Containers
Nan over at GGW has started a new design topic–sigh. Containers. Rather a sore point for me because I very much admire containers that are well done, but I don’t have the design savoir-faire to pull them off myself, except occasionally by accident. However, in looking through my photos, I see many examples of much better gardeners than I am who don’t pull them off very well either.
Here is a bit of a jumble of pots at the Nathaniel Russell House Museum in Charleston. Very pretty, no doubt, when full of flowers at the end of March as here, but hardly a triumph of design.
Here, on the other hand, is the window box on my garden shed about a week ago. Small violas, which don’t need nearly as much deadheading as big pansies, complementary colors, self-watering (from Gardeners Supply Company and, much to my surprise, the self-watering feature actually works). The perfect unpretentious window box? Well, no. If you look closely, you will see that I never cleaned off the black mold that covers the white box. And the lamium has rotting dead leaves that should be picked off every time I happen by there. Pretty uncouth, really.
Here’s a vista in a Savannah town garden that I feel has pros and cons. The pro is that a formal design is undoubtedly appropriate for a small walled garden. Also, that semi-circle of dwarf mondo grass (Ophiopogon japonicus) is low-maintenance and attractive year round.
On the other hand the boxwoods that outline the whole design are a real mistake. They’ll get much too big and will need to be pruned viciously approximately every 3 minutes to keep them in bounds. I really hate that pillar, apparently pilfered from an Italian villa. And that trellis is pretty pointless until some vine grows up it.
The containers are just plain dull. That heuchera is all very well now (early April), but it will turn to mush in the heat of summer after putting out some straggly, pathetic flowers.
To be continued….
Great post! I love container plantings, but they seem to fizzle out quickly for me. I’m looking forward to this topic so hopefully I can have them last through the summer.
Comment by Robin — March 1, 2008 @ 2:09 pm
Mine fizzle too. Great way to describe it. I think I should be more compulsive about deadheading the geraniums.
Comment by karen — March 2, 2008 @ 7:51 am
I was admiring the last photo and then had to laugh out loud when I read your reaction to it. I had just the opposite reaction. I was immediately attracted to the column. I liked its sensuous curves. I also liked the trellis in front of the wall greenery. I like the contrast of texture, the formal look, and the way the trellis provides a focus, almost a window to an otherwise ordinary ivied wall.
I don’t think much of the two little pots or the cutesy turtle.
Comment by mss @ Zanthan Gardens — March 6, 2008 @ 2:21 pm
And I laughed out loud at your reaction! I hadn’t even noticed the turtle. I agree that the contrast between metal and stone is nice, but I can’t see the trellis as a metaphorical window when it’s got a great big column in front of it. We shall have to agree to disagree.
Comment by karen — March 7, 2008 @ 7:56 am
[…] Containers (Karen at Savannah Garden Diary): Karen points out that even successful gardeners sometimes aren’t the best at making the most of container plantings. […]
Pingback by Gardening Gone Wild » Blog Archive » GBDW - Container Plantings Wrap-Up — March 31, 2008 @ 11:40 am
Nice post. I agree that the last picture is a little too fussy.
Comment by Lisa at Greenbow — March 31, 2008 @ 3:12 pm
That was a great post. I will have to bookmark this site so I can read it later.
Comment by Growing Lights — July 25, 2008 @ 11:59 am