Winter containers are actually some of my favorite to work on.  It is more about arranging greens and specialty items than planting.

We like to have our clients remove the fall or summer plants and keep the container about 3/4 full of soil.  This helps us because this time of year the containers may freeze and then it’s very difficult to get the greens placed.

I use a variety of winter branches from silver, noble, and fraser fir to incense and blue coned Cedar. I adore red huckleberry and German boxwood to help build the containers structure, then we have fun arranging around that.

The fun begins when we add floral options that can work and last in the containers.  My favorites are berzelia, brunia, and leucadendron cones.  Like icing on a beautiful cake we add the toppers and accents… birch branches, curly willow, mossed branches, magnolia tips, pine cones, pomegranates, and other surprises such as artichokes and sleighs this year!   The idea is to have fun and make it fit your home’s style and your holiday whatever it may be!

A beautiful winter container can last through the early spring and help enhance the entrance of your home.

I love hot colors in the summer and this year I planted a few.  The purple passion flower is stunning, a brilliant climber that surprises you with its blooms.  The Echinacea or Hybrid cone flower is such a beautiful melon color I had to add it to the garden.  Foxgloves are one of my favorite flowers, so were my gorgeous large hot pink Digitalis, but they don’t last in the summer heat.  So I added a new variety that blooms all season and has a hint of yellow with the hotter pink.  In the back there is also purple salvia and I planted a few annual star flowers to the mix.  Every year I continue to find a few more plants that make me smile.

How wonderful to enjoy a summer window box of simple and sweet flowers that just keep getting better as the season progresses.  In this box I used white geraniums, Wedgewood Angelonia, a variegated potato vine, mini petunias, star flowers, and Alyssum.

Shade containers never get boring.  Here is the front of a house I did using a large supported Fuchsia bush as the center and surrounding it with coleus, begonias, ivy, and more fuchsia.  It has a great deal of color for a shade container and will last well into the fall.

This is a shade container set back in a secret garden and I decided to use these amazing begonia leaves, with caladeums to sneak in a bit of color.  A very simple container making a big statement.  I really love shade plants!

I’m hoping summer is here and still wishing for consistent sunshine.  This is a sun container filled with hot pinks and purples.  The main flowers are a hybrid dahlia with the darker leaves that make a great contrast to the licorice vine, mini petunias, scaveola, and allisum.  I added a pop of additional interest with the hot pink cosmos… my favorite.  It’s feeling like summer!

This is a sun shade container best put in morning sun and afternoon shade.  I put in a Eugenia topiary with endless summer hydrangeas, added some variegated ivy keeping it simple but always bountiful!  A very easy planter to assemble… just remember that hydrangeas need a good watering every day!

Left over flowers for a sweet container.  Bright colors of stock, double mini petunias, lobelia, nemesia, osteospermum, and zinnias included in this container.

Bright colors to enjoy!