festival burgundy cordyline

A couple posts back, I talked about hot garden trends for 2012. One of them was the movement toward Mediterranean garden style.

The style, as explained by North Coast Gardening blogger Genevieve Schmidt, often features open and airy courtyards, light-colored, textured hardscaping such as mosaic walls, gravel beds or unglazed terra cotta pots. The style also is known for its low-growing, drought-tolerant plants, hedges, topiary trees and vines (i.e. olive, bay and lemon trees, succulents, lavender, palms, roses and grasses).

Well, there were a bunch of Mediterranean garden images I couldn't fit in that last post, so here they are:

Photo courtesy Genevieve Schmidt

Photo courtesy Genevieve Schmidt, designed by Lynda Pozel 

Euphorbia and purple salvia; designed by Lynda Pozel. Photo courtesy Genevieve Schmidt

Little bluestem grass (left), phormium (New Zealand flax, right). Photo courtesy Genevieve Schmidt

Festival Burgundy cordyline (spiky and dark red, in middle) with topiary tree, lemon tree and unglazed terra cotta pots featuring silver and white plants.

Snow Storm agapanthus (lily of the Nile) with unglazed terra cotta pot

Banks of Snow Storm agapanthus (lily of the Nile) and Flower Carpet roses (right).

How have you incorporated Mediterranean garden style into your landscape? Post a comment and tell me all about it. And you can email photos to lisa [dot] hutchursonbrandcool [dot] com.

So we were having our annual Cousins Christmas party yesterday - this year at the beautiful Rochester Civic Garden Center here in Rochester, NY. There, taking a break from the Cha-Cha Slide and Holiday Calorie Trough there in Warner Castle, built in 1854 to resemble a Scottish ancestral castle, I found myself wandering around and appreciating all the housplants adorning each room. And then I remembered: even though it's winter, we CAN still garden. Health and quality of life are huge right now — at least according to Trendwatching.

Inspired, I started remembering how much I love houseplants. Maybe it's the cold climate of Rochester, which I just found out is No. 2 in annual snowfall (right behind Syracuse, NY where I went to school!) Remember: houseplants not only purify and filter the air, removing allergens and impurities - they also pump out tons of mood-boosting oxygen!

So if you're not already into houseplants, pick up a few! You'd  be surprised how much a little green goes a long way indoors!

Here are a few from Warner Castle:

From left: beans growing up a trellis, rosemary and croton

A collection of succulents

Polkadot plant in a terrarium

And here are some great houseplants that have survived low-light consitions in my house:

Festival Burgundy cordyline (I just bring it in from the patio at the end of summer)

Bamboo palm

What houseplants are you crazy about? Post a comment, and tell me all about it!

Forget all those doomsday predictions about 2012. From the garden world’s perspective, life will continue to be good – with gardeners saving themselves water, hassles and misspent money. At least that’s according to several savvy garden experts and a leading garden trends survey.

Water-wise plants, products

(pictured here: Flower Carpet roses (center) and Festival Burgundy cordyline (either side)

Most on the minds of landscaping professionals right now are issues surrounding gardening and water, "whether it's the use of water or the cleaning of water," says Sharon Coates, co-owner of Zaretsky and Associates, a landscape design-and-build firm in Rochester, N.Y.

In light of recent droughts in places like Georgia, Texas and the Carolinas, people are trying to use the water they dohave more frugally, Coates explains. “People are making sure they’re watering responsibly, choosing plants that aren’t water hogs and putting rain sensors on their irrigation systems. They’re also making sure the irrigation is monitored so it’s not watering the driveway and sidewalk.”

Water-wise plants will also make the Mediterranean garden style (above) hot in 2012, says Genevieve Schmidt, a northern coastal California landscape designer and author of the North Coast Gardening blog. Mediterranean landscape design, she explains, often features open and airy courtyards, light-colored, textured hardscaping such as mosaic walls, gravel beds or unglazed terra cotta pots and low-growing, drought-tolerant plants, hedges, topiary trees and vines (i.e. olive, bay and lemon trees, succulents, lavender, palms, roses and grasses). “Of course, the vivid colors also help make this a winning style.”

