Pots, Planters, and Window Boxes

Vessel to show off your flowers and plants.

Small Garden Planter

Featuring a traditional English-weave design, this cast-stone planter comes in eight finishes, from aged limestone to antique bronze

Aged Herb Pot
Weathered to look like a charming flea-market find, this petite terra cotta gem is perfectly suited for a sunny windowsill.

Low Terra Cotta Box

This planter has the powdery finish of aged terra cotta but is actually made of molded resin, which is resistant to chips and cracks.

Blossom Window Box
Made of Versatex, a moisture-proof vinyl, this window box is guaranteed not to rot, looks just like wood, and can even be painted. It fits standard-size windows (from 24 inches to 108 inches wide) and can also be custom ordered. 

Small Silver PotEach of these one-of-a-kind earthenware pots is fired three times to solidify its finish. The metal-alloy glaze is carefully hand-painted with a fine horsehair brush, creating a watertight seal and a striking shine. 

Galvanized Window Box
Made of galvanized, powder-coated bronze sheeting, this oil-rubbed window box (available in six sizes) will weather the elements without staining your home’s siding. 

Shell Garden Pot

This fine replica of an antique garden fixture is made from a lightweight, weather-resistant combination of pummeled marble, rock, and resin, which naturally encourages the growth of moss and lichen

22 Container Gardens in Bloom

As these photos show, a garden can call for nothing more than a pot and a lush plant.

To grow vegetables in containers, look for varieties with words like bush, baby, dwarf, tiny, midget, and patio in their names. They are bred to be compact.

Before heading to the nursery, study the area you've designated for your container garden—is it sunny? shady?—and then find plants that will flourish in those conditions.

Terra-cotta pots are ideal for container plants because their porous walls let air and water move easily through, so roots grow healthily.

An assortment of herbs can be planted in one pot, so long as their care requirements are compatible.

Potted plants flanking an entry door are warm and welcoming.

Place a large pot in the center of a display, accented with smaller pots for balance.

Make a "centerpiece" for your porch by grouping varieties of the same species planted in similar pots.

Matching pots planted with ornamental grass lend drama to a driveway or path.

Use potted plants to define an outdoor space: Here, they separate patio from lawn.

Ceramic pots are porous, allowing roots to breathe, and a glazed finish helps conserve moisture.

Mounted plants cheer up a bare wall. Hang an even number for a formal look, an odd number for a more relaxed feel.

For an especially easy hanging garden, look for mini petunias: They never need deadheading, and they thrive in sun or a mix of sun and shade.

An old birdbath makes a perfect new home for shallow-rooted succulents.

Create a lush oasis in your yard by arranging potted plants into a sheltering screen.

When potting ivy, make sure the containers have enough depth to allow for proper drainage.

During the winter, you can force bulbs to bloom indoors (like the Christmas Pearl grape hyacinths shown here), then replant outside come spring.

Pungently fragrant paperwhite narcissus are easy to coax into bloom indoors. Use tall containers with no drainage holes.

A terrarium—which lets greens live in a self-sufficient environment—is a no-fuss way to garden.

A humidity-loving tropical houseplant, such as a maidenhair fern or a flame violet, will thrive in a bell-jar terrarium.

Planted in a ceramic pitcher (drilled to add drainage holes), purple shamrock makes the tiniest indoor container garden.

A tangle of roots exposed in a glass cylinder can be just as eye-catching as the leaves above.

Always empty saucers after you water plants: Letting pots sit in water can damage roots.

How to care potted plants

tips Tips for keeping plants healthy; plus our favorite flowers and plants for container gardens.

1. Choose the pots

• Make certain there are one or more holes in the bottom of your container to allow water to flow out freely. Insufficient drainage can cause roots to drown, and the plant to die prematurely.
• Almost anything can be used as a container for plants, so what type of pot you choose depends upon your style preference and budget. If you prefer lightweight containers, which are easy to move around and can weather winter temperatures, look for resin, fiberglass, and plastic. Bonus: These materials are not porous, so they absorb less moisture than unglazed clay or wood―leaving more for the plant.

