Plants as art

With imagination and flair, containers can become living works of art

Rita Randolph could probably make a beautiful container with dandelions.

She hasn't -- yet -- but the small gardens she does create by walking around her nursery and figuring out which plants work well together are nothing short of inspirational.

Gardeners striving to be container artists can learn a lot from her.

Her multitude of planters range from those featuring mother-in-law's tongue to edibles, succulents, grasses, vines and monochromatic selections.

Randolph, owner of Randolph's Greenhouses, Jackson, Tenn., spoke at the recent Mid-Am Horticultural Trade Show in Chicago.

Sponsors of the industry event include the Illinois Green Industry Association and the Illinois Landscape Contractors Association.

Mother-in-law

If you never thought of mother-in-law's tongue as a beauty, you haven't followed Randolph's advice:

"It needs friends. It's always stuck in the back of a container."

Randolph makes it a star with companions like Rita's Gold, a new fern named after her, and a small-leafed rosy caldium named Kathleen.

In one planting, she also added coral-colored Zonal geraniums and blue streptocarpella, a relative of African violets in the pot.

Edibles

Ornamental edibles are hot for obvious reasons. You can pick lunch from your pretty pot.

Randolph mixes burgundy beets called Bull's Blood and Swiss chard with Burgundy Dock rumex, Dakota Gold helenium and Heaven's gate coreopsis.

Succulents

For a succulent garden, try a pineapple with all kinds of cacti and succulents -- such as agaves and euphorbia with Silver Falls dichondra.

Grasses or carex

"An ornamental grass alone can have that calming, unifying effect," Randolph said.

She suggests love grass or eragrostrum; fiber optic grass and carexes like Frosty Curls or Amazon Mist.

Grass in a container keeps growing and hangs over the edge -- a different look than mounding in the ground.

And when it comes to vines, Randolph likes clematis and jasmine.

Monochromatic

Cool greens like chartreuse can make the hottest summer day seem cooler, Randolph said.

Variegated yucca potato vine, chartreuse Japanese maple, Golden Paper mulbery, variegated euonymus, fiber optic grass and Sutherland Gold sambucus are her suggestions.

Chartreuse is so important that one plant can turn a polychromatic planter full of "leftover" plants into a winner, Randolph said.

Even though the mulberry is not supposed to be hardy here, do not plant it in the ground because it can be invasive, she warns.

How to make a creative container

Greenhouse owner Rita Randolph, known for her container creations, shares some of her plant expertise:

• First plant the foliage, then add the flowers.

• Get tiny plants you find in flats for those little bunny and lamb containers used for Easter decorations. After the holiday, you can replant them in larger containers or the garden.

• Folk art on a stick can make a big difference in a container garden.

• Use a few large containers to separate "rooms" of your garden, such as dividing the patio from the lawn.

• If your container is metallic, blue, black, gray, white or silver, select plants in green and purple color families.

• Terra-cotta pots should get earth-tone plants.

• Begonias are among the longest-living container plants.

• If your container does not have a drain hole, use pea gravel and knock most of the soil off your roots before planting them.

• Even a container displayed in the sun may have shaded areas that require different plants.

Examples include the areas underneath plants and the backside if it faces a west wall.