The Plantings At The Shop

No matter how many container plantings we do in a given year, planting the shop for the summer is a given planting. I put this close to home project off until the great majority of our clients are planted. Some might think that I take the winter to plan what I will do in the summer shop garden, but I do not. Once we start bringing in annual plants for sale, I keep looking until something triggers a decision. Rob plants a lot of containers for the shop, and this year’s collection is especially good. I could characterize how he composes and plants in the following way. He favors green above all, but lavender, rosemary, and all the the herbs to go with run a close second. He gravitates towards annual plants that are relaxed in habit and subdued in color. A wood box may be filled from start to finish with Grosso lavender. An Italian terra cotta pot may feature a Malabar spinach vine trailed up a rusted rod steel sphere. A vintage galvanized steel trough might be planted with tomatoes and herbs. Slatted wood boxes lined with coir, and planted with verbena bonariensis, peach dahlias and pale yellow marguerites are as casually elegant as they are unstudied. His shade container with bird’s nest ferns and selaginella fly out the door. All of his container plantings are reserved. His touch is light. This year’s shop planting is in admiration and recognition of that work. My idea in the big planting bed was to plant a collection of summer blooming annuals in mixed colors, in a a random and relaxed pattern. Nothing too flashy or fussy; think cream colored marigolds. A strip of brown paper towel down the center of the bed would establish a no plant zone. Weeding a wayward and unstudied planting asks for access.

This planting is dominated by 70 some 1 gallon pots of Sonata cosmos. Of course we laid out those cosmos first. As casually as we imagined Rob would place them. We had no idea if the pots were mixed colors, or a single color. Next to come, lots of the airy growing  nicotiana suaveolens, nicotiana perfume bright rose, lime and white, a few purple angelonia, and cream white marigolds. None of these plants truly meadowy-these are all hybrid tropical plants. But mixed in a casual way. It took my crew all of five minutes to grasp the idea.  In less than 2 hours, we had a garden. I am sure Rob would have never plant the nicotiana Perfume Bright Rose-that was my idea.

Once every plant was in the ground, we watered, and watered again. Watering new plantings is nearly a daily job. Hot weather can be deadly to a plant that has not yet rooted into the surrounding soil. Many annual plants are grown in soilless mixes.  Once that small rootball dries out, look out. Annual plants in the ground or in containers regularly watered with take hold and thrive. Once established, sun loving annual plants are remarkably unfazed by dry soil.

Regular rain and moderate temperatures early in the growing season resulted in a dramatic spring flush on the boxwood. We have held off pruning, as our current temperatures have been in the high eighties. Next week is slated to be much cooler, and Melissa and her crew will prune. A gently geometric pruning will provide a pleasing contrast to the planting.

New this year- we covered the entire planting with a mulch of  ground bark fines.  This will help conserve moisture in the soil, and discourage weeds, although who knows.  Maybe the weeds will look good with the planting. Decades of professional gardening and maintenance has made me a weed pulling, plant staking, dead heading, raking and wash down the driveway kind of gardener. When I say nature bats last, I am also saying that this gardener bats in the clean up position. Having just turned 67, I doubt I will be making any substantial changes to the way I work. This planting is not what I would have done, left to my own devices. But having done it, I will try to leave it be, and see what happens.

The window boxes have a similar feeling, but include some plants not in the ground garden. Dwarf cleome, sky blue petunias, variegated sage and white trailing verbena have been added to the mix.

But for that far too bright rose pink nicotiana, this has something of the feeling of Rob’s compositions.

Those of you who are able to visit Detroit Garden Works know that we have galvanized metal planter boxes that traverse the entire length of the roof that faces our street. From this vantage point, it is easy to see that the boxwood has at least 8 inches of new growth. It will take Melissa and her crew all day to prune it. The plants chosen for the garden are in the 24″ high range. The garden will not be visible from the street. To see it, you will have to walk up the driveway and look in. I have always planted this garden taller than the boxwood. Why? Tradition, for good or for ill. This hedge is now in its 20th year, and despite the ravages of two really terrible winters, is quite something in its own right. It will be the star of the summer show, especially given that both the composition and plant choices are plain and simple. Metaphorically speaking, my gardens usually wear shoes and socks. This garden is decidedly less formal than that.

