I like to compare the expertise and also the art involved in creating a planter to that of flower arranging. The majority of us have at sometime placed one or two flowers in a pot and enjoyed the results. Several of us have taken a little bit longer and arranged the flowers so that they show themselves off to best advantage. A smaller number of us really go to town on flower arranging and will always be looking for new flowers or foliage and unusual vases and vessels. There's a lesson to be learned from your "go-ahead" flower arrangers, and I do believe gardeners could do worse than make use of some of the energy and ideas. But the flower arrangers have a simple time when compared with the planter gardener. They have the advantage of having the ability to place their arrangements out of the way of strong winds, baking sun and drenching rain. Florists can always work happily in the knowledge that what they arrange will stay almost the same for the life of the display.
The planter gardener - with a few exceptions - has to have a vision of how the display will look several months on, when the planting matures. The few small plants planted in the beginning of the season will grow and by the end of a summer you will see a planter burgeoning with flowers and leaves.
In the meantime, you have needed to water, feed, prune and pinch out as well as do battle with the pests and diseases that do their best to thwart your efforts' It's not off-putting; this is gardening.
Texture
The sole aim of ornamental
Gardening is to excite the senses and bring us pleasure.
Plants with textural foliage not only stimulate us visually, but additionally encourage us to get up close and stroke them. Predictably, you will want to feel or touch their leaves to find out if they are as smooth, silky, rough, hard, soft or as spiky as they seem. The chance to experience pleasurable tactile sensations is certainly among the many joys of gardening.
As a container gardener, you can work with the range and interplay of textures by putting together plants with a similar feel like those with soft and furry leaves and stems, or those that ate fleshy and smooth. It's also possible to develop appealing contrasts of texture by planting the hard and smooth next to the soft and velvet-like. With the textures of the plantings which you use within a given space, different moods and effects will be created. Sharp, spiky plants make for a lively and energetic mood, while softer more pliable plants induce a more relaxed and mellow feel. These principles apply not just to foliage but additionally to flowering plants. And always remember to include the container in your equation. Choose a material or a finish that will enrich your textural planting as well as create a distinctive display.
Scale and proportion
Getting these two principal design fundamentals right is among the greatest challenges of container gardening. The proportions of every planting are continuously changing as plants grow and mature. This certainly presents a problem for container gardeners who have to try to see the finished display in their minds eye when planting: a testing task when young plants, at this point, might be less than a quarter of their eventual size. Whilst planning the size and proportion of the display, it is essential to take into account the growth habit of the species you have chosen; this will help you work out how a planting will look over time. For standard designs, that include a tall central plant in a circular pot, ideally the finished height should be between one and one-and-a-half times the height of the planter, and the planting roughly triangular in shape. But this relationship of planter to planting is not a rigid rule to be applied in every instance. As I add to these articles you will see that it is a flexible guideline to be adapted based on the form of the container. Usually, I try to avoid large plantings in planter boxes with small bases because they disturb the eye by appearing top-heavy, whereas the identical plants in a wide-based pot look stable and pleasing.
Form
Careful use of shape will help to generate drama in addition to excitement, or
calmness plus tranquillity. The obvious expression of shape within the planter box garden is topiary, where plants are trimmed into geometric or spectacular shapes for effect. Less manicured expressions of shape, however, could be accomplished through the use of plants with big or distinctive foliage or imposing arrangements of branches and stems. These "architectural" plants often work best when used on their own in planters, instead of as a mixed grouping, so that their shape really stands out. lndeed, just one well-shaped plant can have sufficient presence to stand alone as the centrepiece of a small courtyard or patio garden. When grown in containers, plants like Mahonia japonica, Aralia elata 'Variegata' Aucuba, Yucca, Cordyline, Phormium,
Acer palmatum 'Dissectum', Rhus glabra, Fatsia japonica and many palms and bamboos offer a variety of foliage and shapes to enhance a garden design. Effective on their own as garden focal points, they also work well as the primary feature in a larger grouping of containers. When relying on plant shapes to generate impact, avoid unduly fussy planter boxes since the detail will detract from your central theme. Planter boxes with simple outlines and powerful shapes will work much better.