KEY POINTS:
While many of us have by now abandoned high-maintenance hanging baskets for a splash of summer colour, we are still in love with the idea of setting out pots of potted colour in a prominent place. At their best, a well-planted container can be as rich and refined
as a floral arrangement. The cost or style of a pot becomes almost irrelevant if you choose the right stuff to sit on top, because it will cascade and billow and soon swallow up its planter - and looking at the design of some containers, that can only be a good thing.
If you throw 80 per cent of your gardening gusto at a handful of containers they will, by association, make everything else in the garden sparkle. Get going now and you can have a decent display for Christmas. Here are some inspiring ideas:
Don't be flash
Try not to put all your energy into buying a flashy pot, then leave the plants you choose to fill it as an afterthought. A grass, an aloe, a cordyline, or flax; often our choices are the culinary equivalent of bangers and mash. Dependable, yes, but inspired? Only if you have just staggered in for a feed after five years on a desert island perhaps.
Around the house where there's lots of hard paving and not enough greenery, a big specimen of astelia, cycad or puka is just the ticket to soften up the surrounds. Add interest with mixed containers where grasses, flowers and bulbs mingle. An unusual sedge, Luzula nivea, makes a stunning but subtle centrepiece to an ornate pot. Generally, the more elaborate the pot, the simpler the planting should be.
Take the plunge
By choosing containers with wide tops you will have room to group a varied selection of plants. Plants which tumble and fall work wonders in large containers. You can go for ivy-leaved pelargoniums, helichrysums, trailing fuchsias, sutera, scaveola or trailing gold lysimachias, all good subjects for taking the plunge. Fatshedera is an evergreen shrub with a tropical look and great octopus-like growths which makes any dull pot look lively.
Unusual shrubs like Ghost bush (Calocephalus brownii) will form a ruff to set off a planting of long-flowering annual zinnias. Both plants enjoy the drainage a pot offers and the reflected heat of being placed near a house wall.
The unexpected
The range of plants is endless but the challenge is to try out something new or, better still, use something you wouldn't expect to see in a pot.
Potted colour has its place in the mix but it is also good to dig up something from your garden which might take a new lease on life as a container subject.
A bog-standard canna, for example, makes a great centrepiece for a large pot. Similarly, houseplants brought out for the summer and sunk (still in their original pots) into a large container as part of a planting can add a sophisticated tropical flavour - great mixed with scented tobacco plants, colocasias and snippets of impatiens.
Boring old dogwoods (Cornus alba) which are normally back-of-the-border shrubs can be showcased for their winter bark interest in a container which carefully picks up a space-age theme.
Back to basics
A good-quality compost is always the starting point to a successful pot. Large containers which are to house semi-permanent shrubs or trees need a loam base brand with some weight and guts to it. Peat-based composts literally disappear into thin air as they oxidise and become compacted and airless over the years.
There are three standard extras to mix in before planting. Water-retaining gel does just what it says. Some gardeners sing its praises more than others, but it is cheap, and anything that reduces the need to be at the end of a hose is a good thing.
Although most potting mixes contain a slow-release fertiliser you may need to supplement if you want to fill your pots with high-energy flowers.
Slow-release granules such as Ozmocote are the horticultural equivalent of having a packet of toffees in the glovebox - they keep everything from becoming hungry too soon and save you having to liquid-feed later.
Wetting agents can be added to help water soak in to the compost if it dries out, but with a good mulch to save water there isn't always the need.
Large pebble mulches work well but glass chips can also be used to jazz up a container while the contents fill out.
Q&A
Every year, our carrots fork and split so we don't get that traditional, single-stem look, which makes them difficult to prepare for cooking. What can we do?
Forking or cracking is caused by unsuitable growing conditions. Stony soil can cause distorted roots but is not often the problem in New Zealand soils.
If your soil is stony, create raised beds using sifted soil and compost, or grow short, stubby varieties, such as Paris Market specially bred to not fork. If your soil is good you may be manuring your crop too close to sowing.
Where possible, dig in manure six months before planting. The cracking is probably because of erratic water availability. Carrots need an even supply of water.
Hand-water in dry spells and mulch your crop to help retain moisture where it is needed and you should get better results.
