More Fall

As promised, here are more photos of the home my partner, nkohlinteriors, decorated for Thanksgiving.  He had a florist do some of the arrangements, but he did all the other, non floral arrangements.  I hope you enjoy and can get some ideas for next Thanksgiving.

Wreaths on the front door.

 Here is the front porch and the containers that I showed in my last post.  All but two pumpkins are real.  Nature is full of beautiful colors.

Buffet table with gourds.

The inside staircase.

 The dining table is set for 14.  There are three of the flower centerpieces with the single candle and two of the other arrangement. The table cloths are a deep violet mixed with gold napkins. 

 I love this grouping.  It's in the kitchen and is therefore slightly less formal.  The glass cylinders have a mix of cranberries and nuts.  The small container is in a simple terra cotta pot.

The florist was asked to use fall vegetables and fruits in the arrangements.  There are pomegranates and artichokes mixed in with the magnolia leaves, pheasant feathers and other greens.

It's still Fall

Despite what the commercials and retailers are showing you, it's still Autumn. And with Thanksgiving this week, I thought I would share a few more fall ideas.  My partner, nkohlinteriors.com, is decorating a client's home for Thanksgiving, and I've been helping him with some of the details and ideas.  He is putting new planters on the front porch and surrounding them with pumpkins and gourds.  We thought that it would be rather easy to find mums, pumpkins, etc, but it turned out to be a little more challenging.  It seems that after Halloween, most retailers, nurseries included, start switching over to Christmas. Poor Thanksgiving.  It's the holiday that Autumn is all about, and yet, it seems to be forgotten.  The good part is that much of the fall decorations were on sale. Mums were the most difficult thing to find, but the grocery store saved the day.  This weekend I planted the containers for him.

 

We used a red spike in the center with two burgundy mums, two purple cabbages (the one container has a spikey kale and cabbage), and a dusty miller. I then filled in the empty spaces with arborvitae.  The colors look sophisticated and festive.  Adding the dusty miller and greens also make these containers great for transitioning into the Christmas season.  Once they are in place on the clients porch surrounded by the pumpkins and squash it will be a very welcoming scene for Thanksgiving.  

I will hopefully be adding more posts this week as the decorations go up and the table is set.  I think it will turn out to be beautiful Thanksgiving for this family.

A Fall Refresh

It's fall, and that means it's time for apples, sweaters, and planting.  Around the middle of September I get the urge to redo the urns and containers around the house.  Don't get me wrong, the summer plantings were very pretty this year, but towards the end of the season some of the plants have gone past their prime.  Petunias start to look a little straggly, impatiens don't look healthy, and even the coleus are getting woody and losing leaves.  Now is the time to purchase mums, kale, cabbage, and pansies.  I like to stick to a color theme for my containers, and this fall I chose purple and crimson.  I found these dark purple pansies, appropriately named Halloween II.  Combined with some crimson pansies, and dark red mums they replace the yellowing impatiens that lined my flower beds.  Pansies are quite hardy and many will continue to flower in the winter.

For our large urn, I replaced the petunias and other annuals with a couple spiky kale and 2 red mums.  I like to choose mums that have not quite burst into bloom yet.  I want the color in the garden to last a as long as possible, so I pick flowers that will bloom in few days or weeks.  I used a few small pumpkins as accents.  The umbrella grass was still going strong and it adds the height to this grouping.

TIP:  When planing your summer containers, plan ahead.  Try to use a few plants that will age nicely into the fall so you are not replacing everything. 

Summer

Fall

For my smaller porch containers, I replaced the coleus and petunia with a small mum and a cabbage (the petunia is in the back of the urn in the summer picture). I kept the begonia since it still looked nice and the blue arrow juncus.  I use both perennials and annuals in my containers, but sometimes perennials do not winter in containers.  If you would like to save a perennial for next year, you should bring them inside or a sheltered area for the winter or replant them to the ground before the frost hits. Add them to your existing flower beds or designate a section for wintering your penennials.  When spring arrives, simply transplant them back the containers.  (I love the texture of the juncus, so I'm hoping it will survive the winter.)

During these crisp autumn days, before the leaves start falling, make a trip to the local roadside stand or nursery and pick up a few fall plantings to refresh those summer containers and flower beds.

Longwood Gardens

If you are looking for an excellent botanical garden to tour and you are in the Philadelphia area, you need to spend a day at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA.  It is amazing!  A couple of weeks ago we went down to see the current exhibit, Light: Installations by Bruce Munro, and spent several hours walking the grounds.  Botanical gardens, like Longwood, are perfect for getting ideas for your own garden. It's easy to get overwhelmed by the shear size and number of plantings, but remember the numbers can easily be scaled back for your backyard and flowerbeds.  So here's are my tip for visiting a botanical garden: take tons of pictures!  Here are few of my pictures from Longwood Gardens that will give you some planting ideas to inspire your personal gardens.

