18 Container Gardening, Part 3: How To
November 17, 2020
20 Fabulous Fall Foliage
December 11, 2020
"S ucker for Succulents" is my Aunt Patti in a nutshell. There is not a nursery in all our travels that she does not waltz in and waltz out of without a succulent or two or three or ____ (fill in a number).
Before we even start our waltzing, she usually says to me, "I just don’t need another plant." Then she’s like a child on Christmas morning—her fingers roaming over the "presents," picking them up, putting them down, up, down, saying "Ooh, I don’t have this one!"... "Ooh, I don’t have that one!"
Sonoma Mission Nursery (SMN) was our first stop in a 4-day "adventure of plant love" covering selected nurseries from San Francisco to Santa Rosa and surrounding cities.
SMN does a fabulous job of creating little mini landscapes to showcase their plants—especially their succulents, which have a garden of their own in the interior of the nursery.
Now mind you, in the photos, you are seeing succulents that are very old. Don’t think you can plant some and have them looking this good pronto. I visit SMN yearly and enjoy watching the succulent garden mature with age.
Here's a very old display of succulents in a barely visible wheelbarrow.
Succulents like shallow containers such as the wheelbarrow because these plants do not require much soil. A lot of soil would hold too much water for them. Succulents live on the dry side of plant life.
One of the easiest ways to design a nice looking container of succulents is to match the container color to a color in the plant.
I would plop that display on a patio bistro or side table and call it a day. I like it when nurseries put beautiful creations together so customers can buy them ready-made.
Of course, you could spend less money and create your own, like I did here...
I do much of my succulent buying and designing during winter months. That's when few other plants are available to purchase, besides conifers. And—except for bareroots—winter is the wrong time of year to be installing plants anyway.
But let's be honest, there is never a wrong time of year to visit nurseries! I have a great NEED to be in a nursery at least once a week if only to waltz around a bit. Along with my motto, "Less is more" is my other motto, "You never know whatcha' gonna' find!"
I found this stunning container that day at SMN. I wanted it so badly, but it would have taken up my whole side of the car! And this was only the first day of our trip. I wasn’t about to pay rent to Aunt Patti for having to put all my future purchases on her side of the car. So I waltzed sadly away.
However, I have been back to SMN, and the container is still there—probably because its tag says "$450." If ever there was a fabulous focal point container, this one is. But I cannot figure where to put it in my landscape. (Still thinking though....)
Anyway, take a look here. Do you think "Sucker-for-Succulents" Aunt Patti has enough of them? Behold her backyard.
Aunt Patti may have issues, LOL, but don't you think she has made a fabulous grouping here? She even brings in the cobalt blue as a consistent color.
So is it possible to use succulents, not grouped together en masse, but more sparingly in a larger landscape setting?
Aunt Patti asked me to design a low maintenance front yard for her which presented that very challenge. I agreed to the project under one condition: after it was completed, she was NOT to add any plants without MY approval. She agreed!
Here's the "before" photo.
I have to tell you a quick story about that blue container near the porch.
Remember in blog post 18 where I say not to place a container directly on soil because some nearby plant will send its roots up through the hole, eventually filling the container and plugging up the hole?
Well, she did and one did.
It took me damn near an hour to dig that Cupressus macrocarpa ‘Goldcrest Wilma’ (Lemon Cypress or Goldcrest Tree) out of that container. This was in 100-degree weather which about killed me. And all the while my crew was getting a kick out of me struggling with that damn tree. I got it out, but unfortunately it later died. (Do you think it could have died because I transplanted it on a hot sunny day and cut off about 15 feet of its roots? Gawd, just shoot me now!)
I always notify my clients beforehand when a plant might not survive a transplant. Lemon Cypress is readily available year round—particularly near the holidays because they look "sooooooooo cute!" in a quart size with a little red bow attached. But as I've said elsewhere they quickly outgrow that itty-bitty container and will die unless you pot them up or get them in the ground.
That said, we chose not to replace the Lemon Cypress but to swap in a Yucca ‘Bright Star' instead.
Anyway, here is the "after" photo (taken before the Lemon Cypress's death):
The new front yard is basically a succulent landscape with a few companion plants (same water usage and sun exposure) thrown in to add color and texture.
She also added a water feature from Thompson Building Materials to enjoy while sitting at her kitchen window or on the porch.
On her property along the sidewalk is a water meter which I could not cover, so I created the notch outs you see in the "after" photo. This idea of mine turned out so lovely I adapted it for another client's landscape.
For "mulch" I used 3/8-inch Sonoma Gold rock which elevated the elegance of the design. Stunning, I say! It is expensive material at $85 per yard but well worth it. And BTW here’s my two cents about committing money to projects: if you are going to put the time and expense into a landscape design/install and feel tempted to skimp where it matters, don’t. You will regret it immediately or down the road. Trust me, I know what I am talking about. (Always.)
Here is a more current photo showing the new Yucca 'Bright Star' (right) and some maturing in the plants.
If you knew Aunt Patti, you would know that—by trait—she is a "stuffer" of all things plants. Can't stop herself. (Pretty much like me, haha.) So to maintain the integrity of her new front yard, I have her in "Plant Rehab" currently because she keeps asking me if she can add this plant or that plant to the front yard. That answer would be NO!
From the original planting, we kept this Cotinus coggygria ‘Golden Spirit’ (at left in the fountain photo). It came from Blondies Blooms in Roseburg, Oregon. The place is now permanently closed, but I loved it because it was out in the country at a woman’s house who obviously loved cultivating plants—and she offered them as such excellent prices. These trees are usually expensive, but I bought 4 one-gallons from her at just $10 each! I would have bought the entire inventory but would have had to pay rent to Aunt Patti. (That rule might seem crazy to some, but addicts need strong parameters, and it works for us.)
I potted them up into 3-gallon pots and sat on them for a few years before giving one to Aunt Patti. It is a highly underutilized tree if there ever was one. Absolutely stunning foliage colors in spring and in fall, with chartreuse as the main color. It grows to 8-feet tall and 6-feet wide. Perfect for small yards.
They are offered in nurseries only sporadically. If you run across any, grab one fast!
In case you too are a "Sucker for Succulents," I will end this post with photos from our Sherwood Demonstration Garden's Succulent Garden.
Photos courtesy Sheri Lynn Burke, Summer Brasuel, Pauline Atkins & Aunt Patti. All rights reserved.