But back up to the roof garden. The boxes were made to sit on the parapet wall that runs across the front. They are outfitted with irrigation, as climbing up here, hose in hand, requires a substantial extension ladder and no small amount of nerve. It is a hot and windy place. The boxes hold 3 rows of plants. The back row is planted with the lemon lime leaved pineapple sage, and a new white, pink and blue angelonia. This hybrid has very thick stems, and was originally developed for the cut flower trade. Both of these plants like full sun and heat. This new angelonia is reputed to grow 40″ tall. If it does, this row of plants will help to mitigate the effects of the wind for all.

The middle row is comprised of 3 colors of vista petunias, interspersed with white and pink Gaura. The white tinged pink petunia cultivar “Silverberry” was planted in the two center boxes. Then moving towards the edges on both sides, Vista “Bubblegum”, and finally Vista “Fuchsia”. Petunias are the one of the most ordinary annual plants, but this cultivar is a vigorous grower seldom bothered by any problems. We try to stay away from problems on the roof. In the front row, a thick planting of the annual white variegated vinca vine.

We are ready just in time for summer.

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Early September

early September containers (13)Come September, there are sure signs that the garden is waning. The day breaks late, and the dark comes earlier.  The sun is lower in the sky, and is beginning to cast those long shadows that foretell the coming of fall. Though our weather is still firmly entrenched in a summer long pattern of hot days, the over night temperatures are decidedly cool. It is never easy to tell when a container garden has reached its peak, but I am sure anyone in my zone who gardened in containers this summer was working at a peak level all summer long to maintain them. Week after week of extremely high temperatures and near drought conditions meant the delivery of water to container plants was a job never done. My best ally? My big pots. This pot is 40″ square. Routinely someone who is shopping at Detroit Garden Works remarks that only a person with a very large yard would have a pot this big. Though my side garden is actually quite small, this big pot looks right at home. But the best part of its size is the size of the soil mass inside it. That big body of soil retained moisture for a relatively long period of time before I had to water again. Once the plants shaded the soil, the water evaporated at an ever slower rate.  At the height of the heat, I only watered this pot every 3 or 4 days.  The plants like fewer waterings as well. It is hard on plants to be soaked one day and bone dry the next.

early September containers (12)It goes without saying that smaller containers dry out faster. The two small pots in the foreground of this picture are planted with zinnias and the cascading geranium “Acapulco Compact”. Both of these are highly drought resistant. None the less, they needed a good soak every other day, if not every day, due to the small soil mass. Mandevilleas do thrive in high heat, but they also like to be kept on the dry side. The petunias were too dry. As simple as it is to grow petunias, this year’s crop had no end of problems. Petunias decline quickly when they are too wet, or too dry.  A summer such as ours made it easy to over water and under water. A small pot soaked through and through was still dusty dry by day’s end.  The smaller the pot, or the smaller the root system, the harder it is to maintain an even moisture level.

early September containers (11)The scented geraniums were perfectly happy to be dry.  The fancy leaved geraniums wanted more water. The zinnias with too much watering was the perfect environment for fungus to take hold.  After a long day working outdoors in blistering heat, the prospect of having to fuss over 32 containers was not the first thing on my mind when I got home. The larger pots were more forgiving if I let them go until the morning.

early September containers (9)I firmly believe that every fuchsia and lantana comes with a population of white fly – standard issue. Of course the heat brought them out in droves. I completely defoliated this Ballerina tree fuchsia, white flies in a swarm around my head, and put the leaves in a bag that I dropped off the deck into the trash can below. Yes, I immediately put the lid back on that can. That was not the end of them. I did resort to pest strips. My lantana was green most of the summer, as the white flies went first to the new growth. A lot of new leaves and flower buds went in the trash.  Though this is the smallest of my pots, it is placed on a north wall that gets very little in the way of sun. It got a little water once a week, and that was enough. Small pots are great in the shade.

early September containers (3)This medium sized pot is home to a white dahlia, Acapulco cascading geranium, and white petunias. These white petunias are the best petunias I have this year. I attribute this to the fact that they did not get too wet, nor did they go too dry. How do I tell if a pot needs water?  I put my finger, or a bamboo stake down into the soil.  If the soil has adequate moisture, it will stick to my finger. Dry soil does not stick to anything. The soil on top may be dry, but of concern is the moisture level at the roots.

