Color Palettes for Containers

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Color Palette

🎨   Green Copper Patina - verdigris and terracotta 

Pulling the turquoise, aquamarine, teal, cobalt blue, terracotta, and hot pink (think Lily Pulitzer) from mid-century modern, Bohemian, Morocaan, Miami's South Beach,  or southwest color palettes I hope to blend a pleasing color palette to harmonize the patio with the natural environment. I found the designer justina blakeney, and she uses a Bohemian style and her color palette is full of the right shades. She incorporates ferns, tropical plants and succulents in her designs.

 

1. edMore on NYTimes.com

Blue and green shades used in South Beach, Florida on a sign from our Galveston trip. I found this at the At Home store (as well as the 2 cigar pots). They have an entire beach themed section.  The green cigar pots give color as well as height to the corner and should add interest, whether planted or not.  

YEAR 1  

currently working on three container pots to lighten a corner on the patio. So, this is a post about not just shade plants, but the process of dressing the entire patio.  As several people in our area are painting their houses to give them a fresh look I am fighting that urge and trying to work with the terra cotta and burnt sienna brick shades. Terra cotta pots, small teak tables, and a copper patina glaze on the cigar shaped pots are some of the colors I am using for a beach themed palette. The beach theme is perfectly suited to our weather this spring!

Pot 1: Caladum, pink impatens, Euphorbia "White Manaus", and Silver Falls™ - Dichondra argentea

Pot 2: Dusty miller "New Look", Heuchera 'Carnival watermelon",  Lamium "White Nancy"

Pot 3: (incomplete) beginning to emerge Purple spiderwort  (tradescantia pallida 'Purple Heart', aka.  scadeant pallida ), Sweet potato, native violet

    

Photo:  Jeanette Hyden

  

Gardening is a journey............

              My containers, in the shade are moved to a part sun spot of the patio.

YEAR 2

Aloe, in the middle pot, is one of the easiest plants to grow in north Central Texas. Aloe can take on all the characteristics of height, fill and spill. 

I have tried many plants. Last year, many of the plants from the nursery did well. I followed the rules of container planting, use a thrill plant for height; a draping plant for spill; and a fill plant for continuity. Thrill, Fill, Spill. This year, trying to make-do with plants I had on hand, I can share the problems and the surprises I have found pleasing. Tall pots, with small openings take well to healthy plants placed inside while remaining in their plastic pot. That said, the beautiful fern that I had in a pot became rootbound as well as becoming the home of my tiny nemesis, the fire ant. The roots on the fern are now untangled, split, trimmed and rerouted. You can't see but the fern has small new fronds arising from the center. I like the Miracle-gro potting mix soil with water crystals so the plants have a chance to thrive in the heat.

The third container has been a nursery for out of place Texas native plants that pop up in the yard or are out of place. The wild violet loves the shade. Penstemon has flowered and produced seed. There are non-natives in this pot including purple basil (it self-seeds everywhere) and the extremely heat tolerant purple heart (Tradescantia pallida 'Purpurea'). 

Year 3

Planted with Wave petunia, Wave vinca, and sweet potato vine. The petunia is for spectacular show in the spring and early summer and when the petunia starts to fade due to heat the vinca and sweet potato come on full force.

🎨 Red, White, and Blue Color Palette

Try these Texas natives

Resources for Containers and Pots:                             

On-line.       

Kimball and Bean, Illinois https://kimballandbean.com

Barbara Israel Antique Garden Ornaments

https://www.bi-gardenantiques.com/Home.aspx

Architectural Pottery

https://architecturalpottery.com/

David Cressey Pottery

https://www.craftinamerica.org/artist/david-cressey

Robert Maxwell Pottery

http://www.robertmaxwellceramics.net/1a_Introduction.html

Laggards Tacket Pottery

https://lagardotackett.com/

John Follis Pottery

Rex Goode Pottery

Marilyn Kay Austin Pottery

Paul Cobb Pottery

https://baetanical.com/

Katie Lauffenburger.   https://www.katherinehackl.com/

http://firewhenreadypottery.com/2021/05/water-etching-with-catherine-tweedie/

DALLAS

Dallas Farmers Market 

920 S Harwood St. 

Dallas, TX

Amigoes Pottery

Dallas, Mequite and Plano

1915 Cadiz St., Dallas, 75201 

214-752-2281

www.amigospottery.com

Redenta's

• 2001 Skillman St.
• Dallas, 75206
• 214-823-9421
• www.redentas.com
• 100 Riveredge Dr.
• Dallas, 75207 
• 214-872-2775  

Pitte Architecture

318 Cole St. Dallas, TX 75207

https://pittetarch.com/

• 
  
• FORT WORTH
  Amigo's Pots & Crafts
  1117 N Main St
  Fort Worth, TX
• 
  
• NURSERIES,  HOME IMPROVEMENT, and SPECIALTY

  Calloway's Nursery get on their mailing list to receive birthday coupon and notices of weekly discount specials.