Also, when it comes to cleaning the water, especially storm water carrying pollutants like fertilizers and motor oil into local waterways, many people are turning to rain gardens. “These shallow depressions are filled with deep-rooted plants and grasses­ — all of them noninvasive, native or locally adapted — that can handle being inundated with water and also don’t mind being dry,” Zaretsky and Associates’ Coates says.

“Many gardeners are catching their own rainwater in rain barrels and cleaning or recycling grey water (wastewater from domestic activities like laundry, dishwashing and bathing)” adds Anthony Tesselaar, cofounder and president of Tesselaar Plants. “In fact, in many municipalities now, saving water is not only ‘in’, but mandatory”.

Black and amber

Black and amber shades in plants continue to be a “hot” color trend, says North Coast Gardening’s Schmidt. “People have already been bewitched by the dark drama of black plants,” she explains, “and as they learn to design with them more effectively, they’ll only become more popular.”

Notable examples of popular dark plants include Petunia 'Black Velvet', Ipomoea (sweet potato vine) 'Blackie', Tropicanna Black cannas, Aeonium 'Zwartkop', black mondo grass, Colombine 'Black Barlow', Heuchera 'Black Beauty' and Hellebore 'Winter Dream.'

Amber shades, she adds, are also extremely popular – “amber heucheras, the amber Flower Carpet roses, and other plants with amber tones are going to be big in nurseries this year.”

Low-risk, high-value plants

(pictured here: mildew-resistant Volcano phlox)

Just as consumers are being more careful with their water usage, they’re also shopping smarter. In particular, they’re looking for low-risk, high-value plants that not only look good in the garden center, but have a tried-and-true reputation.

“Plants bred to withstand attacks from pests and diseases that are also tolerant of climate and soil extremes provide a better value,” says Tesselaar (developer of the low-maintenance, disease- and drought-resistant Flower Carpet^® roses, Festival^™ Burgundy cordyline, Storm^™ agapanthus and Volcano^®phlox). “Gardeners are more aware than ever that choosing the right plant for the right situation is imperative if you want to help save the planet — let alone your bank balance.”

For as little as $15 to $25, for instance, you can have long-term color without a lot of expense by using continuously flowering shrubs like Flower Carpet roses, hydrangeas, potentilla (shrubby cinquefoil) and spirea. Or, if your garden already has plenty of beautiful structure, use such colorful, flowering machines to dress up these ‘good bones.’”

Smaller water features

More and more people are moving away from large ponds and toward smaller water features, says Coates: “Now people prefer a cut piece of stone, a boulder or a beautiful glazed urn with water bubbling out of the top.”

Coates thinks it’s a maintenance issue: “People either have to be really into ponds and all the maintenance they take, or they have to hire someone to do it for them.”

What’s more, says Schmidt, fountains made with natural stone or metal are hotter sellers than features made of manmade materials. “The ball-shaped fountains made of stone are very big this year,” she says, “and I think that copper and other metals are coming into fashion as accents in fountains and as materials for planting containers.”

Seasonal interest

In colder areas, where the blooms are gone and deciduous leaves have fallen, Coates is seeing more people keep their ornamental grasses instead of cutting them back, so they can provide winter interest. For the same reason, they’re looking for plants with winter berries, evergreens, barks of different colors and textures or deciduous trees and shrubs with dramatic forms. But they’re also adding plants that change with the seasons, offering new interest with each.

“Customers have grown tired of the stark, all-season gardens that were so fashionable a decade ago,” Tesselaar says. “Every garden needs its backbone of plants that look great year round, but that doesn’t have to be at the expense of seasonal interest and color.”

More front yard gardens

The number of front yard gardens is also on a steady rise (29 percent in 2011, compared to 27 percent in 2010 and 25 percent in 2009), according to the Garden Trends Research Report’s Early Spring 2011 survey (conducted for the Garden Writers Association Foundation). Meanwhile, the number of backyard gardens has taken a 3-percent hit, down from 50 percent in 2009 and 2010.

Gardening “up”

Vertical gardening is also on the rise, as documented in the new, popular book Garden Up! Smart Vertical Gardening for Small and Large Spacesby California garden designers Susan Morrison and Rebecca Sweet. The practice of growing plants up from the ground instead of out, or of planting them off the ground to start with—on trellises, arbors, balconies and walls—has become especially popular among those with small spaces, landscape eyesores or an awkward “skinny spot” in their garden.

But Coates also notes the growth of a different kind of “gardening up” – green roofs.

“Green roofs have definitely seen more of a commercial application and have been done in mostly urban areas, but they’re still a huge trend,” she says. “Green roofs help save on heating and cooling costs and actually protect the roof underneath from the degrading effects of the elements, so cities have received tax incentives for green roof installations.” Some cities, like Toronto and Chicago, are even starting to require green roofs on some new buildings, based on the square footage.

Winter 2011-2012 is well on its way, with areas of the Northeast already socked with snow. Whether you have snow on the ground or not, however, late fall to early winter is the time to get garden plants like these ready for the cold:

Flower Carpet^®roses

Transplanting. If you live in a warm climate (Zones 7 and higher), you can transplant your carpet roses any time (with the exception of excessively hot and dry locales, in which you shouldn’t transplant from July through September). If you live in a colder climate (Zones 6 and lower), the end of October was the latest you should have been transplanting carpet roses. Just hold off on transplanting until early next spring, when the plant’s still dormant but the soil is workable and warmer days are coming. (Doing this chore on St. Patrick’s Day is a good way of remembering when to do it in the North!)

Pruning. For those living in steadily warm, but not desert-like, areas, late fall to early winter is the ideal time for pruning That’s when flowering is at its lowest and leaves look their rattiest. Trim the plant back by at least half and as small as a basketball immediately before transplanting (pruning stimulates active growth). Water and wait about two to three weeks to feed. In colder climates, if you didn’t get to it before late October, hold off till St. Patrick’s Day (see above). 

Overwintering containers. In warm climates, you can just keep carpet roses in their pot, provided the container is at least 20 inches in diameter. Then just trim the roses back at the appropriate time (see above).

In cold climates, you can just wait for them to start going dormant (around Thanksgiving). Then, pack them closely together into a cool, dry (but not freezing) place like your garage or basement and get them up off the ground (they should be in pots at least 20 inches across and 20 inches deep and provide drainage). Some people like to cover them with hay or burlap for extra protection. Those without a garage can mound them up over the top with hay. Don’t cut back or prune them at this time.

Tropicanna^® cannas

Overwintering. In Zones 7 and higher, wait for leaves to start dying back, then cut back foliage to the soil. In Zones 3 and lower, wait until frost starts killing leaves, turning them  brown or black. Cut the stalks back to about 6 inches, then dig up the rhizomes, being careful not to injure them. Brush off loose soil and let rhizomes dry. Nestle rhizomes into closed boxes or plastic bags full of peat moss (with holes punched in them for air circulation). Store rhizomes in a cool, dry place (not freezing). Cannas grown in containers can be stored in their pots, too.

Festival™ Burgundy cordyline

Overwintering. In Zones 8b and higher, just leave Festival Burgundy cordyline in its pot or in the ground for the winter.In colder areas, it can be brought inside and overwintered as a houseplant. Put it in a window with good light (south-facing exposures are usually the best). For more on overwintering Festival Burgundy cordyline, see this video by Dave Epstein of GrowingWisdom.com.

Volcano^® phlox

Overwintering. Cut back to 4 or 5 inches and remove all dead leaves. Mulch to remove any lingering powdery mildew (Volcano phlox are mildew tolerant, which means they may get mildew, but they won’t die and it generally doesn’t affect the blooms). In areas with hard freezes, protect with mulch, pine straw or leaves to protect from ground heaves. In spring and again in summer, feed with time-release fertilizer.

We know gardening makes us feel good, but did you know it can actually improve our health in many tangible ways? Here are some healthy "side effects" of digging in the dirt, according to Australia's Nursery and Garden Industry (NGIA):

Improved concentration and memory

Being around plants indoors helps people concentrate better at home and in the workplace. Studies show that tasks performed while under the calming influence of nature are performed better and with greater accuracy, yielding a higher-quality result. Moreover, being outside in a natural environment can improve memory performance and attention span by 20 percent!

