Nearly every house and garden presents numerous attractive
settings for container plants. Suburban gardens, estates, small
city backyards, and summer cottages–all can be enhanced by this
type of gardening. A few of the seemingly endless possibilities
include entranceways, steps, courtyards, walls, rooftops,
balconies, patios, breezeways, lawns, driveways, walks,
sundecks, windowsills, porches, summer houses, even tree stumps
can be utilized.
Let us start with the entrance, a focal point for every house. A
simple arrangement consists of similar container plants at each
side of the doorway. If the house is informal, painted tubs will
make a cheerful note, while urns or ornamental pots are more
appropriate if the architecture is formal. The arrangement,
however, need not be symmetrical, since a single container at
either side, particularly if the doorway is off-center, is
pleasing. A large specimen can be balanced by a grouping of
small pots, and various other interesting combinations can be
worked out. Sometimes, the front entranceway can qualify as an
outdoor place for house plants, but be sure they are not exposed
to strong sun and wind.
Unexpected areas like side and rear entrances can also serve as
backgrounds for pot plants in casual groupings. For sunny steps,
consider tubs of petunias, or dwarf dahlias, or boxes of herbs
to be used in cooking. Tuberous begonias, fuchsias, patient
Lucy, and fragrant nicotiana solve the problem of what to grow
in shade.
Porches or verandas, traditional or contemporary in style, offer
numerous settings for pots, window boxes, and hanging baskets.
Indeed, the entire container garden can be concentrated there so
that plants can be easily cared for. If the porch is open on
three sides, it will afford exposures to suit a variety of
specimens.
The patio or terrace, beside or beyond the house, where family
and friends gather to eat or relax, is an ideal location. If it
is formal, select clipped evergreens and arrange pots in
symmetrical rows, perhaps lined up against the house or along
the edge of the terrace. If the site is informal, make casual
groupings of one or two tall plants with smaller ones in front.
Either way, allow for a few large plants in tubs or boxes for
accent and height.
Container plants may line walks and paths that lead to the
house, garage, or garden. They can rest on paved areas along
fences and walls and on driveways where they are not in the way.
If the driveway adjoins the foundation of the house, plant
containers may be placed there.
Tops of garden or terrace walls are ideal places, too. Put small
pots and boxes on tall, narrow walls and large containers on
low, broad surfaces. Hanging plants of ivy geraniums in the sun
and fuchsias in the shade will cascade from walls, as they do in
the patios of Spain, Portugal, and Italy. On Rhodes, I recall a
fifteen-foot wall topped with a row of thirty gleaming green tin
cans full of roses and other flowers.
Think of what you can do with rooftops and sundecks where
considerable space is usually available. Here sun-loving plants,
like geraniums, most annuals, cacti, and succulents can be
grown, but, again, include large specimens for height to give a
garden feeling. A few large boxes and planters for trees and
shrubs are sufficient but be sure to include some evergreens for
year-round green.
Many gardeners like to insert container plants in flower borders
to introduce unusual specimens, such as tropicals in the North.
Large tubs can be set at the corners and small pots may be
scattered among the permanent flowering plants. One gardener
keeps a supply of potted pink Fiat Enchantress geraniums on hand
to fill bare spots in her wide borders, moving them about as
needed. Most of the geraniums are in four-inch clay pots, but
there are larger specimens for the center of each grouping. Make
sure their secure, sink pots a few inches into the ground.
You can always dress up the lamp post in your yard with
container plants at the base or you can suspend a hanging basket
of lantana, perhaps from the top. Ivy geraniums in an
old-fashioned black kettle are nice for the base. Bare posts
that support sectional roofs over patios or paved surfaces of
contemporary houses look more attractive if potted plants are
clustered around the bases or permanent boxes for plants are
built there. Try planting climbing ivy in a pot and train it to
climb the posts.
Novelty containers–donkey carts, wheelbarrows, and spinning
wheels–can be fun in some places, but, of course, such planters
must not be overdone. Usually they are set on lawns, on a
terrace or beside a gate or doorway. (If you life in a
neighborhood that has a house owners association check with them
first to see if this is allowed). Steps leading to a driveway or
street or to different levels in a garden can be emphasized with
pot plants. A few can be arranged at the top or at the base of
the stairs. And, there are other possibilities. Tree trunks cut
to the ground or left a few feet high make good pedestals for
large containers. In fact, this can be a solution to the problem
of what to do with a trunk too expensive to remove. If you have
a tree with heavy shade, why not construct a pretty sitting area
around it and decorate the space with containers of coleus, wax
and other begonias, caladiums, ferns and other shade-tolerant
plants.
These are just a few ideas for using container plants around
your house and garden. Use your imagination and have fun. Happy
Gardening!
Copyright © 2006 Mary Hanna All Rights Reserved.