  Home Goods, seasonal

  Nebraska Furniture Outlet, seasonal

  Canton, TX

  Traders Village

  Feed stores

  Marshall's Grainery

  The Home Depot

  Lowe's

  Costco, seasonal

  Sam's, seasonal

  T. J. Maxx

  Marshall's

  At Home (formerly Garden Ridge)
• 
  
• MAKE YOUR OWN

  The ceramicshops.com
• 
  
• ESTATE, MOVING SALES

  Attics to Basements, newsletter 

  Janelle Stone, newsletter

  Craigslist

ITALY

Pesci Giorgio e Figli

Francesco Del Re, Florence, Italy

Masini

Landscape Architecture

Impruneta terra cotta

THE world’s finest terra cotta planters come from Impruneta, a small village nestled in the Tuscan hills a few kilometers from Florence, Italy? Due the fact that the Tuscan clay is naturally rich in iron, copper, calcium, and aluminum, the town has been well known for its exceptional quality terracotta and craftsmanship for centuries. Hard gray earth is mined from the surrounding hills, ground to a powder, and mixed with water to make this coarse bodied clay. Subsequently it develops its renown pale, terracotta color after the firing process and is able to withstand extreme temperatures.

Galestro Clay for Italian terracotta pottery from Terrecotte San Rocco. High quality clay supplied by Colorobbia.

All of the high quality, long lasting and frost proof terra cotta pottery found in Italy uses GalestroClay. Made with 100% Galestro clay by Colorobbia of Montelupo, Italy, and the largest Terracotta manufacturer in the world. 

Hundreds of rustic clay pots are stacked high into the  at the Amiskygos Pottery outdoor lot near  farmers market. Owners Benito and Elsa Reyna have beselling pots, fountains, talavera (the colorful hanainted ceramics), outdoor statueen margarita glasses for 12 years at that spot. They also have a location in Plano. Mostly they sell to designers, landscapers and apartment complexes, but individuals also brave the heat for the good deals. The Reynas own the factory that produces the rustic pottery in Tonala, Mexico, so the cost stays low. They sell everything from a five-tiered garden fountain for $1,000 to a small pot for a house plant for under  

Dallas potter David Day throws traditional terra cotta flower pots, whitewashed and stamped with their weight and city of origin (Dallas), ranging from one and a half to 12 pounds per pot in a variety of classical shapes. The whitewash gives them an especially timeless aura. Day learned his craft as a demonstration potter t Old City Park, then moved to the Cedars and set up his own full-scale studio. He works now at what he calls a "real job" during the week but continues to throw pots in his spare  on Fairmount where Uncommon Market did business for 40 years, you're in for a big surprise. 

References.                                             

Hessenberg, Karin. Ceramics for Gardens & Landscapes. London: A & C Black, 2000. Print.

Musgrave, Toby. Courtyard Gardens: Imaginative Ideas for Outdoor Living. London: Jacqui Small, 2000. Print.

Morris, Alistair. Antiques from the Garden. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Garden Art Press, 1999. Print.

Hankinson, Moira. Garden Ornaments. Gloucester, MA: Rockport Publishers, 2001. Print.

Hankinson, Moira. Garden Ornaments. Gloucester, MA: Rockport Publishers, 2001. Print.

Hankinson, Moira. Garden Ornaments. Gloucester, MA: Rockport Publishers, 2001. Print.

Baker, Martha, Chuck Baker, and Anne M. Cloutier. Garden Ornaments: A Stylish Guide to Decorating Your Garden. New York: Clarkson Potter, 1999. Print.

Strong, Roy. Ornament in the Small Garden. Willowdale, Ont: Firefly Books, 2002. Print.

Ornements De Jardins. Paris: L'es Editions du Carousel, 1999. Print.

