My Favorite Containers of 2025
I had a ball in container design in 2025 at the nursery.
I am often asked, ‘how do you come up with this stuff?’ It usually starts with walking around the massive greenhouse/nursery, picking out plants or containers that I’m inspired by. Then I find other plants, rocks, etc, that play well with the original inspiration.
My coworkers often bring me items they think I might like to use. I call them my crows, and they bring me cool, shiny objects. I also like to ask them to weigh-in: I work with many talented ‘eyes,’ and they help me when I get stuck. In particular, my manager Jen whose die-hard support also includes keeping me from my crazier impulses, and my pals Erika and Marla who always encourage me to go further. It’s a balance.
This is an epic post, it took me two hours to complete. So grab a cup of coffee or glass of wine and see photos with stories below for my favorite designs of 2025.
My first container and an ‘everything but the kitchen sink’ design: thriller, spiller and filler are all well represented in the standard recipe for design. My predecessor helped me and she was a joy to work with.
Carnival amaranth is the thriller in this container, and it changed dramatically as it matured. Always beautiful, always interesting.
My natural inclination is towards more simple designs, and when I have something as interesting as a twisted rush, I let it speak for itself.
Somehow this gives fairy garden with the thriller Sophora, the miniature fern feel of the Platts Black Buttons, and the cairn of rocks tucked behind.
I don’t do bows. I am constitutionally averse. Except in the case of this bow that was hanging around in the file cabinet. It’s begged to be included and I relented.
My first foray into succulents. These are Hens ‘n Chicks, and combined with the rocks they look like a bowl of candy. I promptly bought it and it now sits in my living room.
The pot itself, called the ‘Succulent Canoe’, I kid you not, turned out to be a versatile container. It’s the same as in the previous photo. This design is the first time it occurred to me we have a store full of ceramic nick-nacks. Why not use them? The mushroom gave it a nice touch, and was the gate way for the kid pots (next photo.)
Why not do something fun and whimsical? I did a series of seven kid or whimsical pots that sold out in a day. The lisianthus has what I call ‘Astro Turf’ moss below it. Added a mushroom and we good to go!
This whimsical pot gets a mention and is really more about the photo as I caught the bird, just right.
Done in the same day and frame of mind as the kid series, obviously, the Hanoki cypress was the perfect foil for a unicorn in a castle. I teared up when I finished it, it made me so happy.
I call this my magnum opus, and a far cry from ‘the recipe.’ The figurine is about one inch tall, and this particular blue fescue had organically grown in an arch instead of its usual conical habitat. But some meat-head stole the figurine, literally behind my back. I was so upset I realized I should buy it. So I bought it as is, got another figurine and brought it home. It sits on a window ledge, the black sand sparkling like diamonds when the sun light hits it.
This was a successful experiment in one container housing plants with different watering needs. The King Tut papyrus has high water needs, so the back half of the container is filled with the usual potting soil, the succulents in the front with the shallow roots are planted in succulent soil. It worked great! Water the King Tut and ignore the kids up front!
Two capsicum (pepper plants), a helichrysum, two kinds of rocks and a large Bonzi container, coexisting.
Just a fancy salad of coleus, lysmachia ’Waikiki Sunset’ and a heather. Plus a rock.
I called this the Ice Princess when I first completed it. I had dug through a box of rocks and pulled all the rose colored quartz I could find, and it was pretty, but it was also cold. It dawned on me it needed pale, yellow-lime rocks so I added them. Sold an hour later. See the original in comments below.
Sometimes I take on a dare, use something I would never want. Because who knows? Maybe someone else does. This odd little wagon wheel metal set was so off-putting to me I thought ‘sure, I’ll give it a go.’ It turned out to be such a useful set-up I used all the store had. Here, two pepper plants flank a rudbeckia.
The Queen of the Fancy Salads. Two coleus, a salvaged begonia (destined for the compose bin but I nursed it back to health), Japanese Painted fern, lysmachia ‘Persian Chocolate’. I was sorry when this sold as I was quite curious how it would mature. In particular, the coleus in the back puts up hot pink flowers. If you zoom in on the photo you can see spots of pink on the leaves, giving the high sign of what’s to come.