2. Choose the potting mix.

• Do not use soil from the yard or garden. It can be filled with weed seeds, insects, and fungal diseases.
• Buy potting soil at your local garden center. It is a loose and light mixture of materials like peat moss, vermiculite, and, often, decomposed organic matter. If you are planting succulents or cacti, use a mix especially formulated for them.
• To reduce plant maintenance, buy potting mix containing a time-release fertilizer and moisture-retaining polymer crystals. If that type of mix is not available, buy a time-release fertilizer (such as Cockadoodle Doo) and a jar of water-retaining crystals (like Soil Moist) and follow the package directions for adding to the potting mix.

3. Choose the plants.

• Make “Right plant, right place” your motto. You must take into consideration the conditions of your space. Don’t try to grow a flower like a rose―which requires six hours of full sun―on a porch that gets only an hour in the early morning. Do your homework (read books and plant tags), ask for advice at the garden center, and determine which plants will thrive in the available sun or shade.
• When deciding what to buy, the simplest approach is to use one kind of plant per pot. If you choose to combine multiple types of plants, make sure they all like the same light and moisture conditions. Don’t put a cactus and a pansy together in one pot and expect them to get along.

4. Prepare the pots

• If your containers are large, place them where they’ll ultimately go before filling them. Once they are full and watered, they may be too heavy to move.
• Put a basket-type coffee filter or a shard of broken pot over the hole(s) in the bottom of the empty pot. This will prevent the potting mix from washing out but will still allow water to escape.
• Before pouring in the soil, check its moisture content. Read directions on the bag for wetting it properly. Generally, you need to add water a little at a time and knead the mixture with your hands. A good rule of thumb is to wet the mix until it feels like a damp sponge.
• Fill the container with the soil. Put in enough potting mix so the base of the plant (where the stem sprouts from the soil’s surface) is about 1 inch from the top of the pot (to help visually estimate, position your plant while it’s still in its nursery container). Before planting, pat down the soil lightly with your fingers to eliminate any big air pockets. Don’t pack it down too hard.

5. Pot the plant

• Remove the plant from its nursery container. (It’s a good practice to water plants in their original containers at least an hour before transplanting. This will ease their removal and diminish transplant shock.) Support the top of the “root ball” (the semisolid mass of soil and roots) by placing a finger on each side of the stem; then tip the pot and let the plant fall gently into your hand. Never pull a plant out by its stem. If it is stuck, tap the sides of the pot to loosen it.
• If the roots are circling around and around, the plant is “root-bound.” Gently tease the ends of the roots free before planting.
• Set the plant on top of the mix. If you are potting more than one plant, leave at least an inch or so around each root ball so you can add mix in between them. Carefully fill in with small handfuls of soil. Pat gently to eliminate air pockets. Do not pile soil on top of the plant―make sure the stem is completely above the surface. Leave about an inch between the soil surface and the rim of the pot.
• Water the container. This will settle the roots into their new home. If the soil level drops below the top of the root ball, add additional mix to bring it back up.

6. Watering 

• If you plant in the spring and the weather is mild, you can probably get away with watering about once a week. As the summer continues, plants need more water. Not only is the warm weather evaporating the moisture before the plant can use it, the plants need more water as they grow larger. Hanging plants and small pots may need watering twice a day (best times are morning and evening); once a day is enough for large pots.
• Water your plants until the water comes out of the drainage holes. That way you know the soil is getting moisture all the way to the bottom.
• Water the soil, not the leaves and flowers. Wetting the foliage can lead to fungal diseases and sometimes scorched spots on leaves.
• Don’t worry if plants and flowers look wilted in the hottest time of the day. As long as the top of the soil is moist, you probably don’t need to water. Wilting is a self-protective mechanism to prevent too much moisture loss from the root area. Wait and see if the plants perk up after the sun goes down.
• Don’t let pots sit in water; this can cause root rot and death. If you are using saucers, empty them after you water and after it rains.

