contained,contained, but unrestrained this container by dennis’ 7 dees combines several grasses,...

Contained, but unrestrained

This container by Dennis’ 7 Dees combines several grasses, perennials and annuals to dazzling effect, including Hebe ‘Caledonia’, Heuchera ‘Pinot Gris’, Carex ‘Sparkler’, Cordyline ‘Cherry Sensation’, Primrose ‘Ballerina Amethyst Ice’, Primrose Obconica Mix, and bleeding heart (Lamprocapnos spectabilis). Photo by curt kiPP

24 april 2014 ▲ DiGGEr

Gardening in pots, boxes and hanging baskets offers limitless planting possibilities

Contained, but unrestrained

april 2014 ▲ DiGGEr 25

By Elizabeth PetersenGardening in containers is as old

as civilization, and yet its appeal among gardeners is as fresh as ever.

It’s no wonder. In places constricted by space or climate challenges, contain-ers allow gardeners to grow flowers, food and foliage where they otherwise couldn’t.

In short, containers allow gardeners to garden.

Those who want to try their hand at gardening in pots, hanging baskets or boxes can count on local garden centers and designers to guide them through the basics of the process. These experienced container artists offer instruction along with the best new plants to create never-before-seen combinations.

Garland Nursery in Corvallis, Ore., offers classes and events to help cus-tomers create attractive combinations. Landscape architect Lee Powell co-owns the garden center. He advises customers to pick containers first, and then comple-ment them with plant combinations that provide drama and excitement.

“The conventional wisdom of using thrillers, fillers and spillers is a great way to communicate the basic principles of container design to customers,” Powell said. “A mixed container should not only look great, but also include plant choices that reflect the owner’s personality.” At Garland, most customers still compose their containers by combining small shrubs, perennials and annual color.

Sunflower Acres Farm & Garden in Salem, Ore., specializes in custom container and hanging basket design for residential and business customers. Co-owner Crystal Cady explained that her design team consults with clients on colors, plant preferences and placement, and then develops an individual plan for each client’s needs. Sunflower Acres also offers maintenance services to keep con-tainers looking beautiful.

“The standard design theory need not apply to all planters,” Cady said. “I like to look ahead at how plants will grow as the seasons change, and what I can do to keep planters looking full and prime all year long.”

Cady’s clients who opt for sea-


sonal containers usually pick three or four designs a year, timed to make the most of each seasonal change. Early spring designs need to span February to May, so plants have to handle the vaga-ries of late winter weather, which alter-nately hints of spring and sneaks in a hard frost. “Selected plants have to take a frost or harden off well,” Cady said.

An early-season combination might include primulas, pansies and cyclamen for color; sedums and varieties of low-growing euonymus fill the need for foli-age; and heucheras contribute texture.

Cady also likes to use edible plants with colorful, textured foliage, such as chard and kale.

Jennifer Williams, merchandiser for Dennis’ 7 Dees in the Portland metro area, thinks planters should accessorize the garden with the owner’s style.

“The thrillers, fillers and spillers rec-

ipe is a good place to start for beginners to get them thinking about container design,” Williams said. “After a while, you can see the light bulb go on.”

Evergreens and perennials make good investments for containers, Williams said, since they can be planted in a permanent site when they outgrow their spaces.

In Bend, Ore., customers at Landsystems Nursery need both plant combinations and containers that do well in central Oregon’s high desert.

“In Central Oregon, you need big planters,” said Cindy Jeffers, Landsystems’ nursery manager. “Besides holding enough moisture that roots don’t dry out in summer, pots have to be big enough to provide adequate protection for the roots of evergreens and perenni-als during winter months.”

Landsystems carries high-quality

▲ turninG GrEEn into GolD ▲ crEativE containErs

This moptop box by Sunflower Acres gets its look from centerpiece Carex ‘Toffee Twist’, surrounded by Senecio cineraria ‘Silverdust’, Sedum ‘Cape Blanco’, Heuchera ‘Sugar Berry’ and Pansy ‘Delta Blue Blotch’. Photo courtesy of crystal cady/sunflower acres


pottery that will withstand freezing and thawing well. Perennials that return year after year include ‘Hot Lips’ and other salvias, veronicas and dark-leaved heucheras, golden bleeding hearts and hostas. Agastache ‘Blue Fortune’ pro-duces tall blooms for a long season and comes back well. Helenium ‘Mardi Gras’ is great, and Hebes work well as annuals, Jeffers said. Grasses provide a long sea-son of interest too, even in winter.

“People use a lot of row cover to get a head start on the growing season,” Jeffers said. Flowers need a head start so they have time to mature, since it isn’t considered safe to plant them in Central Oregon until Memorial Day weekend.

Creativity is keyDiscerning customers are moving

away from geraniums in summer planters and ornamental kale for fall.

They want lots of color from flowers and foliage.

“My clients want plants and combi-nations that are unique,” Cady said.

Cady usually includes some tried-and-true plant material, but “I like to think outside the box and design with less commonly used plants that I know will do well. I want plants that stop people in their tracks,” she said.

“I incorporate trees or shrubs in any way I can,” she said. Using a small shrub like Ceanothus ‘Diamond Heights’ as a spiller creates a special look.

The Tiny Treasures line at Youngblood Nursery and other small, narrow trees and shrubs, such as Rhamnus ‘Fine Line’, make compelling choices for containers.

Cady’s clients also request year-round elements in their containers. They want plants that provide a pop of

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This free-flowing container by Sunflower Acres combines Matteuccia ‘The King’, Brunnera ‘Looking Glass’, Fuchsia magellanica ‘Aurea’, Heuchera ‘Georgia Peach’ and Lysimachia nummularia ‘Aurea’. Photo courtesy of crystal cady/sunflower acres


▲ crEativE containErs

Bursts of color are the key to this container by Sunflower Acres, combining Ilex ‘Sky Pencil’, Cordyline ‘Cardinal’, Heuchera ‘Sugar Plum’, Lysimachia nummularia ‘Aurea’, Fuchsia ‘Koralle’, Geranium ‘Rocky Mountain Tangerine’, Verbena ‘Tukana Raspberry’ and Nemesia ‘Juicy Fruit Kumquat’. Photo by crystal cady/sunflower acres


color in summer, yet look good all sea-son and are easy to maintain.

Among her favorite hardy plants for year-round interest are Carex flagel-lifora ‘Toffee Twist’, Muhlenbeckia and Heuchera selections.

Williams has noticed an increase in popularity of more sophisticated, stylized designs. These can be large, statement pieces with more permanent elements. The classic Northwest/Asian style — understated yet dramatic, pleas-ing to the eye, harmonious and sooth-ing — might include a Japanese maple with a bed of moss.

Mediterranean-style containers with blades of Phormium and herbs like rose-mary, lavender, sage and thyme come and go, depending largely on winter weather and the survival of these more tender plants.

A modern look is also gaining

in popularity, Williams said. Instead of combinations, gardeners might go monochromatic, like all white, or cre-ate harmonized, balanced combinations that include chartreuse or dark foliage in place of flowers.

“Inserts are very popular,” she said. “It would be great to have standardized inserts for gardeners to easily drop into larger pots.”

In the mood for food“Edibles in containers are huge,”

according to Powell.He recommended combining dwarf

fruiting shrubs with small-fruited straw-berries. In such a design, one could use newly introduced fruiting shrubs such as ‘Sunshine Blue’ or Bountiful Blue™ blueberries, or Raspberry Shortcake™

— a compact, thornless raspberry that thrives in patio pots. Any of these

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Daffodils, poppies and oxalis resonate from this upturned bell-shaped container planted by Dennis' 7 Dees. Photo by Peter szymczak


should mix well with strawberries such as ‘Mignonette’, ‘Pink Panda’ or Alpine.

Williams also noted that food plants are in demand for containers, espe-cially blueberries in the BrazelBerries® line (Peach Sorbet™, Jelly Bean™ and Blueberry Glaze™).

“We couldn’t keep them in stock last year,” she said. “#2 is the most popular size for both good production and a good price point.”

Columnar fruit trees like Scarlet Sentinel™ apple or Golden Glory “Patio” peach work well in containers, and they can be combined with annual flowers for color, too, Powell said.

He expects the popularity of mixed veggie containers to grow. Customers like to combine an heirloom cherry tomato like Chocolate Cherry with a hot pepper like Ghost, or a miniature bell pepper, with a dwarf, miniature-leaved

basil or cilantro for an attractive and delicious summer container.

Newfangled flowers As a grower of the Hort Couture

brand of plants for independent garden centers, Cady has found a perfect place for them in her container designs.

