecox). “I love to add herbs into planters,” Koehler says. “They add so much wonderful texture and aromas. And you can dash out and clip some if you need them when you’re cooking.” He recommends adding a landscape fabric in the bottom of pots to keep the dirt in, then adding several inches of gravel to prevent the drainage holes from becoming clogged with dirt. “And this will keep the area around them clean,” he says.
Lime- and pink-colored coral bells (Heuchera spp.) and a crush of hens-and-chicks (Sempervivum sp.) succulents make for a playful combination in this concrete urn arranged by Cording Landscape Design in New York. Like many succulents, hens-and-chicks pick up more pink and reddish tones when exposed to brighter sunlight or cold temperatures or in periods of drought. In this case, the pink tips tie in beautifully with the undersides of the coral bell leaves.
Knock Out Rose, Calibrachoa, Verbena, Helichrysum
Shade container garden with Hosta, Cladaium, Creeping Jenny, Diamond Frost Euphorbia, Begonia, and Cigar plant
Shade: Caladium, Begonia, and Rose Hypoestes
Sweet Rocket (Hesperis matronalis).
combined hot-colored coneflowers with bronze-leafed coral bells (Heuchera sp.), ‘Ascot Rainbow’ spurge (Euphorbia x martinii ‘Ascot Rainbow’) and trailing purple sweet potato vines (Ipomoea batatas).
masses of salvia (Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’) and lavender (Lavandula angustifolia ‘Hidcote’) come together for a beautiful pollinator-friendly planting.
Early spring container garden, with grape hyacinth, hyacinth,pansy, jonquil,tulips and pussy willow
Cor-Ten steel planters
Cor-Ten steel planters
Cor-Ten steel planters
Cor-Ten steel planters
If you look closely at this fall window-box display, also by KMS Gardens and Design, you’ll see the addition of decorative gourds mounted on sticks above the cabbages, ornamental grasses and annual flowers. The designer also used pine cones on sticks as a second window box accent.
Showing that it doesn’t take much to add a little something extra to a potted display, this subtle fall container by KMS Gardens and Design benefits from a few burgundy-colored dried pomegranates and curly willow branches for added height.
Proving that you don’t need to rely on reds and golds to have an arrangement feel like fall, these seductive dark designs by Kathy Molnar Simpson of KMS Gardens and Design stand out with their cool color palette. “Interesting and unusual color combos will still read fall as long as the majority of elements are fall materials,” Simpson says. “The colors in the majority of elements should have some relationship to each other. I think complementary combinations, rather than opposite color combos, tend to work better in fall.” Here she used a range of purples, blues and lavenders, including Vertigo purple fountain grass (Pennisetum purpureum), ‘Ruby Perfection’ ornamental cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata ‘Ruby Perfection’), lavender-pink mums (Chrysanthemum sp.), purple-stemmed Swedish ivy (Plectranthus ‘Mona Lavender’), ‘Carnival Plum Crazy’ coral bells (Heuchera ‘Carnival Plum Crazy’), blue plumbago (Ceratostigma plumbaginoides), mizuna and green artificial berry stems. Partial Shade
Ornamental peppers, Madagascar dragon tree (Dracaena marginata ‘Colorama’), preserved milo berries, bronze mums (Chrysanthemum sp.) and flowering kalanchoes adorn this Chicago balcony. “Artificial materials can be a great accent,” says Kathy Molnar Simpson, the designer of the planters; she added the milo berries for a stronger hit of red. Full Sun
Nearly all components of this container garden design by Amy Wilbur of Sweet Dirt Designs have a hint of a striped pattern, whether it’s the yellow veins of the croton (Codiaeum variegatum) leaves, the variegated border of the ‘Ascot Rainbow’ spurge (Euphorbia x martinii ‘Ascot Rainbow’) foliage, the deep red veins of the edible sorrel or the ridges of the pumpkin perched on the corner. Both the subtle pattern coordination and crisp color palette of yellow, gold and green make for a pleasing doorstep
Steel raised beds
Raised containers for vegetables. Use stainless sheets?
right-flowering bush lantana (Lantana camara) attract butterflies in particular, although hummingbirds and other pollinators will also frequent the blooms. In this sunny container designed by Susan Irving of The Crafted Garden, lantana and golden creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia ‘Aurea’) grow in a pot beneath a Meyer lemon tree.
antlers
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