7. Feeding 

• Plants growing in containers need more fertilizing than those in the ground. The more you water, the more quickly you flush the nutrients out of the soil. It’s good to use a time-release fertilizer when planting (see “Step 2: Choose the Potting Mix”), but it’s the bare minimum. If you want really healthy and happy plants, feed them a liquid or water-soluble fertilizer every couple of weeks according to package directions.

8. Deadheading 

• Pinching or cutting off faded blooms, known as deadheading, is essential. It encourages a plant to keep producing more flowers.
• Some plants have so many tiny flowers and stems, it would be too time-consuming to snip or pick off individual flower heads. For those types, it’s best to shear the whole plant back to about one-third of its size. It will look “whacked” for about a week, but you will soon be rewarded with a flush of new buds and blooms.
• Some flowering plants are “self-cleaning,” meaning they don’t generally require deadheading or shearing. These are usually prolific bloomers covered in smallish flowers, which just shrivel up and almost disappear on their own. Some examples are impatiens, mini petunias, diascia, and browalia. If they start to flag late in the summer, cut back the plant by one-third to rejuvenate blooming.

Good Container Flowers for Sun 

• Angelonia
• African daisy (Arctotis)
• Dahlia
• Purple fountain grass (Pennisetum setaceum ‘Rubrum’)
• Lantana
• Verbena
• Zinnia
• Tuberous Begonia

Good Container Flowers for Shade

• Fuchsia
• Impatiens
• Browallia
• Torenia

Good, Colorful Foliage Plants for Sun and Shade 

• Caladium (shade)
• Coleus (sun and shade, depending on variety)
• Phormium (full sun to part shade)
• Canna (full sun to part shade)
• Ferns (various types, filtered sun to shade)
• Persian shield (Strobilanthes dyerianus, full sun/part shade)
• Ornamental sweet potato vine (Ipomoea batatas, full sun/part shade)
• Ornamental grass (various types, full sun)

Good Container Flowers for Sun and Shade 

• Twinspur (Diascia, full sun/part shade)
• Mini petunia (Calibrachoa, full sun/part shade)
• Nemesia (full sun/part shade)
• Scaevola (full sun/part shade)
• Salvia (Salvia guaranitica, full sun/part shade)

Note: Where only one name is listed, the botanical and common names are the same.

Bonsai Trunk

Once the root structure and nebari are adequately developed, focus can shift to creating a powerful trunk. The trunk should be characteristic of its full-sized counterpart, keeping with the goal of keisho-sodai. Several qualities are essential to good trunk formation, and careful crafting will aid in forming the ideal trunk. The two elements of trunk development that are most important to consider are the trunk’s kokejun and tachiagari.

Qualities Of A Good Trunk

The bonsai’s kokejun refers to its taper. The ideal taper for a bonsai is thickened at the bottom with an even tapering as the trunk ascends. Your bonsai will need assistance in achieving this form. The miniaturization of the tree requires an acceleration of the trunk thickening and tapering. This can be done, though, by manipulating the bonsai’s tachiagari.

The tachiagari is the plant’s initial rise and growth. Selective pruning will encourage the trunk’s proper growth and kokejun. The tachiagari period is also when the tree will grow to its mature height.

Other qualities to consider include the curves of the trunk and refinements of the form. There are some basic tree forms that have characteristic trunks. Plan ahead to the final form your tree will take. Think about future branch location, foliage distribution and leaf reduction as the trunk matures and branches sprout.

Basic Bonsai Forms

The five basic bonsai forms are chokkan, moyohgi, shakan, kengai and bunjingi.

Chokkan Trunk 

 1. Chokkan

Chokkan is the traditional upright form. It some ways it could be considered the most aesthetically natural form, since it is most like how a tree traditionally is seen in nature. Despite the apparently organic form, though, it still requires careful cultivation to properly develop.