The line of annuals, perennials, edibles and tropicals offers many fash-ionable choices, including a series of violas with delicate, bunny ear flowers called Hip Hop™ violas. Cady said these plants have great trailing habits without getting leggy. In 2013, three selections hit the scene: Cranbunny, Honeybunny and Bluebunny.

Last season, Sunflower Acres was the only grower/garden center in Oregon to carry the new Nemesia from Hort Couture, N. Parfum™ ‘Cherries a la Mode’. With striking red and white flow-ers, it performed well and is on Cady’s list of “must-have” plants for 2014.

Williams recommends the new, sterile introductions of foxglove for fabu-lous tropical colors in containers. Since Digitalis ‘Illumination Flame’ doesn’t set seed, it flowers for an incredibly long time, and the half-hardy semi-evergreen will produce flowers for years — if it sur-vives the winter. Exotic tubular blooms are densely packed on sturdy stems with many side branches, making a striking addition to summer containers and pro-viding a good source for cut flowers.

For hanging baskets, Williams point-ed to new introductions of Begonia boli-viensis. These dense, compact plants can take sun or shade, and they bloom vig-orously all season without deadheading.

“Begin with small premium annual starts, and pair them with foliage plants like sweet potato vine or Tradescantia pallida (syn. Setcreasea pallida),” Williams recommended. The Bonfire™ series of begonias boasts outstanding consumer performance, finishes quickly under long days, and makes a welcome addition to large pot and basket programs.

‘Bonfire Scarlet’ and ‘Bonfire Orange’ have semi-trailing habits and green foli-age. ‘Bonfire Chocolate Red’ has a more


Contrasting leaf shapes and colors define this container by Sunflower Acres: included are Euonymus ‘Greenspire’, Euphorbia ‘Helena’s Blush’, Senecio cineraria ‘Silverdust’, Heuchera ‘Obsidian’, Ceanothus ‘Diamond Heights’ and Pansy ‘Antique Shades’. Photo by crystal cady/sunflower acres


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Foliage favorites“Anything with stunning foliage

seems to be a big hit,” Cady said. The summer season offers plenty of oppor-tunities to experiment with fun, leafy plants, such as the Under the Sea® line of Coleus from Hort Couture.

“They are like no others,” she said. C. ‘Electric Coral’, for instance, has dramatically lobed leaves of red and chartreuse with an upright, mounding

This container by Dennis' 7 Dees includes just-opening Narcissus 'Bridal Crown', along with Narcissus ‘Martinette’, golden spike moss (Selaginella ‘Aurea’), variegated shield fern (Arachniodes simplicolor ‘Variegata’), Heuchera ‘Little Cutie Blonde’, Heuchera ‘Peach Flambe’, and chocolate creeping Jenny (Lysmachia nummularia ‘Chocolate’). Photo by curt kiPP


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habit that works great in mixed contain-ers. Cady described it as a “thriller” with bright, colorful foliage that people love.

The coleus collection has names that convey the colors and textures found in the sea: ‘Gold Anemone’, ‘Hermit Crab’, ‘Lime Shrimp’ and ‘Yellow Fin Tuna’.

Williams expressed a fondness for fuchsias with dramatic foliage like ‘Golden Gypsy’. This vigorous plant features bright chartreuse foliage with reddish stems and double pink and lavender flowers. She also noted that gardeners favor the trailing fuchsia ‘Autumnale’ for its gold, orange and purple-flushed foliage.

Succeeding with succulents Succulents, both hardy and ten-

der, are more popular than ever for containers.

“Named varieties of sempervivums combined with small foliage sedums make for low water, low care contain-ers,” Powell said.

Garland also saw a large increase in the sales of tropical succulents last year.

“We put together beautiful Echeveria, Aeonium and Kalanchoe, and encourage our customers to bring them indoors for the winter,” he said.

Williams likes to pair succulents with other plants. She said she would like to see growers produce succulents, espe-cially tender ones, more consistently.

“I like to use the tender succulents as annuals in mixed containers — the added dramatic texture and flowers are well worth it,” she said. “If people can’t bear to toss them out in the fall, they can bring them indoors as houseplants.”

For adding color to hanging baskets or containers, she recommended the new trailing jade from Monrovia called Calico Kitten Crassula. It has dramatic foliage and color: heart-shaped leaves come in shades of rose, pink, cream and green.

Elizabeth Petersen writes for the garden industry and teaches SAT/ACT test prep at www.satpreppdx.com. She can be reached at [email protected] or [email protected].


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