Container Gardens are more than eye candy
Container gardens not only add beauty and improve curb appeal, they also add privacy and can serve as a focal point. Above is an example of using a container as a focal point. This flower-filled bird bath is smack dab in the center of our parents' kitchen garden. It is placed in the middle of bricks that wind through the small garden. We love how it adds interest and height to the setting.
You can also use a container garden as a privacy screen. Many outdoor cafes use outdoor pots as a beautiful buffer to a sidewalk or parking lot. Homeowners can use outdoor planters to hide pool equipment or any other utilitarian items. Lovely and practical, yes please!
P. S. - Isn't Smitty the cutest dad ever?
Texture in Container Garden Design
Texture... you think about it with fabric…but have you thought about it with plants? Plant leaves come in a million different sizes and shapes. Grasses, asparagus fern and cacti among others have spiky leaves. There are smooth and shiny leaves on a croton, ruffled leaves of a cabbage or kale and furry leaves on dusty miller. Broad leaves on a sweet potato vine plant and small leaves on moneywort. Truly, the options are endless. In order to have balance with the plants in the container, we always try to have a mixture of at least three different leaf textures. Plant texture is just one of those things most people don’t pay attention to, but when you get it right, wow!
Check out the textures in the picture above. In the pot on the left, the dracaena spike leaves are long and thin and the moneywort has small round leaves. The middle planter has sedum as a spiller, which is short and spiky. The planter on the right contains hibiscus with large leaves and vinca major with medium oval leaves. The different textures add so much interest to these planters!
Color in your outdoor planters
Let's talk color! Filling an empty container is like an artist beginning with a blank palette. Lots of opportunity for creativity and making it fit your space and personality. We absolutely love using lots of different colors in the container gardens we create, and we don’t mean just the colors on the flowers. We're talking about the leaves on the plants themselves. Plants fall into these color categories: chartreuse, purple/red, silver/blue and kelly green. We also consider a variegated leaf it's own "color". It is sometimes a challenge, but we try to mix at least two of these colors into one container. It adds so much interest to the entire arrangement! Take a look at the picture above and you will see the kelly green color of the boxwood and scaevola leaves, chartreuse color in the sweet potato vine, and purple color in the purple heart.
Do give some thought to the color of your container when you are selecting the colors of your plants. If you have a light colored container, you may consider a dark spiller (like purple sweet potato vine or purple heart) and if you have a dark colored container, you may want to go with a spiller color that will pop (like chartreuse sweet potato vine or moneywort). Same goes for the background to the container, which is typically the color of your home or business. If it is a dark background, I would suggest using a bright thriller plant that will show up against the dark and vice versa, if you have a light colored background, you may want to use a dark thriller plant so you can see it from the street and it doesn't blend into the wall behind it.
Let Adorn Help You
Do you love pretty planters but don't have time to do it yourself? Let Adorn plant seasonal flowers and plants in your outdoor pots and cross that task off your list. Whether it's for your home or store front, we'd love to help. Give us a shout if you'd like to be our on summer planting schedule.
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Mother's Day gift ideas
Mother's Day is just one week away and we have the perfect gift to brighten her home during these quarantine days. Whether it's a planter filled with summer flowers or fresh herbs, you can't go wrong. We have beautiful flower pots available for sun or shade. Our herb planters are filled with 7 different herbs and organic soil. Please let us know if we can pot one up for someone you love.