Spring Flowers | Deborah Silver & Co.

Planting Containers For Spring

Our local newspaper recently confirmed what all of the gardeners in my area already knew. One would have to go back 134 years to find an April as cold as the one we have just lived through. Who knows what gardeners did in 1887 given their blisteringly cold April. I am cautiously optimistic that better weather is on the way, even though it is barely 50 degrees today. I have had clients tell me that we won’t have any spring. That summer is just about here. Don’t believe it. We always have a spring. The March and April of it has just been exceptionally cold. May is a spring month as well, despite those who insist on planting summer annuals and vegetables before the soil is warm enough for them. Anyone who treats May as a summer month is bound for some disappointment. We have been planting spring containers for a few weeks now. We have relied quite a bit on pansies and violas, as we have a grower who starts them the previous summer, and winters them in a cold greenhouse.We have planted some annual phlox, and I took a chance on some dwarf white fuchsia, rosemary, lavender and lettuce. These plants have been hothouse grown, so placing them outdoors abruptly can result in leaf damage. What it has been too chilly for is a long list.

The buds on the trees are swelling, but we are still leafless. The landscape looks groggy. Off color. My magnolia stellata has flower buds barely breaking and showing white. I am sure many of those buds will never open.The hellebores are thinking about it. Not a peep out of much else, but for the early flowering spring bulbs. The only perennial plant in my garden who has dared to venture forth is Alchemilla-lady’s mantle. Those new leaves are hugging the ground. As they should! But this daffodil mix pansy is as bright and cheery as can be. Though they are diminutive in size, pansies can provide a vivid preview of the color to come. Plant a few, or plant a truckload, the effect is the same. A little or a lot of color can energize gardener. Daffodils are just beginning to bloom, and the tulips will be a good while yet. This means the timing for an appearance from pansies and violas is just right.

It is a lot to ask of a plant, to be ready to grow and bloom ahead of time. Our pansies have been fine with temperatures as low as 22 degrees. For this project we loaded up and left them in the truck, which was parked in our landscape building, for 3 days. That protected them from our recent our ice and sleet storm. But I can report that those plants that endured that nasty weather outdoors look just fine today. How I welcome their forbearance. I am always amused to hear a plant described as shade loving. They are in fact shade tolerant. Lots of seasonal plants can tolerate chilly temperatures, but few persevere in really cold weather like the pansies.

Fresh cut pussy willow is a mainstay of our spring pots. The catkins are a glossy and furry gray. Once they are cut, they will hold that moment as they dry. Pussy willow stems indoors, in water, will produce pollen, and many stems eventually leaf out. Their behavior in this regard is a great example of how routine and powerful the will to live can be. I especially enjoy how effortlessly they adapt to a second life in a container.

The pansies are small and short in April. A another month, they will be overflowing these boxes. But for now, a tall centerpiece of preserved eucalyptus and faux stems provide them a forum from which to speak up. There are those transitional times in the year when a gardener has the option to represent the sentiment of the season generously. In a very short time, there will be breaking news from all of the plants in the landscape. Right now, spring containers have no competition.

Color plays a big part in any seasonal planting. Colors placed side by side that are closely related make for a subtle expression. Colors that strongly contrast in both hue and value make for more drama.

I do like color mixes that are not entirely predictable. No gardener needs a computer generated plan of action. I like that odd color out. I like color mixes that are imperfect. I like efforts in the garden that are unpredictable. The best voice is one’s own garden is one’s own voice. Trust that. Whatever I do in my garden, landscape, or containers, I always like when I can see that my choices are based on a relationship between my hands and the materials.

I am a professional designer. I do take pains to discuss with my clients about what they would like to see. There is a relationship that needs to be honored. I do not expect them to direct me. I encourage them to express to me what is important to them in style, shape and color and affect. I try to interpret that.

This client chose a sunny and contrasting color palette for her spring planting. I admire that gesture. She is as tired of our long winter as I am.

Sooner or later she will see the lettuce at the center of these boxes. The spring garden is full of surprises, is it not?

Posted on: April 26, 2018 10 Comments

Filed Under: Deborah Silver and Co Inc, Color, Spring Tagged With: spring container planting, Spring Flowers, pansies

At A Glance: More Spring Plantings

Blue in a Michigan garden? That would be blue pansies and lobelia. OK, there are some true blue delphiniums, and cornflowers to come later on. But if you have a big love for blue, express yourself now.

Bright yellow and dark purple pansies, orange grass, and cream stick stacks-a spring wake up call.

Creme brulee heuchera-great in pots. The habit, the leaf size and shape-and that color-the stuff that spring memories are made of. I am not crazy about black and silver leaved coral bells, but these enchant me. The backs of the leaves-a faint version of red violet-echoing the punch of red violet from these dark pansies.

