Search Results for: mutabilis

Airy

I greatly admire any expression that is airy, artless, graceful, breezy, unstudied, beautifully accidental or subtle- underwrought. What do I admire this? I greatly admire that which is the most difficult for me to achieve with a planting. Luckily, I have help from the plant kingdom. I have never loved the look of hosta flowers. Sometimes I go so far as to cut them off before they bloom-reckless, I know. But in a sunny spot, the grey/lavender of these flowers is beautiful. The stalks going this way and that-artless. Both nicotiana mutabilis and dward cleome have wispy flowers that flutter in the slightest breeze. Anchored with a solidly blooming base of petunias, this planting is a meadow in a pot. This planting had a lot of help from nature.

The pale pink nicotiana in the outside pots on this porch-who knew how pretty they would be with a pair of white dieffenbachia. A few spiky leaves of green New Zealand flax unexpectedly echo that dieffenbachia color. The variegated ivy is a casual and airy compliment to those stiff paddle shaped leaves. This planting was better than I thought it could be. I credit the plants for that.

Mandevillea is one of my favorite summer plants. Vining plants have a way of growing that sets a planting free. They will grab any airborn support. Lacking support, they will vine down and out. Variegated licorice has stiff stems-but they grow every which way. I call it the cowlick plant. It provides some stiff horizontal support to the mandevillea vines that wander. Some of the red mandevillea flowers appear to be floating, do they not?

Plants with subtly colored flowers and foliage have that airy look, no matter their habit. Succulents and herbs tolerate close planting, as long as I am careful not to overwater. Closely planted plants make a community of one, as long as I do not interfere too much. Plants left to weave in and out of each other make their own statement. This staement is infinitely more interesting and beautiful than anything I could engineer.

Pots placed on porches, pillars, pedestals and promenades make a studied design statement before they are planted. A pot set in a garden bed comes out of the gate with an entirely different attitude. This entirely formal French pot from the Poterie Madeleine has a planting that reflects the garden.

Some clients like that wispy, artless look. They like subtle colors. They like the air as much as they like the flowers. Small flowers nurture that airy look. How hard is it to make a dahlia look graceful? You know the problem.

Verbena bonariensis wrote the book on airy, breezy and cloudlike. I plant it every chance I get. In containers, it can loosen up the most formal of landscapes. It can define the airspace above an urn. It needs very little in the way of staking.

Verbena bonariensis in the ground-stellar. Imagine this space planted with impatiens-ho hum. This clean and crisp terrace furniture is all the more striking given the contrasting cloud of verbena in the background.

Gardeners may think what they have to work with is the soil. But in fact, they also have an airspace just asking for some attention.

What overflows, what moves in the slightest breeze, what grows in out and around-this is a look I treasure. Loose and lovely.

Posted on: August 30, 2011 4 Comments

Fabulous For Fall

I think my summer may be over. Though Buck and I are still cruising the garden every night, we have broken out the fleeces, and jackets. As loathe as I am to give up my summer, the fall season has its charms. I had best get ready to be charmed-the fall is here. I am so happy that my local nurseries have seen to supplying replacement plants for those tired spots in my containers. The petunias are fading fast, and the leaves of the coleus have thinned, and lost color. Luckily lots of plants are very tolerant of cold-and they are ready to step in wherever you have gaps.

My favorites are the ornamental kale and cabbages. Available in white, pink, or red, they do not begin to color up until the night temperatures drop. Cabbage have the big wavy leaves; kale leaves are frilly and lacy. Both do well and grow until there is a truly hard frost. An ornamental cabbage grown in a one gallon pot has a huge rosette of leaves, and a relatively small rootball.

Just a few of these plants go a very long way. I love how tolerant they are of a deep planting-I set them at whatever level I want in a container. I tip the faces forward, so I can see into those rosettes. They do not mind in the least the back side of their rootball set above grade. The color and texture is moody and jewel-like-perfect for fall. Their very thick leaves are very weather resistant -at least that is my theory.

Persian Queen geraniums that have been in containers over the summer will go on representing well into the fall. Given that their chartreuse leaves are their big attraction, fewer fall flowers matters not. Other summer container plants that do well through the fall-vinca maculatum is one of the best. These long trailing plants are not in the least bit fazed by cold. Nicotianas can revive and soldier on with the advent of cold weather. My nicotiana mutabilis is sending out new shoots, and growing like crazy right now.

If you need your container plantings to thrive on through the fall, choose carefully in the spring. Impatiens of any sort, and coleus will collapse into a heap of mush given a short string of cold nights. Tropical plants need to be brought in ahead of any really cold nights. Trailing verbena is amazingly cold tolerant, as are nasturtiums, dahlias, and ornamental grasses. But in the event that your containers are full of plants that have little love for cold, you still have choices. Pansies reappear in the fall-they really do thrive in cooler weather. The Clear Sky series is actually quite perennial. Plant them in early fall-they will reward you all fall, and on into the spring to come.Their cheery faces look great in fall containers-try a few.