Chances are you are going to take pictures anyway, but take a few pictures of the tags.  I know that sounds odd, but you'll be thankful you did.  Most professional gardens label the plants they use.  It will be easier to reference a picture then a note written on a napkin ("purple leaves, some sort of vegetable?") You will now know exactly what you are looking for at your local nursery.

Color blocking is not just for fashion, it works well in your garden; plant groups of the same plant close together.  There are not as many different plants surrounding this fountain as you might think.  There are impatiens, coleus, grass, and clematis. The large numbers of the same plant creates a big impact.  The color also helps create the wow factor -- chartreuse, burgundy, and pink.  Coleus are great for mixing with your flowing annuals.  There are so many varieties in all types of colors.  I think there were about 4 varieties of coleus in this fountain garden.  

 Add some contrast.  Besides color contrasting, the mix of hard and soft always makes for a pleasing garden.  Here the fountain urn and stone wall add the hard element.  These elements help make a backdrop to the soft leaves and colors of the impatiens and coleus.  If you can't add a fountain like this to your garden, add a large urn or sculpture or boulder.  Make sure it's large enough so that the low plants have a background and do not hide it. Like this urn, sometimes it looks great empty. But filled with complimentary plants, this would look just as beautiful.










Repetition.  One way the formal nature of this path is achieved is by the repetition and spacing of the urns.  You've seen this before done with trees along a driveway or street.  It creates a sense of importance to the end of the path and you instictively want to walk down the path.  These urns are about 4 or 5 feet high and the agave make a dramatic "top" to the bottle shape of the urn.  Use a smaller urn, or tall shrub and this could be your driveway.

I've mentioned this before, but containers do wonders for landscapes.  This island of containers is the focal point of the paved area.  Here they used silvers and purples to tie all the containers together.  Not every pot has the same number of plants or even types of plants, but they all stay within the color scheme.  This is also a great example of everything I mentioned above.  The color blocking, contrasting, and repetition all make this grouping of containers a single garden.

And finally, height.  Take note that in all the pictures I posted that there is something that draws your eye up.   That's not to say that a garden cannot be beautiful with low plants.  But having layers of tall and low elements add drama and movement.  It could a fountain, an urn, or a tree. So as you visit those gardens, remember to take pictures and start planning for spring!

Porch planters

It was a rainy day in Lambertville, NJ, but that didn't stop us from wondering in and out of the shops. If you have never been there or to New Hope, PA (which is just a quick walk across the bridge), it's filled with quaint boutiques and galleries.  And, if you walk a few blocks off the main street, you can find some beautiful Victorian homes. These are the places where it's easy to find home and garden inspirations.  I noticed this buttery yellow stucco home with black shutters and lots of iron work.  What really drew my attention were the plantings. 

They did not have a lot of planting space in the yard, but they made the most of it.  They alternated two plants against the house and a continuous row of impatiens along the fence. What I really like about this garden is the color scheme and how the plants in the ground relate to the plants in the planter.  All the flowers are white and some of the plants have green and white variegated leaves.  Also notice that the plants are in terracotta pots, which relate back to the stucco finish of the home. The great part about using pots is that the homeowner can easily change out the plants depending on the season, month, or even their mood.

It has the three components of a great container garden -- range of heights, color, texture.  The topiaries lead your eye up, while the ivy and vines bring your eye back down. Most plants look good together, but a good color scheme appears more thought out.  This monochromatic palette of white looks modern and sophisticated.  And, finally, the similar shape of all the leaves gives a soft relaxing feeling.  All of which add to an eye catching planter and a welcoming front porch.

Ladew Gardens, Monkton, MD

Since it's summertime, I will posting a lot about plants and flowers. I love container gardening! I always look forward to planting the urns and pots at home.  While we don't have any, I think flower boxes beautify almost any home.  For rural or suburban homes, they can help continue flower beds and draw your eye up the face of your home.  For urban homes, they are one of the ways to add some greenery to a sea of brick, stone, or siding.  I think plants in general help to soften hard lines and surfaces and add a welcoming touch to your home.

(www.ladewgardens.com

On a day trip to Ladew Gardens, I saw these beautiful flower boxes filled with all types of succulents.  This a great example of texture and color.  These are two of the factors to think about when selecting plants for containers.  The shades of greens, yellows, purple, and blue-silver give this box excitement and the textures and various sizes of similarly shaped leaves add a great complexity to otherwise simple plants. I could see this box on the first floor of a city brownstone, so every passerby can get a great look.  I don't think it would work quite as well on a second story window since many of these plants do not grow too high or dangle over the edge.

There are plenty of premade boxes to choose from at home and garden centers. Or you can create and build your own.  Make sure they can easily drain and be removed if needed.  Happy gardening.