early September containers (6)The cordyline and trailing verbena in this pot like dry conditions too.  This pot has a fairly large soil mass, although some moisture will evaporate from the terra cotta.  I was very careful to delay watering this until I was sure the plants were in need. My choice of container plants was absolutely influenced by the National Weather Service 3 month prediction. Their unsually hot and dry prediction was correct.

early September containers (1)The Bounce impatiens in these urns need a serious soaking every day now. The soil mass is not that great, and I am sure the plants are root bound. Buck actually watches these for me.  Coming home to these plants flopped over makes me grumpy. Their name is fitting – they will bounce back from being too dry. The lavender New Guinea impatiens below them are in a much larger  rectangular pot. Once they grew enough to provide the soil surface with some protection from sun, the pot held its moisture much longer.

September 4 2016 019By and large my containers on the deck look happy. We have a garden going on that took a lot of work to maintain. Even the corgis disliked being stuck outside when it was too hot, but they were too well mannered to ask or expect me to go it alone.

early September containers (15)This pair of Italian terra cotta rectangles are home to a very happy group of plants. They have plenty of soil to live in. I watered the smaller plants on the edges of the pot more often than the middle or back section. When the weather is really hot, watering all the way around the rim of a pot is important.  Terra cotta can draw the moisture out of the plants on the edge at a much faster rate than the interior plants. I rarely shower a pot. I water with however much I think each plant needs.

early September containers (16) This has to be the most successful planting I have ever done in these planters. I am enjoying them.

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The First Container Planting

annual planting (3)
Every year, the prospect of having a full roster of container gardens to plant makes me want to black out. I spend the first three weeks of May utterly certain that I cannot plant one more pot.  That I am out of ideas. Luckily, time passes by, and and I start shopping. A client I have worked for as long as this one is easy to shop for. I had a pair of giant banana plants to pick up at our farmer’s market at 5:45 am. I was ready at 7am to let Dan know that we would need two pallets-130 bags –  of our custom container soil blend, and 30 bags of bark. We would need moss fabric for a pair of wire urns, and a ladder to tie the mandevillea to the steel plant climbers.

annual planting (12)I had shopped with David and Riley on Friday.  They put all of our plants on racks, and loaded them onto our trucks.  At the end of the day Friday, I was ready in the plant regard.  I had an inkling of an idea about what I would plant. Of course I was going over that inkling, critically. I had from 6-8am Saturday morning to print the photographs from last year, and write on them what materials we would use in them this year. Two hours gives me enough time to change my mind. Once my crew is ready to load, I am too.  I take extras and alternates, just in case.

annual planting (5) Once every pot had gotten filled with bark for drainage, and our container soil mix, all of the centerpieces get planted.  Then I lay out the scheme for the rest of the pot.  I was entirely absorbed and focused on how each plant would grow out, and interact with its neighbor. I favor containers that have a beautiful overall shape by the time they mature.  My favorite part of this planting for a group of Italian terra cotta pots? Orange geraniums. Geraniums, as they provide an incredible amount of color when properly grown.  They are heavy feeders. But more so than the bloom habit, that orange would contribute an interesting variation to a warm color palette.  The red mandevilleas and red geraniums are a bluish red. The orange geraniums have just enough yellow to make the combination interesting. My client is keen about the drama that can be created by intense color.
annual planting (6)This pair of Italian pots can handle the size and textural drama of a pair of large scale bananas. Not yet visible are a collar of strobilantes, or Persian shield plants that will ring the trunks of the bananas.  The chartreuse leaved Persian Queen geraniums and misty lilac waves petunias will highlight the iridescent red-violet of the Persian Shields.

annual planting (9)Lime green is a key color in this planting scheme. All of the warm colors are all the more intense, by their proximity to lime green. The red represented in this container is red sunpatiens. They will grow quite large.  The lime licorice will lighten that load of red.

annual planting (7)This big scented geranium will have pale pink flowers intermittently over the summer.  But they are primarily grown for their bright apple green foliage that can be clipped into shapes.  We gave this geranium the most rudimentary clip.  My client has a lot of formally trimmed shrubs maintained by the company that prunes our boxwood at the shop.  Her crew will put a skilled set of hands to the spherical shape of this geranium.  It is under planted with an orange geranium of a different sort than the big growing zonal geraniums.  Caliente geraniums come in a wide range of colors, and are extremely easy to grow. The pink and white bicolor trailing verbena “Lanai Twister Pink” is a beautiful addition to this series.

