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Home Gardening Tip:  Creating Beautiful Containers

Want your patio to look like a garden magazine centerfold? Here are recommendations from Nick Tomlan, Senior Gardener, who is responsible for the drop-dead gorgeous containers in the Idea Garden:

● Choose the right container
If your pot will stay outside all year, use cast iron, wood, concrete, or the beautiful (and pricey) imported frost-resistant terra cotta from Impruneta, Italy. Place these pots where they can stay put for several years, since they are quite heavy. For seasonal arrangements, economical choices are plastic and other synthetics, glazed ceramic, and regular terra cotta.

Pot size depends on plant material. Allow plenty of room for root growth because a too-small container will stunt your plants.

Every pot needs at least one large drain hole, preferably several.

● Soil—go for the good stuff
Buy potting soil without added fillers. Don’t use dirt you dig up from your garden; it does not drain properly in a container.

Peat moss is not a renewable resource; while most potting soil is at least 40% peat, Longwood uses only 10% mixed with 30% compost, then combines that blend with potting soil mixtures like vermiculite, perlite, and composted pine bark. Read the bag carefully before you purchase soil.

● Select plants that work together with each other, and with your container
Scale. Most mistakes are made when people use small plants in big containers.

Color. Choose one plant that interests you, then build your palette from there. You could go with contrasting colors or keep the arrangement monochromatic.

Form and Texture. Create drama by using a variety of shapes and surfaces. Think about traits like smooth, coarse, fuzzy, serrated, cascading, spiky, columnar, weeping, and arching.

Quantity. Plant heavily at first, then “edit” as the season goes on.

Some of Tomlan’s favorite container plants are Cyperus papyrus (papyrus sedge),  any kind of succulents, Stipa tenuissima (Mexican feather grass), Colocasia (elephant ears), Centaurea cineraria 'Colchester White' (Dusty Miller), Eucalyptus, Coleus, Lantana, bananas, Plectranthus, Impatiens repens, bromeliads, Agave Americana (Century Plant), “and anything else with weird foliage!”

For that “wow!” factor, choose Xanthosoma 'Lime Zinger' (keep in a bit of shade or it will burn). Or try lotus—since it’s naturally a water plant, it should be in a pot with no drainage. Lotus is easy to care for and unexpected in a container.

● Care and feeding
Always, ALWAYS let plants dry between waterings. Don’t water just because it’s hot or sunny. Check the containers daily and when your plants do need water, give them a thorough soaking, making sure that water comes out the drain holes. Positioning your containers near a garden hose makes it easier to keep the plants properly watered—no watering cans to drag around.

It’s important to fertilize. Add slow-release fertilizer when potting up and again halfway through the season. Supplement with liquid feed a few times a month. Plants respond quickly to this, and tropical plants especially love it.

Place your containers in an appropriate location for the amount of sun the plants need.

To keep your containers looking their best, deadhead spent plants, prune aggressive ones, and eliminate anything that doesn’t add to the composition.

● Plan ahead
Empty, clean, and store seasonal containers before the first hard frost. Year-round pots should have plants at least one to two zones hardier than where you live. 

Think about what worked well and what you would want to do differently. Then start browsing through those plant catalogs and nursery websites so you can start planning for next year!

Here are some of Nick Tomlan’s favorite websites:
 http://www.landcraftenvironment.com
 http://www.plantdelights.com
 http://www.logees.com