container planting | Deborah Silver & Co.

Who’s Choosing Whom?

Shopping for anything is one part fun, two parts research, and 5 parts anxiety. The anxiety is the toughest part. Is this avocado ripe enough to serve tonight? Will these tennis shoes be comfortable? Will this washing machine handle all of my needs? Is this tennis racquet appropriate for my level of play? Will I like this sweater next year? Is this the right choice? You get the drift. If you have a mind to plant containers for the summer season, the first order of business is choosing the containers.

Containers first and foremost need to be of proper proportion to their placement. Little pots belong on a garden dining table. Mid sized containers are fine on a terrace. Container that flank a front door need to have a size appropriate to the front porch. Proper proportion is to my mind the single most important design element. Galvanized buckets on the stoop of a cottage or an apartment balcony are appropriately sized for the occasion.

Giant galvanized containers next to the side door may overwhelm that secondary entrance. That same container in the center of an herb garden is a properly sized anchor for the garden.

Once the issue of scale is determined, there is the issue of style. A cottage style house does well with informally designed pots. A very formal house asks for formal containers. An Arts and Crafts style house has its own language and vernacular. Containers that fit answer the architecture. A home is the largest sculptural element on a property. The pots need to follow suit. Breaking the rules can be effective. A large pot in a small space can be very effective. A traditional home complimented by contemporary pots can present an unexpected visual pleasure.

Containers are available in all sizes. Tall and short. Tall urns can sit on the ground. Short urns can be elevated off the ground with pedestals. Narrow containers can dress up a tight space. Wide containers can hold down a big space. The tall and the short of it depends on what you want at eye level. Tall containers, or urns on pedestals, can be seen from the sidewalk. Low and wide planters can warm up a pool deck. Small planters can dress up a garden table. Medium height planters can put the flowers at eye level on a dining terrace. A big tall planter, planted big and tall, becomes a screen warding off bad views. A fabulous antique stone urn planted with a dome of moss focuses attention where it should be – on the urn.

Antique stone troughs come with lots of history attached. Planted with succulents, they are great for those moments when a gardeners looks downward. They can be filled with water and water plants. Any container properly sited will look good, even when it is empty.

No container does face to face better than an urn on a pedestal. Face to face is good at the front door. Or in the center of a beautiful garden. Or as a focal point in a landscape. This English concrete urn in the classical Italian style has a considerable presence, and could organize a fairly large space. This urn features detail such that the planting would need to acknowledge rather than cover it.

Fiberglass planters are light weight. They are perfect for water gardens. Spherical planters are especially effective in contemporary and geometrically organized landscapes. They are great next to a lounge chair, or a bench. A well planted bowl will keep you company.

The material of a planter says much about style, period, and architecture. Formally designed and fabricated wood orangery boxes recall an age centuries old. French formal, for sure. Four wood orangery boxes could organize a formal landscape with ease. One casually fabricated or vintage wood box stuffed with herbs at the center of a cottage style vegetable garden is all about home. Great meals. Fresh food. When the wood starts to deteriorate, no cause for alarm.

Belgian stoneware containers are subtly textured. They are solid, simply modern in shape, and frost proof. Any contemporary home and garden would be happy for them. That said, the simplicity of their shapes make them easy to fit into any scheme. Galvanized metal buckets and tubs are an alternative idea. Once you have sorted out the proportions, the style, and the size, and the aura, you may have the idea to go way wide. Or way unexpected. Have at this. I find that no matter what containers I would choose for my landscape, the container usually chooses me. The containers that would work well for you will choose you, if you listen. This can make a decision much easier to come by. What container would your home, terrace or garden choose?

Every home and garden has an identity all its own. What gets contributed by the gardener in charge makes that presentation all the more beautiful for being personal.

Who’s choosing whom? Good container choices depend on a lively interaction.

Posted on: May 19, 2014 9 Comments

Filed Under: container planting, Garden Ornament, Detroit Garden Works, Good Design Tagged With: urns, garden containers, garden pots, container planting

At A Glance: Lots Of Spring Pots

To follow are too many pictures of the spring pots we have planted up at the shop. But too many pictures of plants growing and blooming is just what I need right now. On this 18 foot antique Scottish railway bench, a collection of little mixed spring pots. Ever since the day years ago that I had a 14 year old boy put a ten dollar bill in my hand, and ask me what I would recommend for his gardening Mom for Mother’s Day, I make sure I have an answer.

The loss of the section of boxwood in front of the store is a loss I cannot really explain. Those plants had their roots entwined with a vision for a garden shop imagined 19 years ago. I would have been happy to have those plants there, always. But always is not an adjective one can routinely pair with the work and unexpected trouble that it is to sustain a landscape. Sometimes changes must be made. Though the end of this winter is not what I would have chosen, I have plenty of options to express the beginning of a new gardening season that are charged with life, vigor, and color.

A container planted for spring is all about a new season. Fresh ideas that grow out of old ones. A splash of color so welcome after an interminable winter. Spring is a season which is different every year. Ours so far is wet and cold. But these container plants revel in those transitory conditions. I admire their verve and robust habits. Bring on the spring plants.

Parsley, dwarf marguerites, pansies and violas

Stock, lobelia, alyssum and pansies

Lemon cypress, white cabbage, variegated lavender, green sagina, white alyssum and dwarf marguerites

Little spring container plantings in fiber pots

variegated lavender and violas

spring vegetables in containers

pair of pansy and viola pots

basalt tray planted with lettuce and citron alyssum

red, yellow and orange pansies in a mossed basket

lettuce bowls

lemon grass, chard, osteospermum, alyssum, and dwarf marguerites

pansies and violas in jewel tones

wire basket full of violas

chard and orange pansies in fiber bulb pans

Parsley, lettuce and pansies are a sure sign of spring.