Fresh cut copper willow twigs, and a spring assortment. I like lots of spring voices looking for a little harmony. This-a simple pleasure.

Picoteed and whiskered violas-I love them all. They look especially at home in small low terra cotta pots-bulb pans, we call them.

On the right, a trailing viola I have never seen before. It may be my favorite bicolor viola-what a treat that it trails. Pale blue and dark purple-stunning. On the left, clear sky yellow pansies and angelina. Prairie and copper willow provide a little natural vertical interest.

Lemon cypress and dark red dracaena contrast dramatically with each other. The softening part? lavender and peach violas with that lime. Citrus mix pansies and Ogon sedum with that dark spike.

Ornamental kales and cabbages are great for spring pots-they will grow to a decent size before they bolt. Barely visible in the right pot, a one gallon pot of asparagus.

Green spikes are common in summer pots-but they handle the cold in the spring and fall very well. Any ordinary plant used in an unusual season warrants a fresh look.

This tuft of a lime cypress will grow up to a shrub of considerable size, should you baby it over a few winters. That lime green says spring like no other color. Other choices? Bibb and leaf lettuce. Green oakleaf lettuce. Lime green hostas. Lime green hops. Lime green leaved columbines and bleeding hearts. Green flowered hellebores. Lime green leaved tradescantia. You get the idea.

Any spring pot makes a better show right off the bat with a plant climber in place. Some seasons ask for a little backup from some structure. In this case, steel structure. Given a few weeks of warm weather, these blue pansies and white variegated ivy will grow, and make a better statement. All of these plantings need to grow on and up. But today, these freshly planted pots still say welcome to my spring.

Posted on: April 22, 2012 5 Comments

Filed Under: Garden Design Tagged With: spring container plantings, spring pots, Spring Flowers

Spring Planting

I enjoy doing spring plantings for my clients. It gives me a chance to get into the garden early, and assess how everything fared over the winter. This winter was a breeze, but for a cruelly early break in the weather in March. It remains to be seen how Michigan’s fruit and berry crops will be affected. It was disconcerting to see that this pair of crabapple espaliers had long since bloomed out, and set leaf in mid-April, but I am happy about how they look.

This garden is graced by a gingko of great size. The entire layout and landscape of the house was organized around this tree. The groundcover is finally starting to fill in. It will not be so much longer before the boxwood completely obscures the wall. A grand old plant such as this one needs little more than a big open space around it.

It is possible to arrange for a great spring planting months ahead of time. Clusters of yellow tulips were planted in the fall; the pansies were planted over top. Fall planting of pansies may seem like an exercise in futility, given that winter is not far off, but newer strains of pansies are proving quite hardy. The clear sky series of pansies-especially tough. The pansies came up lush and thick this spring, and were in full flower on April 10. This garden had quite the jump on spring.

Planting pansies and violas in ground in the spring is not nearly as prevalent as what it once was-I am sorry for this. The spring season lasts just as long as any of the others. Tulips don’t present much in the way of foliage at ground level, so they are a perfect candidate for a little company. I also find that working with color in the spring is very tough-if I don’t have the names and faces right in front of me. This mix that features a rose pansy will look great with the red/pink/rose and white pansy mix. This is the ideal time to blob them in-I don’t plant everywhere. I plant where I can see dirt.

This picture was taken from the perspective of a 9 year old-any adult walking by will see the dirt spaces on the edge thickly planted with pansies. That color at ground level adds a whole other dimension to the idea of spring garden.

Of course we plant the attending pot for spring. This landscape is very simple. Its beauty is all about the weather, and the seasons. This small planting of flowers says all that needs to be said about spring.

I hate to see any pot sit empty-waiting. In another month, this planting will overflow this big pot. The sweet peas planted in the center will completely cover the tree of heaven branches in the center. Stick support? The English call a flexible stick that props up this or that in the garden a withy, or withe. Withies-a natural and much less obtrusive version of a galvanized metal peony ring. Slated to trail over the edge, a lime yellow sedum called Ogon. The purple kale planted at the base of the sticks will grow considerably in size, before it bolts from the heat.

The curving shape of the tulips leads the eye right to this lead pot-imagine the disappointment, were it to be empty. A pansy mix similar to what rings the pot borders the tulips. The front door seems so much more welcoming.

Once the pots are planted up, and the pansy border added, these tulips make a much stronger statement. They have a community of like minded spring friendly plants. I do have another client whose wild flower garden goes right up to her front door. At this time of year, it it is breathtakingly understated. That garden would not work for me at home, nor would it work here. Every property and house with a gardener in charge makes for an entirely individual celebration of the spring.

The side porch has a sentry pooch. I have seen him with hats, bandanas, necklaces and sunglasses. Sometimes there is a pumpkin on his head. You have it right-there are kids who live here. But for spring, a bucketful of lavender and a few pansies provide just the right touch-welcome, spring.