Garden Design Archives - Andrea Whitely Garden Consultant

Bloom Wildly: 2024 Container Planting at Suburban Square, PA

I know that we are only just heading into Autumn here in Perth, but there is no harm in dreaming and planning for Spring 2025 with some garden container inspiration now. It will be here before you know it.

Single Grey Container at entrance to store in Ardmore PA

Last August, I had the great pleasure of visiting Suburban Square in Ardmore, Pennsylvania. Over the past 3 years this incredible shopping precinct has been brought to life with spectacular bursts of colour through their annual container displays. However, for me, the 2024 Bloom Wildly container planting took explosions of container filled colour to the next level.

Suburban Square obviously take a great deal of pride in blending retail with nature and the 2024 planting initiative demonstrated that philosophy in the most delightful way.

Andrea (L) with her friend, Horticulturist and Educator, Louise Clarke (R) from Media PA

2024 marked the third year of the The Bloom Wildly festival of flowers and aimed to bring inspired botanical beauty to urban and retail environments. The focus for Bloom Wildly 2024 was on bold colours, pollinator-friendly species, and sustainable container gardening practices. Any gardener seeking garden container inspiration could experience it at every turn. A collaboration between some local horticulturalists, landscape designers and community volunteers, the installation included dozens of super healthy plants filled to overflowing containers which were placed throughout the shopping centre’s walkways, plazas and patios.

The design themes I experienced drew inspiration from meadow-style planting trends, which was forward-projecting for the ‘Wild and Free’ trend for Spring/Summer 2025 in Australia.

Containers featured loose, whimsical arrangements mixing textures, heights and bloom times. The Thriller plants included Echinacea, black-eyed Susans, ornamental grasses (lots of fabulous tall grasses) and Salvias — all of which bloomed their heads off in containers and welcomed bees, butterflies and other pollinators like hummingbirds, all in an outdoor suburban shopping mall.

So many great examples of ‘Thriller Spiller Filler’ container planting style was everywhere. Bright splashes of Geraniums, trailing Petunias, and annual Calibrachoa were obviously chosen for their stunningly bright colours and continuous blooms throughout the Pennsylvanian Spring and Summer months.

Pennsylvanian native plant species were carefully included, demonstrating that native plants do just as well in containers as introduced annuals and perennials.

The native inclusions offered encouragement and container inspiration for visiting gardeners to plant these specimens in their own gardens to support local ecosystems, as a water wise and environmentally friendly option. All of the containers used in 2024 were chosen with sustainability in mind. Many were made from recycled or repurposed materials and filled with more sustainably produced compost and soil blends. The plants were all super healthy and obviously appreciated the good soil in the containers.

The transformation of this retail space was a little bit mind blowing for this Aussie visitor. I had never seen any thing quite like it before. The joy that live plants and nature interacting wild and freely with people in an urban setting such as this, is remarkable on so many levels. The fact that the owners of this space are willing to commit to such installations year after year is commendable.

And so if you’re inspired to create some stunning containers…this is a pretty good place to start…what wild and free inclusions will be in your garden??? Let me know here.

Each year a Colour of the Year is announced for gardens.

The Colour of the Year for gardens influences plants that are grown by the wholesale growers and sold in garden centres. Most of the garden decor that you buy will also have a touch of this colour.

I will admit that when I heard about the Garden Colour of the Year for 2025 a huge smile beamed across my face.

This colour makes me incredibly happy. It reminds me of the colour of the waters around Broome, Western Australia and that’s just another great reason to absolutely love it!

Drum roll please, the Garden Colour of the Year for 2025 is TEAL.

Teal is a beautiful light green shade of blue that accents so well anywhere, but especially in the garden. Think big bold containers set into a garden bed, surrounded by grey foliage plants and you are right on the money. You might even decide to paint a door like the one below.

Offering the idea of calm crystal blue water without even having to lift a hose, Teal is a magical addition to any garden.

Imagine, looking out into the garden and being reminded of a trip to a Tiffany jewellery store and those pretty blue boxes tucked into their exclusive paper bags. You might work with me on this. Have you ever met anyone who received a gift in one of those boxes who did not squeal with anticipation of what might be in the bag?

It is the colour. I am sure of it. Now, with some carefully placed containers in shades of teal in your garden, you will feel like you’re receiving a gift from Tiffany everyday.

I had a dear friend who had an elegant ring that she always wore on her pinky finger, it was rose gold with teal coloured stones and I loved that ring. I think that when I see the colour teal it makes me think of my friend, Jennifer, and how she held her pinky up when she drank from a wine glass with that pretty ring perched on it.

Does colour spark emotion for you? Do certain colours make you happy in your garden? Do they remind you of an old friend?

This year consider combining the Colour of The Year for Gardens with The Pantone Colour of The Year for 2025, which is a little controversial for some, a shade of brown called Mocha Mousse. Don’t let the naysayers fool you, Mocha Mousse is a rich and velvety soft shade that looks stunning with Teal.

https://www.pantone.com/color-of-the-year/2025?srsltid=AfmBOoqKODe4wqiSnQaG5CMYW2Q1qw3iOJtc2O5L-QvmH94vjVldKk8q

Here are some Teal coloured drought tolerant plants I am adding to my garden designs in 2025.

Festuca glauca blue fescue grass

Agave attenuata

Myosotis Forget-me-nots

Senecio Blue Chalk Sticks

Brunnera macrophylla Jack Frost (shade)

Paint some existing containers or old garden furniture, Teal

Paint is so inexpensive and a great way to change out your colours in the garden.

Dulux offer two beautiful shades called Teal Essence and the other is Lagoona Teal A302

https://www.dulux.com.au/specifier/colour/s30/teal-essence/?srsltid=AfmBOoo3_XkDqEKzbr912Xnt4E_y4qRywBOyOzn5pZL05YvG1603BGed https://www.dulux.co.nz/specifier/colour/s30/lagoona-teal/

These colours are super pretty and brighten up any boring containers that might otherwise be destined for the verge pick up and the hard rubbish collection. This is a quick and easy Summer Saturday afternoon project. You will love the results.

Mocha Mousse inspired plants for your teal-coloured containers include:
Carex (Spiller) and Cordyline (Thriller) add foliage colour along with stunning foliage with Heuchera (Filler) and Australian natives like Banksia blechnifolia. How about brown foliage succulents like Sempivervivum ‘Chocolate Kiss’. These plants all look amazing in any teal coloured container.

If you need some more colour advice, get in touch here.

The easiest option is to add some Teal or Mocha Mousse coloured cushions to your outdoor setting. Consider teal in the garden this year. If you combine it with Mocha Mousse in your planting combinations, even in a small vignette within your garden…you will be stylishly unstoppable.

Glazed Teal Containers, which one will feature in your garden this year?

Why not paint some old furniture?

Category: Garden Design

Wild and Free: Some Pennsylvanian Garden Container Inspiration to plan this key garden trend for Spring.

The 2025 Garden Colour of the Year is a stunner