Photo left by Miri Talabac. Right right by Larry Hurley, taken at the 2007 Philadelphia Flower Show.

During the holiday season, I saw glassware in many shapes and  sizes; cake and cupcake holders, large vases, cloches, bowls and stands – in home stores and in my own home!  All of them can be used as terrariums or dish gardens (I will call them all terrariums, but technically, terrariums are closed on top and dish gardens are open.)

Imagine a small footed-glass cupcake keeper with a beautiful African violet, a cake keeper with a delicate maidenhair fern, or a large glass cloche with a gorgeous orchid (“Beauty and the Beast” anyone?).  Imagine a tabletop with three lovely cake keepers of different heights and different plants.  Sorry, that is cheating…I saw it in Martha Stewart’s magazine.

You can create a miniature world in a large terrarium using multiple plants, unusual stones, small figurines, shells, fairy gardening supplies or ….. Only size and your imagination are the limits.

Most plants can be used in terrariums.  Recently, I worked with a lovely customer to put together a “dry” terrarium using small succulents and cactus.  She added small ceramic animals and stones. Adorable!

Photo by Miri Talabac.

How to Make a Terrarium

It is an easy and fun project and the results can be whimsical or elegant – you decide, and I can help.  After you select a container, the most important step is to select plants that require the same amount of light and water.  You would not want to plant an African violet with a cactus – one would surely die.   This is where I come in.  Bring in your container and we can play.

The recipe for terrariums is easy.  Use small pebbles for the bottom-most layer.  Sprinkle a small amount of charcoal over the pebbles.  Next, use a piece of landscape fabric to keep the soil from mixing with the pebbles. Then add a layer of soil thick enough to accommodate the plants you are adding.  Take the plants out of their pots and remove some of the soil – you want to make the root ball as shallow as possible.  Add more soil around the plants as needed.  Finish it off with something to personalize the planting – a small figurine, a shell, a stone or anything else that makes it special to you.  Water sparingly and place out of direct sunlight.  If you are putting the terrarium on the windowsill in direct sunshine, place a small stick between the side and the top to keep the top open.

I am happy to help you with this easy project that adds beauty to your home.

See you in the greenhouse.

Sherri, Houseplant Manager of our Potomac store.

by Kathy Jentz, editor/publisher of Washington Gardener Magazine

This colorful fall container includes salvia, heuchera, calibrachoa, acorus, osteospermum, and ceratostigma from Proven Winners’ Fall Magic® collection in a gorgeous glazed planter.

This is the time of year when leaves are falling, frost is on your windows, and your planting beds are looking a bit bare.  But when that cold snap hits and kills off your summer annuals, you don’t have to abandon your containers and give into the winter blahs.  Instead, use this transitional period to put in some hardy plants now that will get you through until the spring thaw.

There are two schools of thought on containers. Some advocate the one-plant-for-one-pot look. You then mass the pots in groupings. The other technique is to cram-and-jam at least three kinds of plant in one large pot (one tall, one bushy, one trailing). Both styles have their use and appeal depending on the effect you want. In the dead of winter, though, I prefer the one plant/one pot approach as it is just easier to substitute out any failures and will look less “skimpy.”

Choose containers that are gorgeous, such as glazed pottery. In fall/winter, plants are less full, so the containers you use are more important than in other seasons. For a designer look, group together pots that are of the same materials or of coordinating colors.

Use props and fillers to give the illusion of fullness in your plantings. Try pots filled with dried seed heads, squash, and gourds. Stack hay bales, wooden crates, and nice rocks or fossils. Display antique wood and iron pieces, hypertufa spheres, and stone figures. Add white lights or holiday décor, as seasonally appropriate.

Keep your winter containers only in high traffic areas (i.e. near entrances). Do this not only because they are the only places people will see them, but also because in winter’s cold you won’t want to be outside more than a few minutes to maintain them.

Stuff the bottom of containers with a filler, such as styrofoam chips or lava rocks, to ensure good drainage. This is even more crucial in winter than the rest of the year. The freezing rains we get in the DC area in late winter can be brutal to any planting.

Containers need extra fertilizer, but don’t overdo it in winter. Cut back on watering as well, especially if rains are fairly frequent – only water if the container is under a roof or ledge.

Top off container plantings with an insulator — mulch, pea gravel, peat moss, bark mulch, et cetera. They provide protection from the cold and keep the soil from drying out. They can also disguise plastic planting pots if you just pop them inside more decorative containers.

Consider planting a layer of bulbs now as you pot up your containers. They will pop up next spring and are a low-cost, easy step.

A simple winter container is a small boxwood or evergreen in stone (or faux) container surrounded by pansies. It’s easy to under-plant the pansies with small spring-flowering bulbs such as muscari (grape hyacinths).

When choosing plants, combine textures and colors. Consider a display of three, five, or seven different kinds of boxwoods. Try newer boxwood varieties like ‘Green Pillow’ next to ‘Elegantissimo’.

Try a sculptural display of twisted willow or other interesting branches. Just twist up chicken wire into a cage in the bottom of your pot to support the sticks. Twist ivy throughout them to create an interesting effect.

Another striking winter container idea is a golden holly in topiary standard form, surrounded at its base by pine cones spray-painted gold.

Lastly, remember that containers are ideal because they can be moved! If a hard freeze comes in and you have some “borderline” or less hardy items planted, you can move them indoors or into a sheltered area for a few days.

