Skip deadly learning curve for flower pot success

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BY MARNI JAMESON
Times Correspondent | Monday, July 28, 2008 | No comments posted.
Reader Caution: The more you know about home improvement, thehappier you were before.

Little did I know that five years ago, when I began my flower potproject, I would fuel a string of family jokes longer than awisteria vine. The laughs begin every June when I bring home a flatof annuals from the nursery.

"Call the humane society," the kids chime, "Mom's planting again."

"She sinks more money than a pirate ship," Dan mutters.

Har, har, har. Okay, so I had some early floral failures, but I'veimproved.

Problem is, every time I overcome one gardening issue, anothersprouts. But failure and humiliation don't deter me. And next year,I have even grander planter plans. But first, let my five-yearkilling spree spare the lives of your annuals:

Year one:

I plant flowers in five large outdoor containers. Three weekslater, the planters look like the business end of a broom, friedstraw. Dan renames my planters The Jameson Botanical Cemetery.

Year two:

I hire a flower pot expert to select and plant flowers for my fivecontainers.

I cling to her like English ivy to learn where I went wrong. Lessonone: Pick the right plants for the exposure. If a plant sayspartial sun it wants no direct sun. Period. My planters get twotypes of sun n full and brutal. Lesson two: Water more. A lot more.In summer, flower pots need at least one good drink a day,sometimes two, which I totally get. With the kids home from school,I could use a couple drinks myself.

Year three:

My flower pot expert has run off with her sketchy boyfriend. I moveto plan B: Do what she did. Fortunately, I saved all the markersfrom the annuals she planted and have pictures of the planters. Ablooming idiot could copy them. I plant proven sun survivors:marigold, vinca, geranium and petunia. I water so much Dan sayshe's going to build an ark. The next week half my crop dies in ahail storm. The rest die from spider mite infestation. Mites, likeinsurance companies, like to pick on previously traumatized prey.

Year four:

I turn to drugs. Despite what one of my purist plant friends says-- that over-fertilizing hooks plants on drugs -- I figure, theseplants aren't driving anywhere. I pour Miracle Gro in the wateringcan with every watering.

Flowers bloom like Fourth of July fireworks. I mix insecticide thattargets mites into the potting soil. Success!

Year five:

I'm cocky enough to think I've mastered outdoor containergardening. I plant the pots, water and fertilize excessively, andwatch my flowers thrive. Then, one afternoon, as I smugly kick backon my deck to enjoy my finally thriving flowers, I read an articleabout outdoor spaces, and suddenly need a defib machine. Thearticle says that real flower pot aficionados design their pots.

They don't just get the exposures right, and put tall plants in theback or center, short plants in the front, and cascading plant atthe rim. Even I know that. They coordinate foliage to complementfurnishings. What? I want to throw in the trowel. Now I can't sitout and enjoy the flowers. I'm too busy critiquing their colorcombinations, and coming up with designs for next year's pots.

If summer flower survival is good enough for you, stop reading herebefore I ruin that. But, if you tend toward the obsessive -n whome? n- here's a crash course in advanced flower potting, courtesyof Steve Hill, a greenhouse manager at Arapahoe Acres Nursery, inLittleton, Colorado.

Combine colors on purpose. I never used to care what color myflowers were so long as they weren't brown. However, experts plantpurposeful n not random n color. When I first learned this, Iwanted to crawl in a dark closet with four pounds of See's candy.Two popular schemes: monochromatic, flowers of all one color (allwhite), or varied shades of one color (light and dark pinks); andcomplimentary, colors opposite each other on the color wheel (deepblue-violet pansies beside orange marigolds).

Match styles. The style of pot and its foliage should go together.Mexican pottery and Mexican heather; Italian pottery and Italiangoat's head; French urns with lavender and herbes de Provence.

Vary your greens. This isn't just good dietary advice.Sophisticated gardeners think explosive color is for amateurs, andfocus on the subtlety of blended greens -- lime and deep purplepotato vines beside a velvety gray dusty miller. Mix not onlydifferent colors of foliage, but also leaves with different shapesand textures.

Seek contrast: Put glossy leaved plants in matte pots, matte leavedplants in glossy pots.

Match flora and furnishings. The uberly compulsive match the printof their outdoor fabrics to their flowers. Say you have palm frondson your cushions; put potted palms and pots of tropical flowersaround. Because my pillows have a hydrangea print, and hydrangeaswould croak on my sun-soaked deck, if I want to make the ranks ofadvanced container gardener next year -- and show my family -- Ieither need to buy new pillows featuring sun tolerant florals, orimport shade. Once again, too much knowledge spoils everything.

Syndicated columnist Marni Jameson is the author of "The HouseAlways Wins" (Da Capo), available through Amazon and Barnes &Noble. You may contact her through www.marnijameson.com .