Greater happiness

Having flowers around the home and office greatly improves people's moods and reduces the likelihood of stress-related depression. Aside from their mood-boosting beauty and psychological reminder of "life," flowers and ornamental plants continually pump fresh oxygen into the air, making people feel alert and refreshed, yet secure and relaxed.

Improved air quality

Trees sequester carbon from the atmosphere, improving air quality and reducing our carbon footprint. Trees and landscaping also help to absorb pollutants and particles in the air, serving as a natural filtration system. Indoors, this is especially important when it comes to reducing allergies and sickness.

Increased exercise

If you're involved in a physical activity that's more like a hobby, you're less inclined to think of all that movement as "work" or something you "have to do." And with diabetes and other weight-related illnesses on the rise, an increasing number of people have to find ways to work exercise into their regular routine. Access to parks and recreational activities, by the way, has been positively correlated with rates of physical activity, which in turn improves mood and health. It's also a great proactive way to reduce your health care costs in the future.

So get out the trowel and play in the dirt! You might be surprised at just how good you feel!

It’s the end of another year – and another budget-busting holiday season

So as we wait for January’s slew of mail-order gardening catalogs, it’s time once again to dream – and strategize: How can we afford gardening in 2011?

Here are a few ideas I’ve come up with, after looking at my own walloped wallet and a few consumer trends.

1. Invest in the workhorses

^{Hanging basket of shade-loving Bonfire® begonias}

Gone are the days of primadonna perennials and one-trick ponies that provide interest for maybe a week while they bloom and then don’t pull their weight the rest of the season. Taking their place are plants that offer long-term benefits, save time or money or prevent problems down the road. In other words, buying smart isn't always about money. Instead, it's about finding the best value for your dollar.

For instance, does a drought-tolerant plant that costs 20 percent more than its similar counterpart worth the purchase because you can go on vacation and not have to find a plant-sitter? Can the price for a season-long-blooming shrub be amortized over several years because it boosts the resale value of your home? Does the $40 hanging basket also work in the shade or save space in a downsized or urban dwelling?

2. Take advantage of freebies

^{Flower Carpet® roses with free fertilizer sachet}

TV talk shows have been abuzz the past few months about ways to find free stuff.  Online, you can find free (or at least cheap) gardening products at www.all-free-samples.com, www.freecycling.org, eBay and Craigslist. The iVillage Garden Web forum also lists a variety of links to garden exchanges and trades at http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/exchind/ (or you can Google “plant swap” and your town and state to find plant swaps or similar exchanges in your area). Try to see if any garden plants or products throw in a little something extra to make your purchase worth it. Flower Carpet^® roses, for instance, come with a free sachet of fertilizer perfectly formulated for success.

3. Think “multi-use”

^{Festival™ Burgundy cordyline - overwintering indoors as a houseplant}

Can a garden perennial double as a houseplant, helping to beautify the indoors, boost moods and improve indoor air quality? Can it provide healthy, chemically free food for the family and save on the grocery bills? Can it even become a gift for someone else?

Container plants that can easily be carried in from the patio to serve as a wintertime houseplant are a smart buy, especially in colder climates. For instance, Festival™ Burgundy cordyline offers extreme drought-tolerance and season-long architectural interest, texture and colorful foliage. But it also overwinters nicely indoors as a houseplant.

Why choose between growing ornamentals and edible?  Choose plants that are both! I particularly like lovely leaved, colorful edibles like kale and ‘Bright Lights’ swiss chard.  I can’t say enough good things about ornamental kale – which not only handles drought well, but is growing through the snow on my Rochester, NY front porch right now. Plus, adding fresh, raw produce to your diet improves digestive health and gives you a more youthful, beautiful appearance.

Wondering what the heck to do with raw kale? Here's a recipe from Bob Greene's 'Best Life Diet':

Raw Garlicky Kale

2 Tbs. tahini

4 cloves roasted garlic

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

1 Tbs. water

1/8 tsp. salt

Fresh, red hot pepper to taste

4 cups raw, well-washed kale, cut into extremely thin strips lengthwise

Toss all ingredients except kale in food processor. Toss kale and tahini dressing together, and serve immediately or refrigerate several hours before serving.

