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The Container Thread

gardenbug
16 years ago

Hoping everyone will keep adding to this thread as the season progresses.

Here are two pots to start with:

{{gwi:157644}}

Comments (32)

  • Lara Noles
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Good idea Marie! Just a suggestion, it would be nice if the names of the plants that make up the containers could be listed too. I always NEED to know that info, lol!

    I think it would also be interesting if we posted pictures of containers when first planted and then again later in the season when they've had a chance to fill in.

    Great job on yours Marie! I haven't done but a couple. I hope to get more made up over the weekend.

    Eden

  • deanneart
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Horray!!!! Nothing I love better than a container garden thread! Great idea Bug. ~~~ I agree with Eden, that it would be great if we also put the names of the plants with the pics.

    Nice pots Bug!

    Deanne

  • gardenbug
    Original Author
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Okey Dokey, but I should have done this when I still had the tags...

    -Blood grass, coleus **** sunset, variegated periwinkle
    -Half Moon Maple, Dusty Miller, coleus and red****(You know the name, my memory doesn't work!)

    Deanne, can you post yours from yesterday over here too?
    I hope to have more on the weekend. Today is too hot, humid and polluted to do anything at all...

  • chelone
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Great. I have NOTHING to post because it's been too damned cold to put out annuals!

    So, I'll just have to savor your's!

  • cynthia_gw
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    No camera anyway, but I've been in the one plant per pot phase for years and am happy that way! Pot 1 Brug. Pot 2 Brug. Pot 3 Agave. Pot 4 Brug. Pot 12 Agave. Pot 20 B&B salvia, ....Pot 26 Plectranthus. You get the idea!

    Glad you decided to pot the Full Moon Acer, GB. It's so beautiful :-)

  • gardenbug
    Original Author
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Cynthia, I also have a pot of mostly salvia B&B. I just loved it last year! I may do the coleus the same way...due to time. I'll leave it up to the the talented to make the elegant arrangements.
    I figure the acer can overwinter in the garage where it will be cold but not windy. I can give it a blanky if need be....

  • gardenbug
    Original Author
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Sheesh! Lysimachia beaujolias...

  • gardenbug
    Original Author
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Time for bed. I'm making way too many errors. The previous item was something I bought today and should have corrected on the Idylls threads....

    zzzzzzzzzz

  • deanneart
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    OK Bug, here you are

    Yellow Container #1
    {{gwi:157645}}
    This container has yellow callibrachoa, Abutilon 'Bella hybrid', Lysimachia numularia, Coleus 'Pineapple Wizard', Solanum jasminoides Variegata

    {{gwi:157647}}
    Coleus 'Sunshine', Abutilon pictum 'Thompsonii' (yellow form)Abutilon 'Bella hybrid', Callibrachoa, Nemesia strumosa 'Angelheart Series', Plectranthus 'Lemon Twist' (this is an interesting all chartreuse sport I found on one of my plants last year)

  • Lara Noles
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    These pictures are more about the containers than the plants...

    Cupcakes???

    {{gwi:157648}}

    Yellow impatiens in a copper colander

    {{gwi:157649}}

    coffee cups

    {{gwi:157650}}

    mini hostas in an old roasting pan

    {{gwi:157652}}

    tea party in a big tea cup

    {{gwi:157654}}

    red semps in a terracotta heart

    {{gwi:157656}}

    Sedums in an old radio flyer wagon, these were just planted a few days ago, I hope they quickly fill in
    {{gwi:157658}}

  • chelone
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    What's with the little homunculus in the fourth shot?! he's major league creepy! I'm startin' to worry about you, Eden.

    ;)

  • Lara Noles
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I wondered if anyone would comment on him, lol. Don't worry Chelone, he's wearin' pants.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Gnome

  • chelone
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    buthestillhassaggytits!

    Ewww!

  • chloehoover
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Never let it be said that Eden goes the "too cute" route! She does these things to see if we're really awake!

    I love how these containers say such creative things about their makers.... I think I better stick w/ the "mono-tainers" like Cynthia! Or is that "mono-pot?"

