Planters Archives - Page 2 of 3

The Owl Herb Planter

The last topiary I made was an owl – you can see it >>here<<. I did not love or even like the way he looked once I stuffed him with moss and planted him. So I pulled out all the plants and moss expecting to discard the rest. Except once he was empty, I loved him again.

In the meantime, I had purchased some herbs with the idea of using them to resurrect the bunny – which I actually love but not with plants in it. But I had forgotten how much the dogs love eating herbs!

Now I’m perfectly willing to share a bit, but I know from experience that once the dogs start grazing on a plant, it’s not too long before I’m left with a bit of root and dirt on the living room floor and an empty pot of dirt. While I was trying to come up with a way to let them graze a bit without being able to completely uproot the plants, I had a Eureka moment!

I turned the Owl Topiary into an Owl Herb Planter!

I used some heavier gauge wire to create two circles for eyes and secured them in place with some light-weight florist wire. Then I scuffed up the surface of a plastic planter with a sanding pad. I spray painted the owl and the planter with Rust-Oleum Chalked paint in Serenity Blue.

I wanted the bowl to have the look of an old zinc planter so I dry-brushed some silver paint on the planter, and scuffed the paint on the owl with my sanding sponge.

It looks a bit odd to have the plants so tight to the middle but it will hopefully prevent the dogs from pulling the plants right out of the soil. This pot fits perfectly in the top of a tomato cage that goes in one of my rare sunny corners so I will probably add something around the edges to trail down from the pot.

Here’s a close up so you can see the ‘eyes’.

If you would like to make the owl cloche, check out my Owl Topiary post. Just leave him unstuffed.

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Atomic Style Planters for Fellow MCM Geeks

I’m just going to say it – I’m a complete geek for all things MCM, especially the Atomic style patterns of the day. Fortunately for me, so are Joe and Angie of Ambient Wares and Joe created two amazing patterns you can download for free >here<!

I have so many ideas for these patterns, but the first thing I did with them was make some darling planters for my growing collection of succulents.

Initially, I painted two pots white and another two turquoise. I decoupaged Joe’s pattern to the rims of my pots. Unfortunately, when I sprayed them with sealer, the color of the clay bled through the white paint, making it appear dirty next to the bright white patterned rims. So I masked off the decorative rim and hit them all with the spray paint – Rustoleum Chalked in Serenity Blue – which turned out to be a perfect MCM color.

Planting a Dish Garden with Succulents

Once everything was dry and sealed time for the fun! The thriller, filler, spiller rule applies to dish gardens as well as outdoor planters. I created a pleasing arrangement, then I used my favorite planting trick.

Gently remove the plants from their pots and then place the empty pots as space holders.

Add soil and tamp in place around the empty pots.

Take out one of the pots and there’s your planting space.

Pop a plant in and move to the next ‘space’.

Here you can see the finished arrangement with a few more plants added in.

One of the smaller pots, still using the formula of thriller, filler, spiller. I love the way this little pot came together with the delicate blue trailer, the fuzzy leaves of the filler and the spiky dark green height behind.

Here is another small pot. Check out Jaws in there!

This little table used to be my play table as a kid. Now it sits beside my desk under a window.

This little wicker thrift store shelf hangs above.

It’s also home to my mini turtle topiary.

These little pots with their ‘Atomic’ patterned rims make me happy.

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Planter Tweaks and Mr. Toad

All of my planters are filling in nicely, but that doesn’t stop me tweaking things here and there. Here are a couple of the planter tweaks I’ve made and an introduction to my new gardening buddy.

Shyly Hiding…

Begonia Flowering on the wrong side — Non Stop Begonia hiding it’s flowers

This Non Stop Begonia in one of my Black & White planters has been flowering steadily but for whatever reason, all the flowers were on just the one side and hidden behind everything else. I was hoping that eventually it would start flowering on the outside, but with no branching at all on that side it was seeming less and less likely.

Planter Tweaks Non Stop Begonia — Much better

Yesterday I got out my trowel and turned it.

Maybe Third Time is the Charm?

I first planted this Sunny Yellow Planter with Bidens. The Bracteantha and Non Stop Yellow begonia did fabulously but the Bidens died.

Planter Tweaks Blue Lobelia added — Tweak it Once

So I pulled out its body and planted a blue lobelia in its place. That died too.

