Flower Pot Inspiration and How-To

inspiration from here

I can clearly remember how BORING I thought Better Homes and Gardens and Southern Living magazines were as a child, teenager, and well really up until I bought my own house.  They always seemed filled with last year's fashion and weird hard-to-make recipes.  So...when I received the gift of subscription a few years back for Better Homes and Garden I was less than thrilled.  I really hate to sound ungrateful because I appreciated the thought but I just knew it would be something I'd place in my magazine basket for my mom to read.  Ok...so I was wrong - the clothing is actually ok (I guess that just verifies that I'm no longer the cute hipster I used to be) and while the recipes are generally still hard to make, I love the rest of the magazine, especially the gardening section.  There is always SO much garden inspiration that fill the pages and I've used it to do my own container arrangements for my outside pots (which I can't seem to get enough of).  So, I thought I'd share some general rules of thumb when arranging your pots and also some pictures of how I arranged some of my pots this year and my flower choices.

I pretty much follow the rules when it comes to container planting and always ensure my pot has all 3 elements - an upright plant, a mounding plant, and a trailing plant.  I usually like to have 2 different types of trailing plants just too add a little bit of interest to the outside of the pot.  If you look at the tag on the plants before purchasing, it will usually indicate which of the 3 the plants is so you can plan accordingly.  My pots always look a little sparse when I first plant them but trust me when I tell you that they fill in and if the plants are too large when you plant them - they tend to get overcrowded rather quickly.  I use the moisture advantage potting soil that is designed to provide a better balance of moisture in the soil so that if you miss a watering or 2 - you don't lose all of your plants.  I used it last summer and it seemed to work pretty well so when I changed out the soil in my pots this year - I replaced it with more of the same.  After the plants have been potted for about a week, I like to add mulch to the top of the plant to cover the soil and provide my plants with a little insulation from the hot summer sun.  I've found it works best for me to arrange my pots in the beginning to mid-May and they usually last me until the weather cools in September.  Generally speaking, it takes me no longer than 10-15 minutes to arrange the pots and get them planted and by selecting your own flowers you can definitely save some cash over selecting the already arranged containers at the store.

Looking for more inspiration - you can go here for some other flower pot arrangement suggestions, courtesy of none other than Better Homes and Gardens!

J