    Cindy

  • chelone
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Know what? paint out the pants and paint in a yellow Speedo. Perfect for Memorial Day and Old Orchard Beach and/or Ogunquit Beach.

    ;)

    (my feet are getting really hot)

  • deanneart
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Eden your containers are incredibly creative!!!! Love them all. I originally thought that copper colander had pansies in it but love the impatiens. I have that same piece and might just 'borrow' your idea. Brilliant! Love all those sweet coffee cup arrangements. Do you drill holes in the bottoms? and that wagon! Fabu-fabu.... They really ought to feature your garden in a magazine somewhere because it is so incredibly creative and totally unique! Thanks for sharing!

    Deanne

  • gardenbug
    Original Author
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hrmph! I was going to do the colander thing to WOW you, but you got there first Eden! ;-)
    I love the big cup with the Bella toy chairs in it!

  • Marian_2
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    {{gwi:157660}}
    Diamond Frost Euphorbia, Strobilanthes,Chocolate Mint, Variegated Plectranthes , and Solanum jasminoides aurea.

    {{gwi:157662}}

    Molten Lava Coleus, Lobelia Laguna,and 3 differant varieties of Dracaena.

    {{gwi:157665}}

    Iresine (from Deanne),New Guinea Coleus,Plectranthus Green and Silver,and Red Star Spike Cordylene.

    {{gwi:157668}}

    Pineapple sage, Kalanchoe Panda, 2 Sedona Coleus ( from Deanne), and 2 unnamed Coleus.

  • gardeningmary
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Wow, fabulous containers everyone. I'm heading into the weekend inspired by your visions. I'm a bit of a monopotter myself (new word?) and create combinations by moving containers together. However your mixed plantings are tempting me to try something new. I do plant up my tufa troughs with a variety of plants - I'll try and get some photos up soon. SO far I have one of mini trees, one of herbs and a strawberry pot with succulents.

    Eden - are the little chairs and table metal? I bet Bella is entranced by them. I also remember some cool items made from stacked tea cups or pots. Do you still have those?

    Fun, fun, fun.

    Mary

  • cynthia_gw
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Bella entranced? Heck I'm entranced. The red tea cup with table and chairs had me scrolling back again and again. It's just too too too! And the mixer with the cupcakes. Creative isn't a big enough word for this. They're all really really neat.

    I see Marian has discovered the Euphorbia Diamond Frost too. Very nice!

  • Marian_2
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I am loving Eden's creations too. She is whetting my appetite for using unique containers...:-)

    Yes, Cynthia, I bought the Diamond Frost before reading about it's attributes on the Idylls. I love it and wish I'd bought more ( they were sold out at the nursery that I got it from, when I went back Friday). I am wondering how Deanne propagates hers.

  • michelle_zone4
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I have nothing to add. Maybe soon. I must echo everyone else about Eden's wonderful creativity. It is most certainly a gift.

  • gardenbug
    Original Author
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Rodents demolished the blood grass creation. I reassembled it and gave it a drink. We'll see how it goes....

  • gardeningmary
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    A couple from me:

    Strawberry pot with sedum.

    {{gwi:157670}}

    Hypertufa planter with silver thyme, rosemary, mint, tarragon and violas.

    {{gwi:157671}}

    Mary

  • denisez10
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I feel it almost rude not to acknowledge that I scan this thread everyday for some of the best garden photos on the forums. Just wanted to say thanks and keep 'em coming. In the interests of reciprocity, below are some photos I took yesterday -- all camera settings are automatic, LOL, so the quality is poor. My garden is small, so the scale is telescoped, if you get my meaning, and the plants appear piled on top of each other -- probably not an inacurrate effect :o)

    I do very few mixed containers, and "borrow scenery" from the in-ground plants, because the containers mostly rim the garden beds. Lots of shuffling. I use containers mostly to limit the size of plants I want to grow that would either be monsters in the garden or whose detail would be swallowed up. Some of these are in the ground, such as the artichokes, gaillardias, etc.

    Okay, submerging again, and please carry on.

