Q: Mother’s Day is May 11, and I want to give my mom flowers because she loves them and instilled a love of plants in me. I don’t have a green thumb or much money, but I want to show my love by buying some plants and putting them together in some pots I know she likes. Can you give me some tips to make them look better?
A: Isn’t it wonderful to be inspired by our mothers? My mother’s green thumb is so good she could probably grow petrified wood.
Here are a few simple rules for creating pretty container gardens. First, imagine the plant shapes. There will be an accent plant that is taller than the rest that we call the thriller. Then there will be something filling the space around the top of the pot—the fillers. Third, plants cascading over the sides are called spillers. Each of these three areas (thrillers, fillers, and spillers) will be created from different plants.
Next, we look at the visual textures. In other words, some of the leaves will be big and blocky like coarse-textured sandpaper, and other leaves will be tiny and close together like fine sandpaper. Course and fine visual textures create interest for the eye, even if the mind doesn’t seem to notice.
Finally, look at the plant’s color. In the beginning, try using similar colors. There should be some continuity. A red flowering plant could be next to a plant with red on its leaves. The colors of the rainbow are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Just call the last two purple. Try doing several pots in one color scheme. Pick a color as the main color and only use it and the two colors next to it in the rainbow. For example, if you picked yellow, you would use orange and green. A pot with red as the main color could use orange and purple, and so on. You could pick the main flower color based on the flowerpot’s color or a color used in the fabric of the patio furniture or on the trim of the house to tie them all in.
Alternatively, you can pick a main color and use the color opposite it on the rainbow or color wheel.
These combinations of red and green, yellow and purple, and orange and blue are complementary colors that can be very visually stimulating. Using white variegated and silver-leaved plants in each container can also help tie all the containers together visually.
Choose plants that have the best shapes, textures, and colors to mix and match in your containers. Before you buy them, look to be sure that they all require the same growing conditions. You can’t expect a plant that likes to grow in dry, sunny conditions to do well in the same pot as a plant that needs moisture and shade.
You can use vegetables and herbs in the pots. Cascades of small tomatoes, large colorful peppers, colored basil leaves, and ferny leaves of fennel can all add new colors and textures to standard flowerpots.
Fill the pots with a soil mix sold for container plants, not garden soil. Leave at least a half-inch of room at the top of the pot above the soil so it can hold water. When you water a pot that is too full of soil, not enough water soaks into the soil and the roots.
Flowerpots are often considered seasonal, but they don’t have to be. Evergreens, perennials, and ornamental grasses can all be planted in them and saved until the next year or planted in the garden in the fall. Of course, a plant that is treated as a tender annual up north may be a perennial or shrub down south. If you want to overwinter perennial plants in a northern garden, you will probably have to move them to a protected location so the soil doesn’t dry out too much and the roots stay cold, but not excessively cold.
Long, narrow window box pots don’t have to be hung in windows. Their long, skinny shape can be used on top of deck railings if the railing is wide enough and sturdy enough. They can also be used on a patio or deck to divide large spaces into more intimate room-sized spaces. Use the boxes to make a horseshoe-shaped area around a couple of deck chairs and accent the corners with taller pots to make a small room on the patio.
Don’t worry too much about your choices, because for moms who love plants, anything in a pot will look beautiful.