Fall/Winter Container Plant List

Tall: Grasses, Sedges, Evergreens, Topiary/standards, Small trees, Twisted willow, Harry Lauder’s walking stick

Bushy/Full/Filler: Flowering kales and cabbages, Plumbago, Nandina domestica ‘Heavenly Bamboo’,  Boxwood, Evergreens/conifers, Barberry, Cypress, Sedums, Mums, Asters, Heuchera, Dianthus, Primroses, Violets/pansies, Bergenia, Salvia, Ajuga, Pachysandra, Cotoneaster conspicuous ‘decorus’, Lavender, Arundinaria pygmaea/mini-bamboo, Skimmia rubella, Heather, Convolvulus cneorum/Bush Morning Glory/Silverbush, Holly/golden holly

Trailing:  Periwinkle/vinca, Ivy, Creeping jenny, Bacopa, Sweet alyssum

Washington Gardener Magazine covers gardening in the Mid-Atlantic region only, and it’s written by regional garden writers. Photos taken by Kathy Jentz a few years ago at the Eastern Performance Trials at River Farm in Alexandria, VA.

Behnkes has long been a supplier and FAN of Espoma’s line of (mostly organic) products and were happy to discover that their high standards for video production, as well.   We posted their video about container gardening in our e-newsletter and received this email about it from customer Arlene Montemarano:

I love this video and forwarded it to family members and friends.

I am an avid container gardener as of three years now.  But I do it a bit differently.  I plant most of my plants in 10″ plastic pots with Styrofoam peanuts at the bottom for drainage.  Since that is a big pot, I sometimes add colorful annuals to fill extra space.  Using a mix of potting soil and leaf compost, I set the pots into the ground of my small garden.  The pots are not visible unless you move the foliage aside and look.

I have found this system to have many advantages for me:  Much less watering (I use rain barrels and watering cans and a water wand), close planting, no weeds, no competition from aggressive neighbors, flexibility (I remove pots to the backyard when plants are not pretty anymore, and if one should grow taller than anticipated, it is easy for me to exchange it with one in the back.

Because we have a sun room, I can use some tropicals and winter them over in the house for reuse come Spring.

Containing Your Enthusiasm
by Mike Bader, Plant Buyer

Spectacular outdoor containers overflowing with a variety of plants are one of the hottest trends in gardening today. Creating extraordinary plant combinations in the home using indoor plants has never been easier. In fact, plants like to be grouped together because they give off water vapor, which makes the surrounding air more humid, providing them with a happy growing environment. Our houseplant greenhouses receive fresh shipments weekly, making your design possibilities almost endless.

In years past, flowering plants were used as the central feature of container gardens, but more of our designs use foliage plants which survive indoors longer and can adapt to partially shaded rooms. My favorite combinations really pack in the plants using four basic design functions: size, color, leaf shape and form.

While browsing through our warm and cozy greenhouses, begin your design with an eye-catching upright plant that will add some height to your creation. Among the easiest to grow are dracaenas, often resembling palms with arching leaves and bare, woody stems. Their striking leaves are usually long and striped with various combinations of white, cream, yellow, red and several shades of green. Most of us are familiar with the popular Dracaena marginata or dragon palm, but Behnke’s carries several new introductions as well. Another favorite of mine is the Ficus elastica or rubber plant. The glossy leaves are large and leathery with prominent midribs and pointed tips. The newer cultivars have a more compact growth habit and colored leaf markings of green, gray-green, creamy yellow, white, pink and burgundy.

Essential for adding surprise and color to your combinations, accent plants often feature bold foliage. Leaves that are variegated or exhibit unusual color, such as burgundy or chartreuse, are especially effective. Codiaeum variegatum, or croton, has magnificent leaves in shades of yellow, orange, pink, red and dark green. Their colorful foliage can be long and thin, broad and rounded, straight or even twisted. For those of you who are seduced by a plant’s flowers (myself included), bury an empty plastic pot in your container, either a 5 inch or 7 inch depending on the size of your creation.

Most of our blooming plants are available in 4-inch or 6-inch sizes and you can insert your favorites into the empty pot without actually planting in the soil. After they have finished flowering you can easily replace them with another. We currently have blooming African violets, azaleas, begonias, bromeliads, chrysanthemums, cyclamens, kalanchoes and miniature roses. In February spring bulbs begin to arrive along with primulas and hydrangeas.

Using a variety of leaf shapes and sizes adds excitement and interest to your planting combination. Look for contrasting shapes and textures to bring life into your design. Here is where I have some fun using several smaller plants as fillers. As their name suggests, these plants fill in the combination, but more importantly, they separate the bolder participants in the container. There are just too many to mention, but some of my favorites include asparagus fern, rex begonia, spider plant, polka dot plant, peperomia, aluminum plant, fittonia, and several types of table ferns.

The final selection for your design should include a trailing plant or two. These plants provide much of the charm to your plant combinations while spilling over the top of the container or mingling among other container inhabitants. There are many types of English ivy and pothos that are colorful and easy to grow. You can also choose from creeping fig, baby tears, purple heart, strawberry begonia, Swedish ivy, and just about any plant you see growing in a hanging basket.

Let’s not forget to mention the new truckload shipments of pottery arriving each month. I am forever in search of interesting pots, whether they are hand-painted by a local artist or hand thrown and painted in a far away land.You can choose from a wide variety of sizes, shapes and style variations, designed especially for the home or office. Behnkes carries contemporary ceramics, terra cotta, China bowls, Italian or classic cylinders, gloss, matte, or faux finishes, and specialty containers for orchids, bonsai, cactus, and succulents. I recommend Miracle-Gro potting soils and fertilizers to ensure your gardening success. Our Behnke designers can also assist in selecting containers and foliage to match your light, favorite colors, style requirements, and your enthusiasm!