Container gardens that break the mold

Walk into your neighborhood garden center with a new attitude.

Think outside the box. Experiment. Take a chance.

If you follow these take-charge rules, you're on the right track to designing container gardens that go beyond the overused spike and geranium.

Bypass "old reliables," such as petunias, marigolds, impatiens, vinca vine. Search out the tables of herbs, vegetables, perennials, ornamental grasses and indoor houseplants that can make a potted garden special. This time, consider some plants with names you can't pronounce. Try purple heliotrope, campanula, silvery gazania. Pair wax begonias with a spider plant. Or a daylily with coralbells.

"Unusual container combinations begin with unusual plants," said Scott Endres, horticulturist and manager at Highland Nursery in St. Paul. Think of your container as a garden but on a smaller scale, Endres said. It's fun to experiment with combinations you might not want to try in large beds. And it's easy to try the arrangement in the cart as you shop.

Large planters overflowing with creative combinations of annuals, herbs, houseplants and showy grasses welcome visitors at the nursery's entrance. "A few years ago the pots were stopping traffic. People weren't used to grasses in pots and saw how gorgeous they are," Endres said.

He suggests planting ornamental grasses and common indoor houseplants for height and foliage texture as a container focal point. Then surround it with the traditional flowering annuals. "The common houseplant is tougher than nails," he said. "You can add an annual like impatiens for an interesting form."

Brewery Creek Farm Market in Belle Plaine has a greenhouse filled with unique accent plants and herb varieties. They also have "new introductions."

"If you're bored with petunias, marigolds and geraniums, these plants give excellent value, lots of color and points of interest," said owner Tim Kornder. Popular varieties are bacopa trailing vine with tiny white flowers, sun-loving coleus, trailing snapdragon, "oozing" chartreuse sweet potato vine and a new cascading petunia.

For vertical greenery in a container, insert a small metal tower or a bamboo hoop for climbing vines, said Martin Stern, owner of Squire House Gardens, a country garden and shop in St. Paul and Afton. Low blooming plants can fill out the base. He also suggested lining a wire hanging basket with moss and filling it with mounding and trailing herbs instead of flowering annuals.

Stern agrees that container gardeners need a palette of plants to work with to fashion a pot with captivating beauty and texture. "Be willing to try different things. It does take time and patience," he said.

Compact gardens

Experimentation is only one of the benefits of a container garden.

A homeowner can garden in small spaces -- on an apartment roof, balcony, patio and a townhouse courtyard. Potted gardens deliver lovely color and greenery even in the tiniest of urban back yards. Two formal pots on either side can mark the entrance to a stately home.

Pots can be moved around and are low maintenance compared with a garden. It's easy to use a container to extend the season. Fill a pot in early spring with pansies; later, replace them with hardier summer blooms. Or try planting nasturtium seeds with pansies, and they will cascade over the edge by summer.

Pots with style

Contained plants have a more dramatic impact. Harmonious balance, color, shape and scale are important ingredients of a successful container garden. It takes practice and an eye for style to know what works. Here are some guidelines: