Expert Tips: Plant Combinations for Large Containers
Designer Christina Salwitz uses shrubs, perennials, annuals and even trees to make exciting container combinations. Here are 7 examples.
When Christina Salwitz began creating gardens and seasonal containers at Carol Ann O’Mack’s home on Ames Lake in Redmond, Wash., she received one request: “Just go crazy!” It was music to the noted designer’s ears.
Designing bold & colorful container gardens
“She just wanted lots of color,” Christina recalls of the late Ms. O’Mack, who was a client for about five years. This simple mandate allowed her to go big and bold in her combinations for beds, borders and especially pots, which play vital roles in her work, including the practical purpose of housing perennials and woody plants ultimately destined for garden beds.
“My [container] choices are often based on what can be planted out in the future,” she explains, noting that she replants pots twice a year for her clients in greater Seattle (USDA Zone 8). “If I see a bed could use more sedum, for example, I’ll use a lot of sedum in the fall containers and then transplant it (at the end of the season)."
Containers are a great way to experiment with plants in the garden
Containers also provide an avenue for the designer to stretch her imagination, especially with an open-minded client. They are the place to “try things out and have fun,” says Christina, who shies from the predictable.
Here are a few of the designs she created for Ms. O’Mack’s landscape. These were planted in late spring to last through Halloween, and the photos were taken in July.
7 Expert Design Tips for Large Containers
1. Place containers in garden beds
Designer Christina Salwitz likes to place containers within garden beds, where they can bridge seasons and complement major players like the Hydrangea macrophylla in this bed. She recommends pruning in-ground plants so that they nestle around companion pots.
In this group, the taller pot holds the aptly named blue chalk fingers (Senecio vitalis) and flapjacks (Kalanchoe thyrsiflora) along with a pinkish blue echeveria. The shorter pot features a border sedum (Hylotelephium ‘Vera Jameson’) that can be planted in the garden later.
2. Go bold with container plantings
“I don’t do subtle,” Christina says. She fills her containers beyond the brim with bulky, bold-featured plants for a mix of foliage textures and flower shapes. This pot stood at a front corner of Carol Ann O’Mack’s house, foreshadowing the delights to be found ’round the back.
In this pot, ‘Black and Blue’ salvia (Salvia guaranitica ‘Black and Blue’) looms behind a red hardy hibiscus (Hibiscus ‘Midnight Marvel’), succulent Echeveria gibbiflora and purple fountain grass (Pennisetum setaceum ‘Rubrum’).
3. Play with plant shape and form
In another black container near the house’s entryway, Christina played with shape, placing upright forms amid mounding plants and highlighting the wonderfully weird of the botanical world.
The pagoda-like flower bracts of ‘Kent Beauty’ ornamental oregano (Origanum ‘Kent Beauty’) and the dusky-hued foliage of blue chalk fingers (Senecio vitalis) seen above draw in guests for further investigation. Also seen in this pot: crapemyrtle (Lagerstroemia indica Black Diamond) and trailing begonia (Begonia boliviensis Bossa Nova Red).
4. Soften patios and hardscape with large containers
At her lakeside home, Ms. O’Mack often hosted guests, so Christina used containers to guide foot traffic and to soften furniture and hardscape. This dockside pot supplies warm color with leafy Campfire coleus, red Dragon’s Breath celosia and pink-flowered Salvia ‘Wendy’s Wish’ (mingling with a dwarf blue agapanthus). Upright Tropicanna Gold canna (Canna indica ‘Mactro’), trailing ‘Margarita’ sweet potato vine (Ipomoea batatas ‘Margarita’) and variegated Autumn Charm sedum (Hylotelephium ‘Lajos’) provide green accents.
5. Draw inspiration from flower arranging
Christina draws some inspiration from ikebana — Japan’s traditional flower arranging—in how she places plants. She likes asymmetry and hard angles at edges, as seen in this pot’s upright Enduring Summer crapemyrtle and trailing ‘Margarita’ sweet potato. ‘Matrona’ sedum (Hylotelephium telephium ‘Matrona’), purple fountain grass and an orangish celosia fill the space between them, along with two more trailers: purple spider lily (Tradescantia pallida ‘Purpurea’) and Alternanthera brasiliana ‘Purple Prince’, cozying up to the potato vine.
6. Choose planters with versatility
Certain colors make a container more versatile across time, Christina says. She looks for pots finished in “universal harmonics,” or, basically, colors that go with everything. She points to the teal green seen in this trio as one such shade. The medium-height pot here holds a young blue yucca (Yucca rigida) and Echeveria gibbiflora. ‘Vera Jameson’ sedum goes solo in the short pot, while dwarf blue agapanthus blooms in the large container with bushy Blush Pink nandina (Nandina domestica ‘AKA’), a deep purple calibrachoa and a flowering echeveria.
7. Use trees and shrubs in containers
Christina often places trees or shrubs in containers for the long or short term before adding them to a garden bed. This allows a small, less expensive woody plant time to bulk up, while also making its beauty more apt to be appreciated.
The star of this pot is the weeping Japanese maple (Acer palmatum) that will eventually find its way into a bed. It’s joined for now by orange- and red-hued petunias, purple sweet potato vines and the small-leaved bacopa (Sutera cordata) that echoes the maple’s spreading branches.
Photos by Jack Coyier
Follow Christina Salwitz on Instagram for More Design Inspiration: @personalgardencoach