annual planting (11)There are two containers in fairly dense shade.  The color of the lime dracaena “Janet Craig” brightens any shady area.  The dracaena is under planted with bird’s nest ferns.  The leaf form is simialr to the dracaena, but is a darker green.

annual planting (8)A boxwood topiary on standard is under planted with Persian Queen geraniums, red geraniums, and vista fuchsia petunias. The low terra cotta bowl features hot pink XL dahlias, black cherry supertunias, and a bicolor trailing verbena.

annual planting (10)3 terracotta boxes get identical treatment.  Hot pink zonal geranium towers, and lime creeping jenny.

annual planting (14)This old cast iron rectangular cauldron sits in a garden bed which is so shady that very little grows there. It is planted with a a pair of lime green fleck leafed dieffenbachia “Camouflage”, Janet Craig dracaenas, and Black Gold Xtreme sansevieria. The sansevieria in the box is repeated in ground at each end. This planting will thrive all summer long with next to no water.

annual planting (1)By 2pm, you would never know we had been there. It was a splashy beginning to our container planting season.

Designing Summer Containers

Detroit Garden Works 2015Eric Hofley, owner and publisher of Michigan Gardener Magazine along with his brother, Jonathon, published a rather lengthy article of mine about designing summer containers. The article just came out a week ago in their May issue. If you are local to Detroit Garden Works, you are welcome to come in and pick up a copy-it is, and has always been free.  The magazine covers everything of interest of gardeners in our state. You can check out the website for their their publication here:   The Michigan Gardener    Detroit Garden Works has advertised with them since they first began publishing, 19 years ago. We value that relationship.  Jonathon and Eric handle all of our print advertising their media company, Motor City Publishing. For those of you who are too far away to pick up a copy of their magazine, I have reprinted the article below. Our weather has taken a sharp turn towards the warm.  If the suddenly warm weather is getting you to think about your summer containers, there might be something here of value to you.

landscape 2013

I have been a landscape and garden designer for over thirty years. The prospect of a new project still has the power to interest and enchant – for this I am grateful. Landscape installations which have grown in and been well maintained are a great source of satisfaction. Of special interest to me in any landscape design is the unique role played by the seasonal planting of containers. No news here, should you be familiar with Detroit Garden Works. Nineteen years ago, Rob Yedinak and I opened a retail store dedicated to fine quality ornament for the garden. The lion’s share of our focus is on containers of every conceivable period and style. Why so? Any one who loves the garden loves the beauty of nature. A summer container is the best of both worlds. A container of a certain style, and a planting of the moment, to go with.   An empty container represents the opportunity to create an arrangement of plants all one’s own choosing. Designing and creating a seasonal living vignette in a container is not only fun, it is satisfying. A container is a vehicle by which a gardener can make a very personal statement about nature and beauty. The results can be seen and enjoyed in the space of one season. Given the almost limitless number of plants that can thrive in a container planted for the summer season, it would take several gardening lifetimes to even make a dent in the possibilities. That summer annuals grow and mature in but a few short months is a relief. One can abandon a scheme that disappointed, or try something new for the sheer joy of trying something new. A well maintained container planting of interesting design has the potential to create a landscape all of it’s own- in miniature. It is a visual look book of what is on a gardener’s mind at that particular moment. My container choices over the years represent the evolution of my taste in plants, and arranging plants. A thoughtfully designed container is an experience of the landscape on a small and intense scale. Planting summer containers is way of exploring plant relationships that can inform the bigger garden and landscape in a small time and space frame. A landscape is a long term commitment, requiring decisions that are not so easily changed. A well designed and mature landscape is a treasure. A collection of containers set within that landscape keeps the garden dialogue fresh and interesting. Planting containers is not just an exercise, it is an education that is ongoing, and can span many years. The ability to plant and care for containers can persist long after the ability to cut beds, turn soil and plant trees has waned. To follow are my thoughts and opinions about the ingredients necessary for a great summer container.

