Day 121 - Winter's Not Over Yet

Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Filicoides' FERNSPRAY stands tall surrounded by Variegated False Holly. Osmanthus heterophyllus 'Variegatus', pansies, Euonymus fortunei 'Coloratus' purple wintercreeper, Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Golden Charm', and a gorgeous concrete planter.


So enjoy a few more winter containers!

Day 120 - Hard to Spell, Hard to Forget

These standard Loropetalum (commonly called Fringe Flower) planted in a container bed of Acorus Ogon stole the show at the Gulf States Expo in Mobile two weeks ago. While considered to be hardy to only zone 7, I've seen them defoliated in our zone 6 winter but come back with gusto in the spring. This Loropetalum is supposed to be the Purple Diamond Variety, and there are several other great varieties like Purple Pixie, Suzanne, and Plum Delight that keep this deep foliage color all year in milder climates. These two plants make good companion plants because they like the soil being on the moist side.

Day 119 - Simple Saturday

I love color; I love containers filled to overflowing with a riot of texture and flowers. But I also love the simplicity of an artistically arranged container like the one below, finished beautifully with a soft bed of moss. Of course, being in this gorgeous antique planter adds to the appeal. This was from last year's Nashville Garden and Antique Show.

Day 118 - This Will Get You Wanting Moore and Moore

One of my favorite nurseries to visit here in Middle Tennessee is Moore and Moore West in southwest Nashville. I loved this container that I saw there because it's perfect for summer shade but also perfect for bringing indoors for the winter. Tall thick blades of cordyline contrast beautifully with the fine foliage of maidenhair fern and the round ruffles of tuberous begonias and wax begonias. The few little trails of ivy soften the edges under the heavy begonia leaves. Look at all the color and interest you get with just foliage and a tiny bit of flowering! This gives a whole new aspect to year round containers.

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Day 117 - Retro Thursday Brought To You Via Droid

What can YOUR phone do for you? Right now my Droid is working as my camera, computer, and phone so here's today's blog with a summer windowbox picture taken with my phone in 2009. So glad I'm slow at deleting things! Hope this gets you thinking spring. I'll get you names of plants when I can see the picture bigger than the thumbnail on my screen.

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Day 117 - Retro Thursday Brought To You Via Droid

What can YOUR phone do for you? Right now my Droid is working as my camera, computer, and phone so here's today's blog with a summer windowbox picture taken with my phone in 2009. So glad I'm slow at deleting things! Hope this gets you thinking spring. I'll get you names of plants when I can see the picture bigger than the thumbnail on my screen.

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Day 116 - He Was Just Too Good Looking To Be Wearing Plastic

I walked past him as he casually stood by his booth at the trade show and I thought, "I wonder if he realizes that I'm staring at him!" So I stealthily slipped beside the gal working in the booth with him and quietly asked if she could tell me his name. "Who are you asking about?" she loudly proclaimed. "Him, over there in front of the desk," I sheepishly pointed. We walked toward him and I suddenly realized- ---- he was wearing plastic!! There he was surrounded by this gorgeous calla lilly, a hot cyclamen, saginella was practically hanging off him and he was so gorgeous that I didn't even notice that he was standing in a cheap plastic pot until I tried to pick him up. Wait - what did you think I talking about?! What is the name of that gorgeous fern-like plant in the middle of this pot. Any guesses? And don’t anyone tell me it's Fabio!

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Day 115 - Aaarrrrtgh- my sisters' internet doesn't like me

So once again I'm without internet while attending a trade show. Probably doesn't help that my computer is almost 10 years old (which is like 112 in people years). So here is a picture of a container outside "The Royal Scam" - a groovy little food spot in historic mobile that I shot with my phone at last week's conference. Tomorrow I get to attend Wintergreen in Atlanta and hear my heros Rita Randolph, Michael Dirr, and Allen Armitage.

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Day 114 - Fantastic Foliage Bowl

Selaginella (spikemoss), Heuchera, and what looks like Autumn Fern or a similar Dryopteris create an easy care, luscious bowl. I saw this beauty at the Gulf States Expo in Mobile, Alabama.

Day 113 - One More Sneak Peek At Historic Mobile, Alabama

These simple windowboxes are filled with orange pansies, dusty miller, Red Bor Kale, snapdragons and Lysimachia (some boxes look like they have Bergenia in them). These past few morning of temps in the lower 3os didn't seem to faze them at all. These old buildings are perfectly set up for displaying this old world charm.

Day 112 - A Saturday Night Live Container

IF I were so famous that Saturday Night Live would spoof me, this may be what they would offer.... let's imagine the narrator saying, "And day 10,543 of 365 Days of Container Gardening is showing how your container can have personality!"
(Thanks to the homeowner in Buffalo, NY, who showed all us garden bloggers at Buffa10 YOUR personality with this fun planter)

Day 111 - Build an Extra Room With Containers

This restaurant in Seaside, Florida must have been growing so fast that they needed to add a room on really fast - so they built an extra room with these luscious planters. Filled with Mandevilla, Pentas, annual Vinca, Cordyline, Rosemary, Lemon Balm, Verbena, and probably several other things that I can't see, I loved the cozy yet open feeling this planter wall provides.

Day 110 - Mobile Magic

In Mobile, Ala for the Gulf States Hort Expo, still have no internet, so join me here for A Spot of Tea - great breakfast and great windowboxes!

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Day 109 - Is A Raised Bed A Container?

Sure it is. Especially when I have no internet access all day and have to post my blog from pictures from my phone. This picture was at Leanne Barron's garden during the home tour last year. Veggie gardening in containers is becoming more popular with dwarf varieties available from folks like Renee's Garden.

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Day 108 - Always Room for A Few More Sedum

If you ever get to Atlanta, you HAVE to go by Saul Nursery. Yesterday I talked about needing inspiration. Saul Nursery IS inspiration! These are just a few of the fabulous sedum plantings that they had displayed at the Southern Nursery Association's meeting several years ago. These type of low maintenance containers would be such fun to place around your landscape for just a little spot of structure among a mesh of plantings.

Day 107 - Looking For Inspiration

Right now I'm in the middle of designing over 300 different containers that will go in our developments this spring here in Middle Tennessee - Westhaven, Laurelbrooke, Windstone, and McEwen. I'm looking at the list of the new plants ordered and imagining all the possibilities of combinations. One thing that I love to do is check out what other people have dreamed up for their containers, so I went back to flip through picture of gardens I'd visited over the last year. These were some of the most interesting, not particularly for what they were planted with but for how they were arranged here on the steps of the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, CA.
I wish I knew how to attach music to this blog because about right now I'd like to be playing the theme music to 2001 Space Odyssey. These round saucer planters look like they've invaded the planet Getty. Surely if you look close enough there will be a little green man waiting to say, "Take me to your leader."

These actually created a powerful visual, especially with the female statue that seems to be saying, "NO! I won't go with you!"

So now these have got me thinking about what I can do with our containers that will get people thinking about more than just what's in the pot...

...and I know I'm going to get some wisecracks from that last statement, especially from you California folk!

Day 106 - You'll Have to Look Closely for This One

Flanking this arbor are a pair of concrete planters holding what appears to be a Hortsmann Blue Atlas Cedar (Cedrus atlantica 'Horstmann'). I like how these frame the greek god statue.