CREATIVE CONTAINERS-THE ONLY 3 WORDS YOU NEED TO KNOW
Thank you to all of the wonderful Perth garden lovers who came to hear me speak at Perth Garden Festival last Thursday.
This year, the highlight of the Perth Garden Festival was the amount of great down to earth information available to visitors. Easy tips to make your gardening journey in Perth more successful and more fun.
My talk was about giving people some imaginative ways to smarten up their containers using the latest en trend plants available in Perth for Autumn 2019.
I shared the only three words you need to know for successful planting I learned from my trip to Chicago last year and if you stick with these easy-to-remember words you too can garden like a pro and save money at the same time.
Word 1. THRILLER
Start by selecting a plant with some height that you can keep in your container season after season. This is the plant that will stay in the container year after year and always be the “hero” of your container. Selecting your THRILLER really depends on the size of your container. Here are 3 THRILLERS that I spoke about at PGF.
Brugmansia Burnt Orange
You will need a very large container for this stunner-it will flower for you from Spring through to Autumn in Perth.
Cosmos Chocoholic
This cute perennial with its chocolate brown flowers is great for a small or medium-sized container and the petals are edible! Great for your Easter themed containers. Team with Chocolate Mint as your FILLER and maybe some pink Pansies.
Cordyline Designer Burgundy
Any of the Cordylines make great THRILLERS but this one is a beauty and has deep red leaves. This architectural Cordyline will look great for years in a medium-sized container
Word 2. SPILLER
Think about plants that will hang over the edge of your container and trail down. This provides a softness to the hard edges of your chosen container.
Dichondra Silver Falls
This sweet grey foliage plant will hang down and provide a stunning contrast to just about any flowering plant-this plant is hot, hot, hot right now and is tough as a boot. It will do equally well in a hanging basket or large urn.
Convolulus Cneorum
Larger grey foliage, almost like an olive leaf, than the Dichondra Silver Falls but this will team up with the Brugmansia Burnt Orange for dramatic effect and it has white flowers that open up when the sun is shining.
Ipomoea Queen of Spades
Stunning heart shaped burgundy and lime green leaves will team up beautifully with a dramatic Agave as your THRILLER.
Lemon Thyme
If you are thinking of a sensory garden why not try herbs as your SPILLER plants…Lemon Thyme has a fabulous lemony fragrance which looks fabulous under say a dwarf Meyer lemon in a large pot.
Word 3. FILLER
There are so many plants that you can use as FILLER plants.
Don’t forget some “potted colour” or punnets of annuals-annual plants like Pansies and Violas which are super cheap and make great FILLER plants to enhance your THRILLERS and SPILLERS
If you are after a more permanent solution try..
Helichrysum Icicles
This fine leafed grey foliage plant will fill the gaps of your container nicely and provide a good contrast to any Autumn colored flowering plant.
Bidens Campfire
This is an easy-care perennial flowering plant which looks stunning as a FILLER surrounding Cordyline ‘Designer Burgundy’, just trim off the flowers once they are spent to encourage more flowers.
Viola Hederacea
This shade-loving ground cover plant with pretty purple and white flowers will also do well in a container. It will survive dry periods but prefers nice moist soil and makes a great FILLER and may even double as a SPILLER for you.
Lemon Basil
This funky herb will go well as a FILLER in that container with Lemon Thyme as your SPILLER and the Lemon tree as your THRILLER.
Chocolate Mint
Chocolate Mint really tastes like a mint patty and will go well as the FILLER around your COSMOS Chocoholic ..why not create an entirely edible (low fat) Easter themed container?
So there you have it, the only 3 words you need to know when selecting plants to refresh your containers.
Finally…
Check the size of the plant that you are selecting as your THRILLER-is the pot big enough for the one you have chosen-how big is it likely to grow? After all, as your THRILLER you don’t want to have to keep re-potting it because it outgrows your container too quickly.
Try and stick with a color theme, I have used Autumn tones for this talk but really you can team up Pink, Grey, and Burgundy, Yellow, Grey, and Burgundy or Blue, White and Grey…and then there’s always Green!
Please use the best quality Premium Potting Mix that you can get your hands into, fertilize with a monthly application of Powerfeed or Charlie Carp liquid seaweed solution and you now have all my secrets for successful container planting.
Happy Gardening.
Andrea 🙂
