Vibrant Nation

3 great arrangements for a container garden

Tracy Disabato-Aust's avatar Posted on Thursday, March 05, 2009 by Tracy Disabato-Aust Tracy DiSabato-Aust is an acclaimed garden writer and professional speaker with over 30 years of experience in the industry. Tracy has worked at Longwood Gardens in the U.S., The Montreal Botanical Garden in Canada, the Kalmthout Arboretum in Belgium, and Knightshayes Court in England. Her first book, The Well-Tended Perennial Garden: Planting and Pruning Techniques, has been referred to by many as "the bible for perennial maintenance." Tracy shares three container garden plant combinations using favorite plants from her new book, 50 High-Impact, Low-Care Garden Plants.
Container gardening is something many of us can do. Here are some of my favorite container arrangements using plants that are a little more unusual and are especially good for pots.

Container #1
Dwarf Rocky Mountain fir 1. Dwarf Rocky Mountain fir
This is one of my favorite container plants. It only reaches about ten feet in height and is about a six-foot spread normally. It's nice for giving a garden scale and it can be used in a large container, especially if it's a slightly protected site.
Golden sedge 2. Golden sedge
This is a good plant to place at the bottom of the dwarf Rocky Mountain fir, especially if the base of it gets more sun. They both tolerate similar conditions and you've got that yellow and blue, which are complementary colors--a beautiful combination.

Container #2
Hakone Golden-variegated Hakone grass
This plant is one of my all-time favorites. It is gorgeous and unusual--beautiful in more of a shady location.

Container #3


In an flowering arrangement, I like to use both flowering and foliage plants. I would use a combination of a couple different hellebores and then the brunnera, so we get a little different texture with the different Hellebores, a little color, and wonderful texture from the brunnera.
Jack Frost brunnera 1. Jack Frost brunnera
This is a shade plant with silver foliage that has almost a cracked porcelain look to it and tiny blue flowers in the spring.
Hellebores 2. Hellebores
These are good for a shade garden. They start to flower very early and look just gorgeous. I love the deep violet, almost black ones. They look spectacular and really pop against the silver foliage of the Jack Frost brunnera.

What's the best gardening advice you ever received? Click to join the conversation--you may win a FREE COPY of Tracy's new book, 50 High-Impact, Low-Care Garden Plants!

responses (0)

Why not join the conversation?

Pure and Natural