You can even use plants as no-cost, personal gifts in a pinch. For instance, this Christmas, I’m giving gardening members of my family who love my Tropicanna^® cannas some of the rhizomes I dug up for winter.

4. “Green” on the tag = green in your pocket

^{The new Soleil™ petunia – "the petunia that lives on a glass of water"}

Drought-tolerant and pest- and disease-resistant plants not only cut your spending on water and chemicals – they reduce or eliminate the risk of having to replace a dead plant! 

Look for eco-tags that equate the purchase of the plant to a real-life environmental benefit or displays featuring water-wise or no-spray plants.

5. Put your smartphone to use

^{GardenPilot® app on smartphone}

Got a smartphone? Get it out of your pocket and use it to find out which garden center in your area is carrying the item you want at the best price. GardenPilot®, for instance is a great app that allows you to comparatively shop for the best prices in town. 

Well, here's wishing you another year of smart and easy gardening – so you can spend more of your time and money on whatever's most important to you (even if it's well … more gardening)!

The following guest post is from Phillip Townshend, global operations director for the Australia-based Tesselaar Plants. Phillip regularly posts wonderful stories, info and photos from his horticultural travels around the world.

Well, I've finally arrived back in Australia after 3 weeks freezing in the Northern Hemisphere.

During this trip, I had the opportunity to visit Longwood Gardens (just outside of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania), which was great and saw some amazing material – especially this chrysanthemum, which is a single plant trained in a style known in Japan as the "Thousand Bloom."

The name refers to the number of blooms and the symmetry and beauty found in the perfect half dome shape. It has taken over 14 months for the plant to grow to this size and they have already started work on next year’s display material.

It was also great to see some of our Festival™ Burgundy cordyline (dark-red, strappy, glossy foliage) in the conservatory at Longwood doing well in the tropical conditions.

Here are some some other images taken at Longwood of the various parts of the garden. The green (or "living") wall in the last image is apparently the longest green wall structure in the world (at least this is what they claim, but I am yet to verify). But it looked great!

Desert oasis garden with drought-tolerant plants

Greenery-covered arches along roadway

Dianella Tasmanica variegata 

Gigantic lily pads

Sculpted topiaries

Green ("living") wall

Happy fall! 

So last week, I walk into my cousin's house to drop off a birthday present, and the place is all decorated for Halloween, top to bottom. A black witch-and-bats decal set drifted its way spookily up the stairway wall. Faux black ravens sat perched atop four wall sconces in the family room. The entryway's two console tables featured perfect little vignettes of a witch's cauldron (with lit, fluttering-fabric flame), scattered fall leaves, Gothic candlesticks and even a bottle of wine with a black-and-white spider-themed label (my cousin, of course, made it with her own custom label-maker).

So I drove to my house and went down in the basement, shuffling around for fall decorations. The pickings were slim – just two plug-in Halloween Jack-o-lanterns, designed for the seasonally-lazy like me. 

That's when it hit me – I could make my own – out of everyday, cheap or foraged materials. Here are some of the ideas I came up with. Feel free to steal a few and save yourself some time and cash:

 Foraged florals

For this autumn-themed floral arrangement, I just hit up some of my garden and forest favorites for flowers, leaves and berries. In this vase are my amber-colored Next Generation Flower Carpet^® roses, red sumac panicles, the rainbow-tinged leaves of ColorFlash^® astilbe, rose hips (the small orange berries – found 'em in the woods behind our housing development), Tropicanna^® canna and Tropicanna Black leaves and Festival^® Burgundy cordyline (the long, dark-red, strappy foliage used as an accent – see pic below).

