Up your garden game this summer

Do you have to have a reason to buy more plants? After all, summer’s official start is only five days away, things are starting to take shape in the garden and the container gardens that decorate your patio and front entrance are looking lush and lovely. Would a few more container gardens make the experience any more blissful? In a word, yes.

Lucy Janzen, co-owner of New Leaf Garden Center in Winkler, and Sharlene Nielsen, outdoor stylist and owner of Front Door Stories in Winnipeg, sum it up perfectly.

To start with, the timing couldn’t be better.

"Garden centres are brimming with plants that are hitting their stride and ready to show off," says Janzen, who adds that during the mad rush of the May long weekend when plant shoppers are elbow to elbow at garden centres, it’s easy to miss or dismiss plant varieties that were still early in their stage of development. But look at them now and their excellent presentation gives you a renewed sense of their unique traits.

There’s always room for another container, Nielsen says. Assess your container gardens, she recommends. Do they need a bit of tweaking or rearranging? Is there room to tuck in another plant or switch out a disappointing or faltering plant for one that looks more promising? The rationale for creating and designing a container garden, Nielsen says, goes beyond its purpose of creating a good first impression for visitors as they walk up to your front door. If you’re in love with how your container garden looks, you’ll take pleasure in tending it.

Most of the container designs at New Leaf are created by Sharron Tetraeux and Sherri Adams. We are seeing definite interest, Janzen says, in container designs that emphasize one colour family. The most popular examples, she says, are designs that highlight different shades of white, yellow or green. The use of one colour or colour theme keeps it simple but also elegant.

Monoculture containers with just one type of plant are also on-trend this year, for example, combining several different varieties of ornamental grasses or coleus into a container to make a beautiful textural statement. Predominantly foliage combinations that include a single, vividly coloured annual pack a punch, too. In one example at New Leaf, exotic Bird of Paradise is paired with Golden Delicious salvia, Bewitched After Midnight potato vine, Bewitched Green with Envy potato vine and Dynamo Dark Red geranium.

When I visited New Leaf earlier this spring, I was inspired by a unique grouping of foliage plants arranged at the foot of a vintage iron bed: Bird’s nest fern, asparagus fern, spider plant, Callisia repens, Euphorbia Stardust Super Flash, fibre optic grass and Rex begonia.

Any one of these plants can lead to so many different possibilities in a container design. Bird’s nest fern has wide, flat fronds with wavy edges and a waxy finish. Callisia repens is an indispensable plant for the shade container. Also known by the awkward name of Bolivian Jew (I’ve never met a plant called Bolivian Episcopalian or Bolivian Baptist, have you?), Callisia quickly triples, even quadruples its size, cascading over a planter’s edge in a matter of weeks.

Some of the ready-to-go container recipes at New Leaf feature fibre optic grass tucked jauntily offside like a flourish on fascinator hats. In one example emphasizing foliage textures, a large wire-frame teacup with a coconut liner has been planted with Cupressus Goldcrest Wilma, Lemon Licorice helichrysum, Macaw coleus, Black Mondo grass and fibre optic grass.

One of Janzen’s favourite annuals is an angelonia hybrid, Angelface Super White or Super Blue Summer Snapdragon. Janzen says this variety is not new but has demonstrated proven performance, including excellent wind tolerance. New Leaf’s designers paired Angelface Super White with an all-foliage combo that includes Pennisetum Prince (ornamental napier grass), Marine heliotrope, Gryphon begonia, Main Street Broad Street coleus, Religious Radish coleus, Wasabi coleus and Ace of Spades potato vine and lotus vine as the trailers.

Nielsen offers a curated plant selection at her new boutique studio in the Westwood community of Winnipeg. It’s an exquisite, well-appointed space on the scale of a small florist shop and includes a separate area for year-round workshops.

Nielsen has been in business for 10 years, specializing in customized containers. Now she has opened her studio every Friday and Saturday to customers who are looking for a single specialty plant or advice on creating an entire container arrangement.

Nielsen says that her typical client wants a finished look right from the start. One plant that easily achieves this is Podocarpus macrophyllus, a wonderfully architectural evergreen plant, which Nielsen is using in her container designs this year as an alternative to the Majesty Palm. It’s perfect for gracing a front entrance with its narrow, vertical form. In one example, Nielsen underplanted Podocarpus with Redhead coleus, Vinca Wojo’s Jem and New Guinea impatiens in a vibrant orange.

Another plant variety with an instant wow factor is the Bismarck Palm. The steel blue, palmate fronds are in the shape of fans. Both the fronds and stem have a whitish, waxy surface. It looks spectacular underplanted with a voluminous green and white variegated Wandering Jew (Tradescantia flumeninsis), a double-flowered scarlet orange Kalanchoe and variegated Vinca Wojo’s Jem.

In another exciting variation with Bismarck Palm as the thriller, Nielsen combines Bromeliad Neoregelia Venus, an unusual tropical with cream variegated foliage and an impossibly deep pink centre. Fillers include Croton Mammy with vividly coloured, twisty leaves, together with red-orange Coleus Inferno and a holly fern. The spillers include Begonia Bossa Nova Red and variegated ivy.

Bromeliad Neoregelia is a startling, stunning tropical. Neoregelia Mona Lisa has the same marginated foliage as Neoregelia Venus, but an even brighter pink centre. For one client, Nielsen combined Mona Lisa with Majesty Palm in a wide, neutral planter and added Cordyline Florida, Dragon Wing begonia, Kong Scarlet coleus, eucalyptus, Kimberley Queen fern and Wandering Jew.

Of course, I was captivated by another of Nielsen’s imaginative container designs that featured Hydrangea macrophylla Pink Sensation as its focal point. With voluptuous creamy pink mophead blooms that transition in colour throughout the season, hydrangeas — whether hardy varieties or non-hardy like Pink Sensation — are scene-stealers.

Nielsen works magic by combining this compact and floriferous shrub with Alocasia California, a dwarf elephant ear with chartreuse foliage. Fillers include Coleus Redhead, Holly fern and Gaura lindheimeri Ballerina White. Begonia Belleconia Apricot Blush and variegated ivy spill over the edge of a stout, darkly coloured pot.

A common mistake when creating a container design, Nielsen says, is to use plants that are disproportionate in size to the container you are using. The use of diverse textures, artful and strategic mixing and matching, as well as careful attention to right plant, right location, a regular watering schedule, routine deadheading and pinching back as needed, will ensure a beautiful container display.

Gardening, after all, is a competitive sport. There are only three months of summer and yet there’s always a new plant to try, a new combination recipe that will up your game. That should be reason enough to create at least one more container garden, don’t you think?

colleenizacharias@gmail.com

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