Choosing and Combining Plants

Tips for creating harmonious container plants.

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• Gardening

By all means choose the flowers and other plants that please you most -- you will be living with them. But also select plants appropriate for the location.

Pots of daffodils, for example, can provide delightful accents along a walk, while a shallow bowl of lobelia would look better on top of a low wall. Following are some ideas for choosing and using container plants.

• Add a couple of tall plants to a pot holding a shorter variety, to create a pleasing vertical layering and help balance the plants and the container. Dracaena is a classic tall choice, or you might try salvia, geraniums, tall marigolds, or zinnias, depending on the size of the container you want to use.



• Let trailing plants spill over the rim of their container to soften the edges or give a luxuriant feel to a hanging basket. Good trailing plants are ivy geranium, alyssum, vinca, and lobelia.



• Create a focal point among a group of containers by using one large plant in its own large container.



• Put simple plants in ornate pots, such as those with richly sculptured surfaces or vivid glazes. Often a single variety works well. Obviously, the corresponding design principle is to put busy plants and complicated arrangements in simple pots. In both cases, the contrast directs attention to the plants.



• Mix leaf colors. Dusty miller is a favorite for adding color, as are coleus and sweet potato vine. You can put colored-leaf plants in a container with flowering plants, or use three or four varieties in a single container. Place the latter with a group of flowering plants in containers for an effective accent.



• Plant shrubs and evergreens in containers that you can place as movable borders along a walk, driveway, or terrace edge. Keep them trimmed to a height appropriate to the size of the container.



• Plant perennials. Most people choose annuals for containers, but in areas where winters are mild, you can plant perennials in containers and set the containers into the ground over the winter. Ask your local garden center if this is possible in your area. If you want to bring a container plant indoors for the winter, be sure it has a very sunny spot, or provide an electric grow bulb or fluorescent tube. In the early spring, prune back the plant and fertilize it.

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Before shipping out to Europe with the Army Air Corps during World War II, my father loaned his buddy $20. The two were assigned to different units and lost contact. Months later, my father's plane was shot down. Bleeding from shrapnel wounds, he bailed out and was greeted by German soldiers, who took him as a prisoner. After a long train ride, little food and days of forced marching, he arrived at his assigned stalag. As he entered the compound, he heard a familiar voice. "You cheapskate! You followed me all the way here for a measly $20?"

-- Bruce Ey

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