Usually it’s the dogs eating my plants and pulling them out that causes me problems. This time I suspect this little guy is to blame. He’s built himself a burrow in nearly every pot in that corner, or at least in the shorter ones. I’m not sure what happened to the giant toad that used to live on my deck and occasionally get in the house, but apparently I have a new tenant.

So on Tuesday while I was out and about I saw this cool untagged trailing plant. At the garden center, they assured me it is an annual, but looking at all the air roots at each joint I decided it was best if I kept it off of the ground.

I haven’t seen Mr. Toad in a couple of days, but maybe he’s living in the Cilantro now.

Planters from garden centers sometimes need tweaking here and there too. The coleus in my Instant Patio Planter was outgrowing the rest of the planter so I gave each branch a hard pinch.

These are the pieces I broke off so you can see it was a very hard pinch. The lobelia and bacopa are dying off as expected and I’m not sure what to replace them with. Creeping jenny would look nice, but I don’t like to plant it where there is a chance for it to touch ground and take off. That’s how I got the English Ivy that is everywhere over there.

The Silver and Green Planter

No tweaks here, I’m still happy with this planter. The Artemisia Silver Brocade and PW Flambé chrysocephalum in my Silver and Green planter are looking a little leggy, but I like the way they sprawl among the other plants. The one bare corner at the front is another of Mr. Toad’s hidey-holes.

Other than those few planter tweaks I’ve picked the odd spent bloom, but I’ve done very little watering so far. That’s why I like the big pots!

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Meteor Shower Verbena

Meteor Shower Verbena is a new plant and a new type of plant from Proven Winners. I’ve seen it here and there at garden centers and the more I see it the more I like it.

It’s a Verbena Bonariensis bred for a more compact habit. Suggested for sun to part sun, it’s still a tall plant reaching 20-30″ in height. I like the way the blooms sit so far above the foliage, almost as if suspended above the plant. It seems to take away some of the gawkiness such a tall plant could otherwise have in a planter.

Meteor Shower in my own yard

Inspired by the planter above, I made the leap and bought one for myself.

I had some Success petunias, 3 each of Coral, Pink Vein and Pink Chiffon, and was having a hard time finding a spot that was sunny enough for them. I’ve tucked the coral into the edge of the veggie bed behind. Then planted the Pink Vein and Pink Chiffon with the Meteor Shower along with some Ipomea, or sweet potato vine.

This is a big pot to fill, so for the sweet potato vine I used two. They are the Sweet Georgia series from Green Fuse and much less aggressive than most Ipomea, definitely less vigorous than the Proven Winners variety shown in the first photo. My usual luck with petunia is to have them either die out or get a bit bald at the top towards August, hopefully the foliage from the Ipomea will keep the planter looking attractive.

At the moment the verbena is a gawky looking plant indeed, but soon enough the veggie plants from the garden behind will provide a backdrop and the other plants in the planter will fill in around it.

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Purple and Lime Planter

Purple Prince Alternanthera calls for full sun but happily, it seems to be taking to it’s shady home just fine. While Alternanthera is perfectly suited to landscape plantings, I chose to use it in a planter as the thriller.

A) Purple Prince Alternanthera

Recommended for full sun to light shade, I have it in a densely shaded place and it’s doing fine. It’s also suggested as a spiller in planters, I’ve chosen to use it as a thriller in this planter.

B) Escargot Rex Begonia

Silver and green leaves with a snail-like pattern have a purplish underside. It’s coloring worked well in this combination.

C) Burgundy Wedding Train Coleus

One of the few coleus with a true trailing habit which makes it highly desirable for container plantings. It’s limey colored edges make a nice contrast to the darker colored foliage.

D) Lobelia

I added three purple Lobelia a couple of weeks after the rest of the plants when I decided something was missing. At the time the planter was already so crammed with plants, I ended up ripping half the roots off so I could stuff them in. They didn’t seem to mind.

E) Setcreasea

There are three setcreasea stems in this planter. My mother keeps a few slips at the end of each season to have for the next one. Something to consider for easily rooted plants, it helps to keep costs down. Many of the spillers commonly used in planters do well as houseplants over the winter.

This planter is very full, but the bottom half of the planter is all virgin soil waiting for new roots, so it will hold moisture just fine. In front of the planter is one of my houseplants. A limey-gold pothos, it has exploded in the couple of weeks it has been outdoors. I’m convinced it has already doubled in size.

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