    Denise

    (What happens if you don't eat the 'choke, which is difficult, I know)
    {{gwi:157672}}

    {{gwi:157673}}

    The euphorbia behind this pot of tropicals is a treasure, about 4 x 4 feet, like a giant E. niciciana. Last seedling from the mother plant but should be more this year, I hope. I haven't seen it in nurseries since and have lost the name!
    Dark-leaved geranium behind the potted oxalis is in the ground. Only name I have for it is 'Dorca,' a British import, I think
    {{gwi:157674}}
    {{gwi:157675}}

    Cotinus 'Grace' really came into her own this year. Last year she looked like a poodle tree, something out of Dr. Seuss, with gawky, naked branches and spritzes of "smoke" at the tips
    {{gwi:157676}}

    Spiky plant is another favorite, Agave gemniflora. Lychnis is 'Gardener's World,' taking forever to build into a blooming size
    {{gwi:157677}}

    Euphorbia cotinifolia, very late to leaf out, self-sown, about a two-year-old tree here, with canopy pruned way back to keep it from snapping in high winds. Will be twice the size at summer's end. I know some of you have used this euphorbia in summer container plantings. Large tree behind is Cotinus 'Grace.'
    {{gwi:157678}}

    Variegated dianella, anthemis, 'Grandpa Otts' morning glories getting started. Poppy seen here and other pix is 'Lauren's Grape' I think. More detail of the leaves and flowers of Verbascum undulatum. Hard to go in that open office door and stay put this time of year
    {{gwi:157679}}

    This fountain is our equivalent to the Mars Rover -- a cheapie, big-box store pump, going ceaselessly without any maintenance for at least four years now. Wonderful to see hummingbird bob up and down on its jet
    {{gwi:157680}}
    A mid-winter madness folly, with pots of 'Angelica' sedum on an old candelabra, sitting on top of an urn. Weight of the pots tipped them sideways, impossible to keep watered once the weather warmed. Replaced with smaller pots of the trailing Dichondra 'Silver Falls.' My family has mixed feelings about this folly as possibly a tad over the top.
    The only way Euphorbia 'Tasmanian Tiger' survives for me is in a pot.
    The blurry, chartreuse smudge of a clump in front of the spike of verbascum belongs to a verbascum not yet in bloom, V. undulatum, a wonderful plant with, yes, undulating, wavy, chartreusy leaves. Flower spikes are smaller, with lots more of them. Potted succulent is a graptopetalum
    {{gwi:157681}}

    The vine on the square iron trellis is a honeysuckle, 'Mint Julep' I think. Wouldn't dare grow it in the garden
    {{gwi:157683}}

    I use anything to get pots elevated, including this old ceramic sewer pipe
    {{gwi:157686}}

    The little pot in front is one of my favorites, Echevaria agavoides. I think a cultivar is 'Red Tip' Most of these are "mono" pots, at staggering heights, except the oxalis and aeoniums are mixed
    {{gwi:157688}}
    {{gwi:157690}}

  • cynthia_gw
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Bravo! Mary and Denise have fed my succulent/agave/grasses habit :-) Gorgeous stuff from both of you, and Denise you have validated my love of mono pots! I'm feeling good about putting the avocado in the big urn now too. Cotinus always seem to be in 'awkward' stage, but Grace is stunning! A wonderful backdrop for your area.

    Mary, I so want to try tuffa and never get there. Your mini garden is so compelling, and I love that little side turned pot in there :-) The sedums in strawberry pot are a great design too. Love it.

  • gardeningmary
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hi Denise

    Thank you so much for sharing your pictures - what a treat! They are gorgeous and such an exotic feel. You seem to take advantage of every corner with some amazing plants. I LOVE Tasmanian Tiger! The staggering of heights is a great idea, something I'd like to try myself.

    Hope you will come out of lurkdom from time to time with some more photos - Southern California is poorly represented here and you would be an excellent ambassador:0)

    Mary

  • chloehoover
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Brought out of lurkdom by the wow factor here... Denise and Mary -- simply masterly executions! Mono-potters united -- Please share more.

    Denise, it's so interesting to hear that even in Ca Euphorbia Tas. Tiger only over-winters in pots for you -- gives us Easterners some hope to try another way. I love all your juxtapositioning of succulents & tropicals -- the colors are pop, pop, pop! Terrific. (Im so jealous of Lauren's Grape -- havent been able to grow but I keep trying... it's such a magnificent color).
    Mary, Im so envious of that trough -- wonderful composition w/ "simple" plants....