2. Moyohgi

Moyohgi Trunk

Moyohgi is similar to chokkan but more informal. It remains upright and similar to a full-sized tree, but it is less symmetrical. The trunk may be slightly tilted, but it remains straight and preserves the basic vertical form.

3. Shakan

Bunjingi Trunk

Shakan is a slanting form. In this form, a prominent nebari grows on one side with the bulk of the limb and leaf development on the opposite side. Because of the lopsided nebari development, special planning for this form needs to be made while still actively cultivating the root development.

4. Bunjingi

The final form is bunjingi. It is known as the literati form. It is based on a definite line formed by the tree. The trunk, limbs, and foliage are all crafted to follow and emphasize that line. It can be a subtle difference between this form and the others, but the most notable indicator of the bunjingi form is the prominence of the trunk and the line it creates.

5. Kengai

Shaping The Trunk

Kengai Trunk

Before shaping can begin, the final form must be decided. Once chosen, the tree’s kokejun can be crafted. There are three different approaches to developing the kokejun; tachiagari cultivation repeated; pruning; and growing the trunk via selective trunk pruning. This final method is called tate-kae.

1. Tachiagari Cultivation For Kokejun Growth

Tachiagari development is accelerated by the growth of new limbs from the trunk. The extra branches encourage growth because they force more water and nutrients through the roots and trunk to keep them alive and growing. Removing the branches also removes the extra nutrient flow through the trunk. So, keeping the limbs on the tree makes the trunk grow and thicken to accommodate the extra nutrient flow. When using this approach, be sure to always have adequate sunshine, water and fertilizer to encourage and maintain the tree’s growth.

2. Repeated Pruning For Kokejun Growth

With the tachiagari method, limb growth is encouraged to develop kokejun. This method expands on that by also encouraging budding on the stump. This method works for plants such as Chinese elms. The buds are repeatedly pruned and regrown to encourage trunk growth. Pruning occurs in early summer and late autumn. The trunk needs to be shaped with wire as it grows and thickens into its mature form. The trunk can be manipulated into its form two months after the early summer budding. This is a multi-year process, taking up to three years.

3. Tate-Kae For Kokejun Growth

In tate-kae, kokejun is developed by selectively pruning the trunk so as to encourage the growth of a limb. This limb will thicken and become part of the trunk. To do this, prune the trunk just above the desired branch. This can be done repeatedly to cultivate the desired trunk and ideal kokejun. Because plants tend to grow upward and vertically, the trunk will right itself as it grows and form a prominent, strong trunk.

Bonsai Symbolism

In the English language, the term bonsai is often used loosely to reference all miniature-scale trees. But bonsai refers specifically to a Japanese art form, ascended from the Chinese art of penjing, more than a thousand years ago. Bonsai, like other forms of art, uses the medium of symbolism to communicate ideas and emotions. An understanding of Japanese aesthetics contributes to an appreciation of bonsai’s rich symbology.

Bonsai utilizes horticultural techniques along with artistic applications to cultivate miniature replicas of trees as they’re found in nature. The tradition has been refined over the last millennium to reflect the aesthetic qualities found in nature through balance, simplicity and harmony. The aesthetic element of age is also predominantly symbolized in bonsai, utilizing various techniques applied to the design and cultivation of each creation by the artist. Symbolism is also employed to describe the relationship between the stylized bonsai and trees found in nature.

1. Balance

Balance plays an essential role in bonsai aesthetics. The triangle, used in overall design, traditionally symbolizes strength and stability. Rather than following Western rules of symmetry by using equilateral triangles, bonsai incorporates the isosceles triangle. The isosceles, with its unequal sides, provides asymmetry. In Eastern art forms, such as painting, flower arranging and bonsai, asymmetry provides “sabi” or deliberate imperfection. This is interpreted as a more natural sense of balance and is highly valued in Japanese culture. While a triangle with even sides can appear passive and motionless, asymmetrical triangles provide a sense of movement within the composition of the design, symbolizing a continuation of life.