Posted on: May 2, 2014 8 Comments

Filed Under: Detroit Garden Works, Color, container planting, Spring Tagged With: spring color, spring container planting, spring pots

Early Spring Planting

Planting containers for early spring has its pleasures and its pitfalls. The overriding concern is always the cold. We planted containers for a client in downtown Detroit Thursday and Friday of last week-a dicey move, considering the overnight temperatures were very cold. One night-22 degrees. How to best avoid cold damage in early spring is to be sure you are using plants that have had the opportunity to become accustomed to, or the inclination to tolerate the cold.

Very few plants thrive in cold weather. That does not mean that they will not adapt and tolerate it. This project was planted solely with plants that had been sown and grown to a good size last fall, prior to being wintered in a cold but not freezing house. The pansies had had months to become accustomed to cooler conditions. Placing them outdoors in cold April weather did not send them into shock.

Gardeners who start their own vegetables from seed indoors know that those seedlings need to be hardened off before placement in the garden. Hardening off is a process of exposing seedlings to the reality of seasonal weather, a little bit at a time. A few hours a day in a shady place, then the day outdoors in the sun. Then a planting in the garden. Early vegetables that are sown directly in the garden do not experience transplant shock. Pea seeds can be sown when the soil is workable, and the soil temperature is 45. However, peas that that has been germinated or grown in a warm greenhouse will react poorly to a drastic change in environment. Easy does it.

The same would be true for spring flowering perennials. Some growers winter their plants in tunnel houses with no heat, so they are subject to the same cold conditions as perennials already planted in the garden. Other growers pot up bare root perennials in early spring, and bring them on in a warm greenhouse. A hothouse grown perennial may react poorly to being put outside without a hardening off period. Forced pots of hyacinths need some limited exposure to the elements before they are placed in a spring container.

Lime leaved heucheras do not have much tolerance for cold. The leaves will bleach, and go limp. However the heuchera Creme Brulee seems to shrug off the cold. I have had angelina survive the winter in a small pot I had forgotten to get in the ground. But moved outdoors from a warm greenhouse to a cold garden will cause the needles to color up orange and red. This not so spring like look results from the plant’s inability to absorb potassium from the soil, due to cold. If your zonal geraniums have red tinged leaves, they are out in the garden too early.

There are plenty of plants that can handle the transitional season known as spring. And having good success with them becomes easier if the plants have been properly hardened off. The hellebores we had in our greenhouse in March were kept at just below 50 degrees overnight. Once the season moderated, we moved them outdoors on carts for the warmest part of the day. When we moved them outdoors for good, we placed them underneath our benches, in the shade. Even a sunny greenhouse is not near the light intensity of a full sun location outdoors. Plants exposed to the sun too abruptly can be scorched by sun and wind.

Any plant that is already outside at a nursery is good to go for a spring container. Small spring flowering shrubs are great in containers, and provide some scale. Twigs and dry or preserved materials can add some heft and presence. Perennials that look good in spring containers include hens and chicks, lady’s mantle, brunnera, columbines, coral bells, angelina, lavender and hellebores. Spring vegetables and herbs such as peas, lettuce, cabbages and kales, bok choy and chard, rosemary and parsley, look great in pots. Pansies, violas, ivy, sweet peas, alyssum, and fuchsia can provide so much color and fragrance. If in doubt, harden off.

My summer pots usually go on long into the fall. They have the opportunity to get accustomed to the coming of the cold over a long period of time. Petunias, verbenas, million bells, creeping jenny will look great until frost, having been planted in late May. If you want to plant them in the spring, give them some time to adjust to the outdoors before planting. Some gardeners cover their spring plantings for a week or so with floating row cover.

A quick introduction to weather that is too cold can set some plants back such that their growth is stunted. Some never recover. Much better to celebrate each season, in season.

Posted on: April 20, 2014 7 Comments

Filed Under: flowers, container planting, Spring Tagged With: cold tolerant annuals, spring planting, cold tolerant plants, spring container planting

The Spring Fair

Detroit Garden Works hosted the first day of its annual spring garden fair yesterday. In 2010, we decided to sponsor a spring fair for a a few good reasons. Rob has shopped overseas for Detroit Garden Works for 18 years. In fact, we just had a container from Belgium arrive a few days ago. In his travels, he has had occasion to attend garden fairs in a number of different countries, in spring summer and fall. The European fairs feature growers of plants, vegetables and fruits. Some fairs have chickens for sale, or mushrooms in season. People of a gardening persuasion have a chance to gather over a coffee and a little something to eat.

We are firmly behind celebrating the spring season. Michigan winters are long and hard. This past winter was a record breaking heartbreak. Once nature suggests that the winter is about to be over, we like to celebrate. Last year’s fair proceeded as scheduled despite very cold temperatures, and snow flurries. 11 vendors representing topiary plants, spring flowering shrubs and tree peonies, cut flowers, spring container plants, herbs, wildflowers, spring flowering perennials including an extensive collection of hellebore cultivars, tools, succulents, spring wreaths, dry and preserved materials-I believe I even saw a strelitizia in bloom.

Spring was in the air. Yesterday was the best weather we have had in 6 months. The day was marked by lots of sunshine, warm temperatures, and lots of smiles. Even though we provide valet parking as so many people attend this event, lots of people parked blocks away and walked. The day was that nice. If you plan to come to the fair today, and park your own car, be advised that no cars can be parked blocking the bike path that is a bridge over Telegraph. When in doubt, let the valet people park your car.

Of course there was plenty of talk about the ruins of our winter, but there is nothing like an incredibly bad winter to make the experience of the first spring day so welcome. Liberating. We had as many people outdoors walking the shop grounds as indoors. We’ll be open today from 14 to 4. If you have a mind to, come to the fair.