How to Match Colors and Pots in Container Gardening

With homeowners downsizing to condos with decks or just deciding to add more texture and structure to the garden, container gardening is becoming more important to the gardener. Containers have gotten cheaper in recent years with the advent of new materials. Not only are they cheaper, but lighter, so the average gardener can move them around as season, design ideas or fancy strikes. You see glamorous containers and plants in magazines and would love to have beautiful pieces of growing art in your garden or on your deck. But the picture was taken in Hawaii and you live in Maine. Don't despair. You can have the same kind of eye-stopping arrangements at your house if you just know a few rules of container gardening.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Pick out plants that have the same water and fertilizer needs, so some don't get overwatered and others dry up and look like broom straw. Be prepared for more maintenance if you use pots. They need more water because they dry out faster in the sun. Learn a few basics about the plants you choose and then go forward with design.

2. Combine colors or not. You can have a monochromatic pot of flowers (all blue) or different shades of the same color (pink to red to purple); or choose complementary colors opposite each other on the color wheel (deep purple pansies and orange marigolds with yellow zinnias).

3. Match the plants with the pots. Styles can match. Use Mexican pottery with Mexican heather, French urns with lavender and herbs or Italian pottery with Italian goats head.

4. Use different greens. Don't forget that green is a color, too. It is an interesting color with a million variations, variegations and textures. Use chartreuse coleus with purple sweet potato vines with gray dusty miller. Mix colors, textures and leaf shapes.

5. Look for contrast. Use glossy leaves in matte pots, matte leaves in shiny pots. Match your flowers with your interior decor. Use palms if you have palm fronds on your outdoor or indoor cushions. A good way to design a pot is to pick out the pot you love, then keep trying different plants in the pot. Do not remove them from their nursery pots, just arrange them until you see what arrangement you like. Do remember that you will change your flowers at least yearly, so if you don't like what you put together this year, you can change it soon.