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THE POTS
Strictly speaking, any object that can hold soil and permit water to drain away constitutes a pot. But a beautiful container planting is as much about the container as it is about the plants. A container planting that considers the size, shape and decoration of the container as part of the overall effect is especially beautiful to my eye. A container represents the gardener’s point of view as much as the plants they choose. If a cottage garden, and the notion of farm to table enchants you, then perhaps a collection of vintage galvanized metal containers will help to make that idea visually stronger. If the architecture of your home is crisp, clean and contemporary, pots of that ilk will satisfy you. If a whiff of history is your idea of a great fragrance, then an antique or antique reproduction urn will serve your point of view well. If a planting that flows over the edges of the pot all the way to the ground represents your style, then go for containers on pedestals. I would advise purchasing containers that you truly like, as your love for the container will inspire what you fill it with. Choose containers that are properly proportioned to their placement. Pots on the front porch need to be large, so the planting can be seen and enjoyed from the sidewalk. Pots on a terrace should be scaled to put both the pot and the planting at eye level, when you are seated. Terraces are for sitting, relaxing, and having dinner. Some terrace pots should be tall, and their contents taller – with the idea of screening an untoward view, or providing privacy. A container on the dining table needs to be low and wide to permit conversation across the table. I recommend containers with big planting spaces. Big containers give me the opportunity to explore the relationships of color, texture, mass, line and shape-in a detailed way. I like lots of room, so I can put together an entire collection of summer annuals that might grow up together, interact, and shine. Big containers mean a big soil mass, which will hold moisture in the heat of the summer. A big pot will forgive you if you are late to water is a pot worth having. Knowing the time you will put to the maintenance of your containers should inform your choice of plants-and pots. Great pots with a design or material that pleases you sets the stage for all that is yet to come. If you are in the decision making stage about containers and where to put them, an initial purchase of fiber pots or burlap pots is a great way to test your ideas without great expense. However, my experience is that a great container will encourage a great planting.

summer container 11THE SOIL
I have no use for peat based artificial soil mix for container plantings. Soil mixes were designed and manufactured for growers. These mixes are lightweight, and sterile. They need a growers hand to provide regular fertilization. I like soil -as in garden dirt. Soil, sand and compost- dirt that weighs a lot. A topsoil mix in your containers will retain water more evenly, and provide micronutrients whose composition is essential to the health of your plants. This is just my opinion, based on may years planting containers. If the thought of hauling around 40 pound bags of topsoil leaves you cold, be encouraged by the fact that 2/3’s of your container should be drainage material. If you have ever pulled a cleome from a pot at the end of the season, the roots of that 6 foot tall plant are barely 8 inches long. Too much soil in a pot can leave that soil waterlogged.  Seasonal plants need no more than 10 inches of dirt.  Annual plants like regular water, but they like good drainage even better. At the bottom of your container? Hardwood bark is great, for a single season. We use bagged cedar bark mulch. Gravel is a long term drainage material. I have planted many a container with the plastic left over from cell packs of plants. However you arrange for drainage-the fact of the drainage is key. 3/4 drainage, and 1/4 soil.  No kidding. Into the soil, we turn under a handful of osmocote. This time release fertilizer which breaks down in reaction to the soil temperature will feed your pots until the heat of late summer releases the last of it. Container plants that need fertilizer will tell you. The leaves may have gone pale, or yellow, or the growth spindly. We feed with liquid feed every 10 days in late summer and fall-every gardener has their favorite. Some plants favor poorish and infertile soil. Having an idea of what plants you plan to use can inform your choice of a soil mix.

Oct 2 2012 078CONTAINER DESIGN
Designing summer containers is a big topic. There are so many factors which influence success. Containers are planted with a collection of small plants all about the same size, whether they be transplanted from a cell pack, a six pack, or a 4” pot. But that uniformity of size is just the beginning. Some annual plants will always be short, or cascading. Other may grow to a medium, or very tall height. Some are wide, and boss all the plants next to them around. Others are shrinking violets, and need their own air and light space. Think about how each of your plant selections will behave, once they take root and start growing. A successful relationship is key.  The test of the design comes when a container planting matures. The overall shape of the planting, and the mature relationships established by the plants are very important design factors. One can never know to a certainty how plants will react in a given situation. This means the best way to create great containers is to plant lots of them, and keep planting. Another method is to benefit from the experience of others. Look at lots of pictures of container plantings, and figure out what about them appeals to you. The experience can only make you better.

