Progression of a Container, #2

Spec designs don’t necessarily sell immediately, something I have to keep in mind when I build out a pot. See below for the progression of a container I thought was a slam dunk but took much longer than anticipated to sell.

I like to do containers that highlight the different textures and shades of green. It’s a bit of a gamble as containers with brightly colored flowers are popular, but I like the quiet beauty all-green brings, and loved these plants against the deep purple/eggplant of the pot.

I picked the hellebore for its interesting variegated leaves and in anticipation of white flowers. Surrounding it is a maiden hair fern, Platt’s black buttons ground cover, creeping Jenny (lysmachia) and a mini-hosta up front. Cute little bugger! But the container was made in late September and I knew the hosta would go dormant within six weeks

Close up of the container and a better photo of the color.

Time passed. The mini-hosta went dormant as expected in November, so I popped in a small florist cyclamen in front of it. Very festive. What I didn’t expect was the bloom time on the beautiful hosta: It’s always good to read the tags! But here it is in January, FINALLY doing its thang.

Here we are about a week later. The hellebore is proudly doing it best, but now it’s being undermined by the lysmachia. After a week of very cold temps in the greenhouse, it’s looking rather shoddy.

I did a refresh. Replaced the ‘spiller’ lysmachia with diamond heights ceanothus. Although the container looked great, it had now been on the floor for over four months. I really needed to add some color but wasn’t finding anything I liked and I had very limited space. (What isn’t evident in the photo is the size of the root ball of the hellebore, which made it almost impossible to add.)

Along waltzes my co-worker Marla Clem who said ‘’I just found this amazing pansy and I really think you need to use it in one of your containers. Here.”

At first I said no thank you I really don’t know where to put it, when my eye fell across Das Pot. And I realized. There it is. The color I need! And it’s root mass is small!

And here it is in all its Sold! glory. A woman came through with a group of friends looking for a gift for her daughter, and off it went.

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