2. Simplicity

Simplicity, which epitomizes Japanese sensibilities and profound respect for nature, can be found in Japanese architecture, fine art and home decor. In Japanese culture, less is more. Simplicity in bonsai is symbolized by the unadorned container which houses the showpiece. The color of the container, usually a neutral tone, also reflects the theme of simplicity found in nature. Bonsai’s predominant attention to principles of aesthetics means that the creation remains free of gratuitous ornamentation and maintains its position as the focal point.

3. Harmony

The aesthetic element of harmony is highly valued in Japanese culture and is evident throughout the composition. Bonsai’s understated elegance symbolizes Japanese philosophy that something with less power may have a greater effect. Careful attention to unity in shapes and textures contributes to the overall sense of harmony found in nature, which is the dominant theme in bonsai. Curves and fluid lines in the composition symbolize nature’s harmonious coexistence with other elements, while crooked corners and jagged edges represent difficult milestones.

4. Age

Age plays a significant role in the aesthetics of bonsai. Carefully manipulated characteristics of the tree’s roots, trunk and branches symbolize different stages of life, especially those marked by age. For instance, exposed roots give the appearance of erosion and age. Trunks that break the surface at an angle and continue with the tree growing in series of circles, produce the illusion of age, and symbolize triumph over the elements of nature. A trunk with a smooth texture and without blemishes impresses upon the viewer, a sense of youth and vitality. In contrast, scarred and gnarled trunks are symbolic of old age. A dead tree trunk placed strategically within the composition can symbolize the continuity of the tree’s evolution. Bonsai trained with thick lower drooping branches appear to be old, while branches that grow upward have the opposite effect by symbolizing the vigor of youth. Full and luscious growth also symbolizes the health vitality of a young tree. Sparse growth is used to support the other characteristics of age.

5. Symbolism Associated With Type

Bonsai are differentiated by styles and types, with each one represented in nature. The chokkan appears upright, with a straight trunk, symbolizing a healthy but isolated tree. The windswept appearance of the fukinagashi is representative of a tree continuously affected by strong winds, often found near the shore or on sparsely-populated plains. Cascading bonsai trees symbolize their full-size counterparts often found in nature growing on the sides of cliffs.

The art of bonsai is robust with symbolism and meaning where everything means something. Each detail sends a subliminal message, contributing to the larger story encompassed within the ongoing creation. Container and accessory colors are carefully chosen to represent the hues found in nature. Twists and turns in branches symbolize age and the journey through time. The types of trees used are symbolically significant as well. Even bonsai displays (link to displaying bonsai trees page) are carefully choreographed to represent proportion and harmony. While some symbols appropriated to bonsai appeal to its mythic nature, much of the symbolism intends to communicate the aesthetics that make up the art of bonsai.

Plants best for Vertical garden

Vertical Garden are becoming the at least trend in gardening, whether its indoor or outdoor. These nine plants are the best that can be used in vertical garden.

1. Geranium spp. and hybrids

The dainty leaves and flowers of cranesbill geraniums add both colour and texture to a vertical planting scheme.

Ferns

2. Ferns

Choose any number of clumping, trailing or epiphytic ferns for shaded spaces. The hart’s tongue fern (Asplenium scolopendrium) is a robust, clump-forming fern.

Bromelaids

3. Bromeliads

There are many different bromeliads, including guzmania, billbergia and aechmea. Most need little soil to grow in, making them ideal for vertical walls. Colourful leaves and long-lasting flowers add to their appeal.

Begonia

4. Begonia

From trailing hybrids for shade, to the bold, long-flowering ‘Thousand Wonders’ style that grows in sun, begonias have both flowers and interesting foliage.

Hosta

5. Hosta

Grown for their lush, colourful leaves and white summer flowers, hostas suit a shaded garden in a cool climate. Plants die down over winter.

Baby Teared

6. Baby’s tears (Soleirolia soleirolii)

Also known as helxine, this dainty groundcover with tiny round green leaves enjoys moist shade.