For years I rolled my eyes whenever I saw a sign for fall mums. They have a form completely unlike garden chrysanthemums-they are trimmed to within an inch of their lives until it is time for them to set buds. Mum balls, I call them. Garden grown mums have a much more natural appearance. Why I ever had the need to make a comparison, I do not know. Mums grown for fall planting are just that-fall plants for containers. I love the giant balls that have been perfectly trimmed all summer. Thinking of planting on in a pot now? Pick a plant that is budded up-no flowers. Once those budded plants are in your containers, you have all fall to watch them develop, and bloom.

Gourds, pumpkins and the like-I am starting to see those shapes and colors at market. Fall colors are like no other. A pot full of gourds with sme left over creeping jenny from the summer is a good look. It will be late Novemeber before I start my winter plantings-that is two months from now. Too long to have nothing to look at near the front door.

Bare branches-I have no objection to them in fall pots. Every shrub and tree reveals a beautiful branch structure, once the leaves fall. The structure of a garden is never more clear. Subtract the flowers and the leaves-a gardener is faced with the bones. I design with the bones in mind. Bare bones-I like that look. There are enough cold tolerant plants, gourds, pumpkins and squash- and enough bones to make a festival of fall.

Posted on: September 22, 2011 Leave a Comment

Filed Under: Garden Design Tagged With: fall plants, fall container plantings, cold tolerant plants, ornamental cabbages, ornamental kale

Constructing The Centerpiece

No matter what season is in question, a centerpiece in a container planting can organize the planting, and enrich the visual experience. Fall in my zone means a limited selection of plants grow at a vastly reduced rate. My summer pots have nicotiana mutabilis topping 6 feet now-none of my fall plants will grow like this. I have no objection to creating a centerpiece in a fall pot from natural materials that have already grown up, and been harvested. A case of really beautiful bittersweet arrived a few days ago-I could not wait to use it in some fall container plantings.

Other natural materials are from places far from my home. Bahia spears-I have not the faintest idea what plant produced these stems. They are stiff and woody; these chocolate and gold stems look just like fall. Dried natural materials are an element that can spice up a fall planting. I love each and every one of my living plants, but the ability to create a shape from natural materials, and integrate that into a planting is great fun-try it!

The base of this centerpiece-a pair of broomcorn shocks. Broomcorn-yes, this plant has been widely grown for for brooms. This means the stalks are stiff and weather impervious. The seed heads come in a range of colors from cream to red to black. I zip tie several bunches around a stout bamboo stake. That stake will keep my centerpiece straight up and down, no matter the weather. Zip ties-love them. They hold the heaviest centerpiece together. I use lots of them, in the early stages of construction.This centerpiece is ready; there are three layers- all zip tied to a stake. The lower tier-10 faux grass stems. Fault me if you will for the fake statement, but anything that pleases my eye is ok. The long portion of this stake will be set way down into to soil of a pot. This stake is an anchor, and a rudder. A centerpiece gone out of level is not a good look. The centerpieces need to stand up straight. The beauty of any design depends on what your eye can believe. This centerpiece has a ways to go, before I would call it finished.

This three tiered centerpiece gets some air from the bittersweet vine sections, and a welcome shot of fall color. I cut the stems on an extreme angle, and work them under the zip tie. These wild and curving stems will start to loosen up that strictly zip tied affair. I use lots of zip ties in the construction of a centerpiece, as it will need to travel to the job. Should you be constructing a fall centerpiece for a treasured pair of pots-go large, go tall-be loose. The ties you do not really need once the entire container is finished can be cut off, for a looser yet effect.

My centerpiece made the trip to the job without any damage. It is very heavy, but easy to handle. My crews handle anything I send their way with aplomb. The fabric you see draped over the edge of a pot keeps the pot from getting dirty on the rim. The tarp on the ground is there for the same reason. A little care keeps the cleanup part fast and easy. The Redbor kale are the center plants. These we plant first, so its easy to tell exactly where the centerpiece goes. Getting the centerpiece in the center is as important as making sure it is perfectly upright.

Levelling the centerpiece takes some time-and at least four hands. Once that centerpiece is set, level, and solid, we tweak. The top most zip tie-we cut that off. We move this element up, we move that element down. We deconstruct what we constructed. This is the most important part. A centerpiece has to be strong and securely made. But how it gets loosened up is what creates a very natural look.

All of the elements of the centerpiece gets adjusted after it is installed. I try to integrate it with the living material in such a way that it all looks lively, and of a piece.

Fall plantings are all about some cabbages, some mums, some late representing grasses, the pansies-those plants that tolerate cold temperatures. But fall container plantings are greatly about that gardener that has a mind to represent fall in a way they think is beautiful.

What is in your yard, drying, now? Sounds like a centerpiece to be, to me.

If your yard is light on materials that might work in a container, your local nursery or famer’s market is bound to have something. There are lots of possibilities for fall pots- make the most of having a choice. Your fall pots have lots of possibilities. Make much of the fall plants that tolerate the cold. Make more of putting it all together.