The 'ol bowl o' fruit trick

Everyone has a bowl, right? And everyone needs to eat more fruit, right? And don't they always have a big honkin' bowl of fruit in the middle of those magazine shots of designer kitchens? Plus, the colors and organic, rounded shapes are always needed in great design. Plus, I have to admit, it's a lot easier to justify to myself (and my husband) that I didn't blow money on fancy decorations. I just wanted to buy my loving family some wholesome, healthy fruit (sniff)! (In the fall, it should be noted, try to go for fall colors and textures - the reds of apples and pomegranates, the rusts, oranges and yellows of mangoes, the purples of grapes and plums and the golds and browns of pears. I prefer no green, especially the lighter spring greens (although I've seen plenty of designers successfully pair them with purples and plums in fall. Plus, seasonal fruits and vegetables that are green like artichokes,grapes, apples and pears are, in fact, seasonally appropriate).

Mini pumpkins in the bookshelves

Here's an old decorator trick I picked up from my home-and-garden writer days. Just buy a few mini pumpkins in different colors (I bought a bag of them for $3 at a farm market!) and switch them in for other items in your bookshelves (or your mantel, or entertainment center, or console table, etc.) I wouldn't advise using the gourds shaped like swans or geese or whatever they're supposed to be. They just look kinda weird and fall over.

Pumpkin vignettes

After trying to put a pumpkin each in front of the brick-based lampposts flanking my driveway and just having them look … awkward, my husband suggested we simply set them in the now-pooped, kidney-shaped landscaping beds on our front lawn. I laughed at Hubby's humble little attempt to come up with something aesthetically pleasing. But I was hardly able to blurt out, "you're an engineer … you don't DO design!" before he came up with the prettiest little pumpkin vignettes in the whole wide world (one big, red, warty thing with a cluster of smaller pumpkins and gourds around it – $36 total, from our traditional day-at-the-pumpkin-patch with Maya, now 3). I might still use the plug-in-pumpkins on the porch for Halloween, but from now on, I will use this fall design scheme in my yard. And probably take all the credit for the idea.

Haute highway weeds

Even the humblest of roadside plants can look sophisticated when grouped en masse (used just by themselves; no mixed bouquets). At least that's the Euro-chic way to go about it. I found these reeds, with their plumy, silvery-grey seedheads, swaying in the sunshine on the wetland trails behind my sister's property. But I've also seen them growing on roadsides everywhere. (Note: I wish I'd brought garden gloves or thought to pull my sleeves over my hands when I picked these – I sliced my finger on either the thick, sharp leaves or broken shards of bent stem.) 

Well, that's all I've got for now. I think there's definitely something to be said for bringing some of the outdoors in. Try it for yourself this season – if nothing else, just to get outside and take a walk through nature!

Well, this past week, I had the privilege of joining Tesselaar Plants at the Independent Garden Center Expo 2010, held on Chicago's beautiful Navy Pier.

The show gave us all an exciting sneak peek at all the new plants, products for sale to the nation's 20,000-some independent garden centers for 2011. Here are some highlights – look for more in my next post!

First of all, here's a beautiful display of bromeliads – one of the tropical plants I've pushed in the past (like in this post) to try in the garden (even if you live in colder climates, like I do here in Zone 6a). This selection is from Rainflorest Flora, one of the largest growers and suppliers of bromeliads, tillandsias (air plants) and other exotic plants in North America.

Speaking of tropical, Monrovia featured this eye-popping gold-and-plum display of Tropicanna^® cannas, pairing the yellow-striped leaves of Tropicanna Gold with the deep-purplish-black foliage of Tropicanna Black (now in wider distribution for 2011).

And here's a shot of some of the products being featured in the new Burpee Home Gardens To Go program. I also wrote about this in an earlier post, and with vegetable gardening such a hot trend right now, I'll be sure to look into what's new for 2011.

All the stylish, colorful garden containers at the show, meanwhile, made me realize that garden design isn't just about the plants - it's about the container, too. I'd love to have one of these ceramic, glazed beauties by Alfresco Home, for instance, instead of the black plastic standbys I find shoved behind my husband's car restoration project in the garage:

These colorful, contemporary pots, meanwhile, come from German ceramics manufacturer Scheurich.

Scheurich, one of the more high-end lines of garden containers on the market, is a more European approach to container design, with the focus just as much on the pot as on the plant or flower within (often one flower or bloom, or a simple element repeated several times).

