7 tips for great container planting

The difference between a dull and a dazzling summer garden often boils down to what garden pros call "character". Garden character is simply that extra something, or sense of style, that sets one apart from others.

With input from Canadian, American and European gardeners, both pro and lay, the Netherlands Flower Bulb Information Centre compiled the following tips for character-filled container gardens, be they pocket-sized city lots or expansive country estates. Be forewarned, after reading the following you just might decide to astroturf the entire garden and never look back from the convenient world of 'the contained garden'.

1. Group containers for impact
Too often, people use the same containers in the same place every year. It starts and ends with the one big container by the front door. Tip #1 is: Go wild! Place seven, even 10 containers there. Groups of containers create focus and impact.

Don't limit your thinking. Consider anything that suits your fancy. Try what excites you: various ivies, lantana, coleus, verbena fuchsia, daisies, impatiens and roses. For especially dramatic container plants, try some of the huge assortment of summer bulbs: oxalis, cannas, eucomis, begonias, dahlias, agapanthus, lilies, caladiums or elephant ears, and lots more.

2. Repetition = balance. Add a surprise and you'll get WOW!
Gardening is a bit like painting -- you create appealing compositions with your interplay of colour, form, scale and texture. Balance is achieved via repetition and contrast.

When designing your containers, choose plants that go together, but, for that element of 'character', ones that don't quite match. This repetition of related colours ties the big picture together. Three to five colours work nicely as a base. But don't stop there -- how boring. Toss in a surprise -- something oddball that is just off enough in colour or texture to punch up everything else a notch.

3. It's a love match
The best plantings (in containers or in the garden) are those in which the plants fall in love -- intertwining and looping through one another, holding others upright, peeking and creeping through in odd places, or simply making one another look good. When choosing plants, select those that do something for each other. Differ their stature, some low-growing and draping, some tall and erect. Choose some that will creep and emerge where they choose. Pay attention to different leaf textures.

One canna in a pot is nice. But for real star power, provide it with a family of plant partners that can thrive under similar growing conditions.

As an example: start with a variegated canna with multi-striped leaves of green-orange-gold-pink; then add magenta-and-gold coleus, hot pink-and-green caladium and hot pink trailing petunias. For the zinger, add taxi-yellow lantana. As the planting matures, its charming intertwined growth will take on a life of its own.

4. Dead zone containers
Another good design technique employs container plantings to soften up the stark look of dead zones where no soil or garden area is available. Think of side gardens (especially north-facing ones) or walkways, decks, balconies, along garage walls or cement areas bounded by ugly chain link fences.

Build your own garden in these barren areas with containers. For instance: line up window boxes or pots along a wall, placing them a few inches away from the wall. The containers can be all the same, or a mix of any old thing you've got. Fill with potting soil and plant low leafy plants and climbing vines.

Click to continue for tips on how to arrange your pots...

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