Miro 8-06

STYLE
Containers can be planted in a variety of styles. Contemporary container plantings may feature a single plant, color, or texture. Pots with a very restricted or austere plant palette have a contemporary or modern feel. That said, a small pot planted solidly with Dahlberg daisies can be quite cottagy, in a very cheery way. Yellow daisies have a certain look that will persist no matter how they are planted. Very formal plantings can be equally austere. I think there is little visual difference between a contemporary and a formal planting. The feeling established by the environment around that container will influence how the style is interpreted. Big containers gone wild and exuberantly overflowing have that English garden look. An urn with a single agave has a very Mediterranean look. A galvanized pail planted with weedy growing annuals is what I call the roadside weed look. Rob is particularly fond of this style. Containers planted symmetrically, and layered by height have a semi-formal and traditional look-as in the spike and geranium pots so beloved by my grandmother. A pot with geraniums in the center, and spikes all around the outside has an entirely different look. Asymmetrically planted pots have a very dynamic and informal look.

Aug 15,2011 022

COLOR
How people see and react to color is a highly personal thing. There are many more colors in nature than what we have words to describe. I am very interested in the relationship of one color to another, and many of my containers reflect this. Every flower comes with leaves that also have a color. Some greens are cool and bluish. Others are warm and yellowish. Other foliage can be red, black, gray or white. Pale colors read great at a distance, and at night. Dark colors read well up close, and glow in the sun. White is sparkly and refreshing in the shade, but can provoke squinting in full sun. Put your plants all together in your shopping cart before you plant them in your pots.

Oct 2 2012 080

TEXTURE, MASS, SHAPE, AND LINE
Flowers and leaves have a particular quality to their surface. Petunias and nicotiana leaves are fuzzy, whereas ornamental black cotton leaves are shiny and hard surfaced. Contrasting the textures of plants creates interesting relationships. Sometimes the relationship of one to another is more interesting that either one, on its own. Phormiums are thin and spiky. Dahlias are buily and stiff. Licorice is lax growing, hairy, and small leaved. Weaving in and out of a plectranthus planted near by is a relationship of great visual interest. By the same token, white mandevillea planted as a trailer rather than a climber features the line it would take naturally, without the benefit of a trellis. Plants have personalities particular to them and no other plant. Assessing what about a plant pleases you the most will help you make good design decisions.

summer container 2014

THE PLANTS
One need not restrict their plant choices to summer annuals that are native to tropical zones. Boxwood are handsome in pots, and some gardeners will have nothing else. Perennials, grasses, herbs, vegetables, small trees, shrubs and groundcovers can be very effective in pots. Hostas in pots can be successfully wintered over in their pots in an unheated garage. I have one client with a Japanese maple that has been in a weatherproof pot next to her garage for 20 years. We cut holes in a large second story deck for another client-her Princeton Gold maples were quite happy, the last I looked.

summer window boxMAINTENANCE
No discussion of summer annual plantings is complete without a discussion of the maintenance involved. Planting containers before the soil has warmed up is asking for trouble. Most of them originate in tropical places. Many of them can be permanently stunted by too early a planting. Try filling your containers with spring bulbs and plants, if you hate looking at empty pots. A container withered and dead from lack of water, or rotted from soil that did not drain is a dreary sight indeed. Worst of all, it may discourage a person from ever gardening in containers again. Plants coated in aphids are unappetizing, to say the least. So gardener, know yourself. If time is at a premium, select plants that thrive on drought and neglect. Consider adding irrigation lines to your containers, if you cannot look them over every day. If you are a heavy waterer, plant plants that like being drenched, or grow in a bog. Lotus and water lilies in pots are beautiful in containers. Auto irrigation is not perfect, but it can buy you a little time. Try a few containers before you try 100. See if having them will prove to be a pleasure, or a nuisance. Try plants that are vigorous-success with plants will help make you more adventuresome the next time around. If you lose a plant in a pot, replace it. There is no rule that says you need to look at a dead plant, or a gaping hole, the rest of the season. But most of all, enjoy them. From the design to the planting to the care to the finish, planting containers for the summer is such a pleasure.