    Deanne - as always, your combos are simply masterful and show what a terrific artist you are (gotta say, on the other thread I think I recognized some pots from HD we must have both glommed... but yours put my to shame.).

    Trying to get a bit of lunch respite before hitting the piles again.... Thanks so much for a wonderful, transporting display.

    I hope you'll pop in more often, Denise - would love to hear & see about your garden world.

    I love all the combos here - I know I missed other mentions -- I'll try to drool over again later.

    -Cindy

  • dodgerdudette
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Wonderful everyone ! Thanks 'bug for starting this thread !

    Now lookee here Denise, I need a few more pacific time zone posters ..I love your pots- I am also a succulent addict.
    Heres one of mine...

    {{gwi:157692}}

    Wish I could take credit for this one, but I took it at a nursery in Oregon last week...

    {{gwi:157694}}

    Kathy in Napa

  • denisez10
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    So glad you enjoyed the photos -- now I feel I contributed a little and can peruse guilt-free. I never do take any photos, and just today pulled the last of the bedraggled poppies out, so I'm glad I've got them on film. Succulents are becoming huge out here in So. Calif (doh!), and are showing up in high-end shopping centers and commercial plantings, and it's much easier now to find interesting stuff locally (loved your designs, Mary & Kathy). I'll try to contribute more photos as the season progresses. Meanwhile, I so enjoy these threads -- gorgeous containers, vistas, all that space and green, green, green, and dry-stacked stone walls...

    This guy was just repotted earlier this year, cutting off the old, dried leaves. Nothing like wrestling a large agave, but he's gleaming brand-new for now

    {{gwi:157696}}

  • michelle_zone4
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    What an enjoyable thread this is. There is so much creativity in this group. I've only done 4 large containers which normally I'm done by now. Too windy and too little time this year. Since most of mine are made with plants that I've overwintered, they need some filling out time. This one didn't look too bad, so here's my contribution.

    {{gwi:157698}}

  • wendy2
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I am loving this thread - so many great ideas! Loving the succulents and agaves, Deanne's plant paintings, 'bug's maple...I could go on and on!

    Marian, I like that plectranthus 'Green & Silver' - it reminds me of brunnera 'Jack Frost'. Michelle, is that a little hosta in the front of your container?

    Eden, I have to say the gnome is creeping me out a little too...LOL on the speedo Chelone, my kids walked the beach from Moody to Ogunquit last summer (they thought they were on a big excellent adventure, but we spied on them with binoculars), they came back with giggly tales of skimpy bathing suits they saw there.

    Here are a few from me, they do need some time to fill out:

    {{gwi:157700}}

    This one has coleus 'Black Trailer', calibrachoa 'Mini Famous Dark Blue' (looks more purple really) and fuchsia 'Lena' (overwintered but not blooming yet). Notice how the urn is tucked into the border - what great gardener to the north of me did I learn that trick from?! That campanula takesimana 'Koreana' to the in front of the urn didn't do much when I planted it last year, but it is starting to scare me this year...

    {{gwi:157701}}

    This clay pot is another of my Home Goods finds, the plant inside is a tuberous begonia. The blooms will be white, but with leaves like that who cares if it flowers!

    {{gwi:157703}}

    This one has cuphea ignea, carex 'Amazon Mist' (only hardy to zone 8 I think - too bad!) and Helichrysum petiolare. I put it under the tree only to take the picture - it lives in a sunny spot near the street.

    {{gwi:157705}}

    This urn is a twin - they flank my front step. Plants are pelargorium 'Indian Dunes', calibrachoa 'Million Bells Peach', ipomoea 'Sweet Caroline Sweet Heart Purple' and cordyline 'Red Star'. Please pay no attention to the tree frills in the background...I guess they are the outdoor equivalent of dust bunnies.

    {{gwi:157706}}

    This is begonia luxurians, I love it because it looks like a mini palm tree. The tag said it would have small white flowers at the top.

    Okay, I'd love to see some more...who's next??

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