This container shows a truth: there is no place to hide in simplicity. Dark chocolate brown Bonzi container, black sand sprinkled with pink glittering thingys, perfect succulent.
The Dwarf Pagoda Japanese Holly and I have a thing, but I didn’t know it when I made this, the first of three containers incorporating it. In a sea of color and flowers, I reasoned there must be people who would like something mostly green. It is surrounded by dichondra. Baby’s tears, bugle weed, and black rocks.
Jen had an idea to create a container from found art. We made this together from a silver gravy boat she had. It has no drainage so we used the swamp loving bugle weed, a bit of baby’s tears, and a detail that is hard to see: two clear glass disks situated to the left, brought to me by one of my favorite crows, Brenna.
I love vairigated plants but never put two vairigated thrillers together. But somehow the polemonium (left) balances the Chinese fairy bells (right). Maybe it’s the pink, variegated dracaena between them?
Love me a contorted Bonzi-esq mugo pine!
The fuzzy, lime-green of the lambs ear (left) had been catching my eye, when on a stroll around the green house, the fuzzy, blue-white of the Angles Wing senecio (right) came into view. Oh yea, that’s the ticket. Dark purple brassica in the back, pink rose in the center, and Diamond Heights ceanothus for the spiller in the front.
2nd container with the Dwarf Pagoda Japanese Holly. It’s quite the 3-D specimen and very hard to capture in 2-D. I added the native, hearty cyclamen for its silver color and because duh, it’s cool. Along with bugle weed, creeping Jenny, Pratts Black Bottons, and of course, rocks.
Not all containers sell quickly, and sometimes we have to change up the plants inside. I love this version which includes a nod to Dr Seuss with the millet in the back ground, the always fabulous crane brassica that looks like roses (right), actual roses (left) and the variegated box honey suckle draping to the left.
Miners Merlot Euphorbia makes a terrific thriller, and I knew I found its match when I saw this pot. Heather, yellow pansies, diamond height ceanothus, and a plant I can never remember the name of.
Christmas season arrived and with it a new set of demands. I’m not a fan of Christmas kitch or designs in general, but I appreciate having limitations in the infinite world of possibilities of container design.
I used the succulent canoe, added a 4-inch tall cypress and 2-inch florist cyclamen. And rocks. Gotta have rocks. But the fun part of this are the ornaments. I hand made them out of a garland of jingle bells. I cut them off and then restrung them individually onto wi…
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These three originally started as Hanaukah pots with the blue, white, silver and gold that are used to celebrate the holiday. They didn’t sell so I added the hand made miniature ornaments and poof! Away they went.
I caved to the kitch. The pink balls were iridescent, glitzy, crazy. I loved them and used them for a porch pot
Always looking for a way to inject Dr Seuss, these shallow containers had the beginnings of Paper White Narcissis starting to grow. So I added red balls.
I did manged to do some serious Christmas designs. This center piece for a table contains the usual salal and conifers. I also added dried grass and rudbeckia from the plants in the parking strip.
Detail of the grass. Beautiful, no?
I created this while listening to an extraordinary cello and violin duo playing at Sky. Heuchera in a moss pot, topped by an arched cedar bough.
Golden primrose have an incredible fragrance, and create a high contrast with the black Bonzi pot and rocks.
When you meet the most magnificent hellebore you have ever seen, first of all grab it so a customer doesn’t. Then the question becomes, what plant could possibly go with it? My answer was none. Just some rocks for highlight and a really nice pot. And, then thank God that you got to see such a marvel.
My latest Dwarf Pagoda, the Sun and Moon pot. I’m sorry I don’t have a place for it because I’d buy it.
Top view of the Sun and Moon pot. That’s ’Astro Turf’ moss creating the crescent moon.
Euonymus ‘Happiness’, lysmachia ‘Waikiki’, heuchera, dark-red Wave pansy, center. I love this combination but the damn thing is still for sale. What’s wrong with people?