All Decked Out

As a garden designer,  I have a confession to make: I don’t think of myself as particularly inspired when it comes to containers (planters, pots, whatever you want to call them). My colleague Kripa is the star at our company, and I always love to look at and photograph her creations. Here are two of my favorites.

A summer container with lantana, sweet potato vine, geraniums and style by Kripa. (Nikon D100)

For a shady site, a blue glazed pot with white and pink New Guinea impatiens is simple but effective. (Nikon D100)

This year, however, I decided to lift my own back deck out of the doldrums. For Mother’s Day weekend, with no one to entertain but myself, I headed to my local independent garden center. First, I picked out some shade-tolerant flowers for the front, north-facing stoop, where two square concrete planters that are actually too small for the space flank the front door. I picked out white caladiums, white impatiens, Begonia ‘Benitochiba,’ and a dark coleus. I’m still waiting for this combo to start filling in, unfortunately.

On the east-facing deck, I decided to go for bright and bold. Coleus combinations are real show-stoppers if done right. I have a lot of sun on the deck so I could have opted for just about anything, but this year I decided to stick to the coleus theme. In one pot I planted a ‘Red Star’ cordyline for height and surrounded it with five different kinds of coleus. The eye-catcher that inspired me at the outset is Coleus ‘Alabama Sunset.’

Coleus 'Alabama Sunset' offers stunning gradations of orange and yellow. (Canon G11)

Around it, I added four other varieties . Clockwise from ‘Alabama Sunset,’ you see ‘Religious Radish,’ ‘Ruby Jewels,’ ‘Sky Fire,’ and ‘Red Ruffles.’ Later I stuck in one plant of ‘Pineapple Wizard’ below ‘Ruby Jewels’ and added a ‘Blackie’ sweet potato vine. Three weeks after planting, they are spilling out of the container, comme ca:

The coleus are about to engulf the poor Cordyline plant in the back. (Canon G11)

A second pot holds my annual herb collection of basil, thyme, and rosemary. (I gave up on cherry tomatoes on the deck several years ago after watching them be attacked on a regular basis by some unknown creature (squirrel?) who took ONE BITE out of each tomato as it ripened.) The third container is planted with four plants of Coleus ‘Indian Summer’ and is filling out nicely, thank you. Here’s a closeup of the leaves on ‘Indian Summer.’

Coleus 'Indian Summer' shines on its own on my back deck. (Nikon D300)

I also took a photo of the leaves with my iPhone camera and while I like the image (a little dreamy and soft), the color is off.

The iPhone photo of the same leaves is beautiful, but the color is off.

I’ll never equal my fellow blogger Deborah‘s talent for creating stunning arrangements, but I think I’m making progress. Check in with me this fall, when my biggest challenge rears its annual head – window boxes for a client with a shady front yard. Who wants COLOR. Help.

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Tags: Canon G11, containers, D100, D300, design, iPhone photos, plant combinations, private gardens

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