A Great article in the KC Star on Container Gardening
Pairing plants and pots: A guide to outdoor containers
By GAIL BORELLI
Special to The Star
If there is one rule when it comes to picking pots for your porch, it’s this: Don’t be a slave to rules.
“Too many rules stymie people,” says Ricki Creamer, owner of Red Cedar Country Gardens in Stilwell in Johnson County.
Gardeners should feel free to express themselves through their containers and plants, combining colors, textures and shapes to suit their taste. “It’s your own art,” Creamer says. “Have faith in yourself and your home style to know what will look good.”
First: Pot or plant?
“The pot always comes first because it’s a structure, an accessory for your home,” Creamer says. “Hopefully you’ll have the pot for years. The plant, for most people, is likely going to die.”
Garden centers offer a huge selection of pots, from plain-Jane terra cottas to ornate cast-stone urns embellished with curlicues and cherubs. Other common materials include metal, glazed ceramic, plastic, wood and synthetics such as fiberglass. Containers can be round or square, tall or squat.
Size matters
Most people buy containers that are too small for the space they are trying to fill, Creamer says.
“People struggle with scale because of dollar signs,” she says, noting that big pots may cost $150 or more. She advises gardeners to save up for one large, attention-grabbing container instead of buying a bevy of $20 pots.
“A bunch of knee-high pots don’t make much of a statement.” But one big container with three smaller ones around it looks lovely, she says.
Bigger is also better when it comes to maintenance. Front-porch pots that are out of sight and out of mind are easily neglected. Plants in large containers that hold more moisture have better odds of survival, Creamer says.
‘Distinctive and different’
Pots are a good way to add personality to your home, says Alec Junge, president of River Market Pottery. The Kansas City wholesaler imports clay pots that range from 5 inches in diameter to 6 1/2 feet tall. All are handmade.
“Naturally beautiful things like plants belong in more organic, less factory-manufactured objects,” Junge says. (River Market pots are sold online at www.flowerpotshop.com and in retail stores such as Sutherlands and Nuts and Bolts.)
Junge likes to group pots according to a common theme. He suggests planting tall grasses in pots that are various shades of blue or combining pots made from the same material but in different shapes or sizes.
Ornate containers — what Creamer calls “one-pot wonders” — may call for simple plantings that won’t compete with the pot. (To avoid visual confusion, do not group too many of these flamboyant pots in one place.) Containers with simple lines can stand up to more riotous flora.
Take a look at your porch and match the pot to its surroundings. Is your dwelling a ranch, Georgian, foursquare, loft or bungalow? Is the exterior brick, stone or wood? What color are the doors and walls? Does existing porch furniture, such as vintage wicker or sleekly modern metal, suggest a pot shape or color?
There is no one correct answer to the pot puzzle, so get creative and get planting!
GETTING STARTED
•Assemble your containers, new and old. Bushel baskets, wheelbarrows, stone crocks and vintage metal crates can be recycled into offbeat planters, as long as they have drainage holes.
•Empty soil from last year’s pots and scrub the insides with a 10 percent bleach solution to kill any lingering pests and diseases.
•Pansies, snapdragons, violas and other hardy flowers can be planted now. Assess risk tolerance before potting more sensitive plants: While the average final spring frost in Kansas City is April 8, the latest recorded frost is May 6, according to the National Weather Service.
Gail Borelli is a freelance writer in Overland Park.