My shockingly chilly and record setting rainy spring has given way to temperatures hot as bloody blazes. Temperatures in the mid nineties sounds like July or August-not early June. I hate planting an annual, a perennial or a tree when it is 95 degrees. That level of heat is incredibly stressful to transplants-not to mention people. This pool and terrace under construction needs containers-now. It would be a challenging environment for plants newly transplanted even if it were not 95 degrees. This will be a blisteringly hot spot in the summer, even on a cloudy day.
Annual plants have very small root balls-think of it as a life trying to survive in a coffee scoop. Growers use soiless mixes for a lot of reason. A soilless mix is sterile-no weeds or disease can infect a crop. Soiless mix is light and easy to handle. It provides a grower with a lightweight medium that they can fertilize to their personal specification. If all annual plants were grown in home grown garden soil, no one would have the strength or patience to haul all that weight home and out to the garden. I transplant all of my container plants into real soil. That soil will give up its moisture slowly. This will help the small plants to get established, in spite of their peat based root balls.
A soilless peat based mix can dry out in a matter of hours on a blisteringly hot day. What this means to me is every flat or case of 4 inch flowers needs to be soaked before we load in the morning-never mind that it has been watered 3 times the previous day. Those growers who have plants under glass right now-their lives are a misery. Anyone who grows plants is infected with that miracle of life gene. They would water non stop until bedtime if they needed to. There is that instinct to preserve life. Preserving life in these containers will require careful plant choices. This means plants that like very hot and exposed locations.
Newly planted plants may need daily water when the temperatures skyrocket. Serious water deprivation may not kill a plant, but it can stress a plant such that its growth is greatly compromised. Make the distinction. Do not water just because it is hot. Some plants wilt from heat-not a lack of water. Butterburrs and dahlias come to mind. They will perk up when the temperatures drop. Water those things whose roots are dry, and water until you are blue in the face. A water bandaid does little-soak thoroughly. Thern let the soil dry out before watering again. Overwatering plants in very hot weather is like issuing an engraved invitation to any fungus that happens to be nearby.
Clustering pots in a smaller area is a good look, but it also has some practical value. I have containers in 4 places in my garden-and I have a hose nearby for every one of those spots. Grouping enables me to display a collection. The collection of pots and the collection of plantings will have interest individually, and as a whole. These containers are made from large slabs of volcanic stone-hence the perforated surface. I am assuming the slabs are cut with a giant saw. The simple round French terra cotta pot is a good foil both in shape and color to the severely geometric grey stone.
Steel box and rectangle keeps a single stone square company midway down the length of the pool. Of course this arrangement could change, once the pool furniture is placed. No matter how many times I study the plans and diagrams, there is no ubstitute for seeing all of the elements in place.
This pool terrace asked for a good many containers. Both the pool and the terrace are very large. My clients selected what forms and shapes appealed to them; I put together a collection. I placed all of their containers on the terrace today-it was 105 degrees. During the entire time I was arranging, I was oblivious to the heat. Not so my crew. They were doing the really heavy lifting. A pair of antique English cast iron horse troughs from the 1850’s weighed over 1 ton each-these we placed with a front end loader. Once we set them in place, each trough was lifted off the ground via 12 pairs of hands, so a hard rubber spacer could be placed underneath each leg.
My clients are wicked intelligent, and have a clearly sophisticated point of view. Though they have a decidedly modern perspective, these antique troughs appealed to them immediately. They were certain that they wanted them. They work beautifully here. They have a very dramatic setting here, which they can handle with aplomb.
A pool terrace this size asks for a very large statement from every container. I have some thinking, and some shopping to do.