----- Original Message -----
Good
point, Gene. I use a few perennials in containers, however, most clients
are not very garden-smart and complain when they have a short bloom
time. What natives might you suggest for foliage? I've used
heurchera for contrast and edgeing. Any other
suggestions?
Lynn
Gardens to
Go!
I've just come home after a day away and come across
this message. If I had any sense, I would wait until tomorrow to reply, but
anyone who knows me knows I have no sense at all.
Lynn, this does not specifically apply to you,
since I don't know what you do. But I am probably an ... god, I hate this word
.. but I am probably an expert on container gardening. I've written a number
of columns on the subject over the last couple of years (not to mention the
last couple of decades), and I absolutely hate what is being
done.
I think we, as garden writers (and I use that term
with intention) are being cowed by groupthink. Because so much emphasis is
placed on what is going on in television, the emphasis is on creating
containers in 22 minutes that look great at the end. The same thing is largely
true in magazines where photos of completed container gardens rule the pages.
Because of this, we as writers tend to produce copy that tells how to make a
container garden that looks great at the moment the planting is finished.
There is no thought of what it might look like at the end of July. I would
like to see just one show -- I would DARE one show -- to come back
two months later and show what that whiskey barrel with the pansies and
ageratum and spike ... whatever the hell that is ... looks like with little or
no care. Or even with decent care.
Perennials are great in a container array. But
they need to be planted in separate pots, as should almost all decorative
plants. Put them center stage when they are at their best. Move them back, or
even out behind the garage, when they are in their dotage. This is true even
with all-season annuals.
The whole point of growing in containers is its
adaptability. You can MOVE things. Unless you have them all planted together.
And that is what the "experts" on television are doing, not because it is good
gardening, but because it is good television. Or magazine photo
spreads.
I grow a couple of hundred plants in containers,
big and small, and I move them as their condition dictates. Every week I have
a different and better garden. But you don't need a hundred plants to do this.
You can do it with a dozen. But you can't show it in 22 minutes on HGTV. As
writers, I think we need to break the 22 minute barrier, and we have the
medium to do it.
Yeah, I should have waited until morning.
D