Outside, we also got a chance to see all the lovely landscape installations along the Navy Pier. This one features Festival Burgundy cordyline light purple scabiosa and calibrachoa and coleus in red, orangeish-gold and purple.

Tesselaar colleague Laurie Riedman and I had a lot of fun on the Navy Pier and in the city of Chicago. Here we are in a bicycle rickshaw (a very eco-friendly way to travel) riding back to the hotel. I also tried a Chicago-style hot dog for the first time (after seeing them on the Food and Travel channels) and we took a trip to the world-famous Garrett's gourmet popcorn for a gigundo tub 'o love … Good thing I didn't have time to make it to the American Girl store, or I know I would've blown a ton of money buying a Bitty Baby and matching jammies for my 3-year-old daughter!

Well, that's certainly enough for this post – the next one will feature some more of the videos I took. In the meantime, check out some of the other blogs on the IGC show, at Garden Rant, Garden Girl and the Blogging Nurseryman by Trey Pitsenberger.

Does anyone out there just plant up the perfect container garden at the start of the season and then not have to change the plants or move things around? 'Cause I've never been able to pull this off.

Plants get too big, bugs destroy them or they simply stop blooming and are done for the season. And with a 3-year-old, heading out to the garden center for more plants – much less anything else – always turns into a major project. So many times, I simply have to make do – ripping out a bunch of scraggly, overgrown plants from one pot, for instance, and replacing them with a smaller plant stolen from another. 

Hence this evolution of containers on my deck. I potted all these up between the middle of May and the first week of June, and already they've all required some major change-ups.

The diva

This container has had more costume changes than Beyonce at an awards show. It all started in mid-May with the Festival™ Burgundy cordyline that came via mail-order and the pink geranium and white-flowered bacopa put in the cart by my 3-year-old during a trip to Home Depot). I hadn't had a chance, of course, to really head out to a garden center and leisurely look for great plant combinations).

But then, of course, I stumbled across the container gardening articles at FineGardening.com and suddenly my container's understated outfit would never do. So here's Pot Number 2, after I finally got a half-hour to go down the street to the Agway garden center to pick up lime-green ipomoea (sweet potato vine), purple ornamental kale and red, white and lime-green coleus:

I was, of course, very satisfied with my oh-so-fashionable selection – that is, until the nasturtium in the container next to it got all out of control and monster-like. So I went for one more wardrobe change, snagging the ipomoea from this pot to replace it. I don't care if they say every pot needs a thriller, a filler and a spiller – without my spiller, I think the container looks more neat and tidy.

Waaay over the rainbow

Similarly, here are the original, rainbow-striped, original Tropicanna^® cannas I originally potted up in the beginning of June, and some ornamental kale and nasturtium I picked up at that same trip to Agway. With my frustrated inner artist out to play, I then grabbed some of the white stones out of our landscaping pathway and set them on top of the soil, just to see if a white "canvas" of sorts would intensify the color.

Then the nasturtium turned all yellow and ratty (I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that my approach to watering is to wait for the rain). So I ripped it out and added some croton. Why? Because I can. I fell in love with psychedelically-colored tropical plants on my April trip to Maui (see my previous post), and I think I just wanted the craziest, loudest collection of colors I could get my hands on.

Encroaching kale

And here's the Tropicanna Gold and Tropicanna Black cannas I planted along with aeonium, the white-flowered bacopa I stole from the first container (above) and yet more ornamental kale and nasturtium from that Agway trip, just to fill up the holes. But the nasturtium also overtook that, so I ripped it out of there, too. You can't see the aeonium or the white bacopa, so I'll probably move that over to the pot of Flower Carpet^® roses where I had to remove one of Dad's traditional cannas that got turned into swiss cheese by Japanese beetles.

And that's the life of garden containers. Even though it's an unpredictable game of switcheroo, it's a game I'll play again and again. Besides the croton I bought for like, two bucks at Home Depot, it didn't realy cost me an additional penny. Plus, it's like rearranging furniture – it gives me a creative outlet and lets me express myself. In other words, my husband would say, it keeps me out of trouble.

So what about you? Do you engage in Container Switcheroo? Or do you have a great container recipe that stays tidy and colorful all season long? Post a comment and tell me about it!