Pincas, Stephane. Versailles: The History of the Gardens and Their Sculpture. New York, N.Y: Thames and Hudson, 1996. Print.

the

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Heritage Tulips for Historic Gardens

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Gardening + History

CREATING Heritage gardens

 Mariette Tulips 1942

I am working on a Heritage worksheet for tulips found in historical gardens  such as George Washington's Mount Vernon and Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. I hope to achieve a better understanding of the cultivars available during the 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. I would eventually have it searchable by color and date of bloom, and who grew these in their gardens.

White Triumphator 1942

Tulipa 'Angélique 1959

Awarded AGM

Division  11 - Double late (peony flowered) tulip

DUTCH ART FROM THE 17TH CENTURY

Tulip Madness

The “Dutch Golden Age”, which occurred roughly between 1568 and 1648, witnessed a blossoming of trade, economics, science and art. During this period, the work of women artists was encouraged. Two of these women, Rachel Ruysch (1664-1750), and Maria van Oosterwijck (1630-1693) are remembered for their floral paintings. A third artist, the German born Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) moved to Amsterdam, and became known for her scientific drawings of flowers and other wildlife.

Great Tulip Book: Semper Augustus, 1600-1699, gouache on paper, 12-1/8 x 7-7/8 inches / 30.8 x 20.0 cm (Norton Simon Museum)

The still life genre of painting became especially significant during the Dutch Golden Age, and floral still life works make up a significant sub-genre.  Though flowers painted in this period are characterized by an intense, almost encyclopedic realism, compositions were often amalgamated from individual studies, or copied from book illustrations.  In addition, blooms from very different seasons were routinely included in the same painting.  This is in part a result of the position of flowers, in particular tulip bulbs, within the Dutch economy.  Flowers were a significant source of wealth for many business men.  Fortunes were routinely made and lost in the trade of flowers.  Though the large mixed bouquets seen in these paintings share many similar aspects with those we create today at Westmount Florist, they possess a fundamental unreality when considered in relation to their own period.  Vases containing mixed bouquets were almost non-existent within the Dutch home of the period.  Flowers more often displayed individually in specially designed vases known as “tulipieres”.  Floral still life subjects were in fact considered highly symbolic advertisements, and were used by Dutch tradesmen to display their product as well as their personal wealth and prosperity.

Tulips famous for their beautiful virus induced variegated colors.
Jan David de Heem, 1660

Rachel Ruysch was born in The Hague in 1664, but moved to Amsterdam at the age of three. During her childhood she helped her father amass and display a large collection of curiosities and scientific specimens in their home. Apprenticed at fifteen to floral painter Willem van Aelst (1627-1638), her work was to become highly influenced by his style and composition. In 1701 Ruysch was inducted into the painter’s guild of The Hague, and several years later, was invited to work for the court in Düsseldorf. Ruysch continued to paint until her death at the age of eighty-five, and about a hundred paintings by her are known to survive today. Her work is usually characterized by dramatically darkened backgrounds, and luminously coloured flowers.

Still Life with Flowers (1665)
Willem van Aelst

Rachel Ruysch grew up in Amsterdam, into a wealthy and prominent family of Dutch artists, architects and scientists. Her father, Frederik Ruysch, was an eminent scientist and professor of anatomy and botany. He possessed a well-known collection of rare natural history specimens, which Rachel helped catalogue and record. He encouraged her artistic talents, careful observation of the natural world and scientifically accurate renderings of plants and flowers. At age fifteen, Ruysch began an apprenticeship with famous still life painter Willem van Aelst. By eighteen, she was already producing her first still life paintings and starting to establish her long and successful career.

A Working Mother

At twenty nine, Rusch married portrait painter Juriaen Pool, with whom she had ten children. Despite her enormous domestic responsibilities, she was remarkably prolific, producing more than 250 paintings over seven decades. Her works were in great demand, and she achieved widespread fame and international recognition. Considered one of the most successful artists of her day, contemporary Dutch writers called her “Holland’s art prodigy” and “our subtle art heroine.”

In 1648, the Netherlands became independent from Spain, ushering in a period of great economic prosperity. Flourishing international trade and a thriving capitalistic economy resulted in a newly affluent middle class. Wealthy merchants created a new kind of patronage and art market. Without a powerful monarchy or the Catholic Church to commission artworks (the Dutch were Protestants), artists produced directly for buyers. Like today, buyers purchased art either from professional dealers or from the artist in their studios. Subjects like big historical, mythological or religious paintings were no longer desired; buyers wanted portraits, still lifes, landscapes and genre paintings (scenes of everyday life) to decorate their homes. Proud of their newly independent country and trade wealth, they desired artworks that would reflect their success. In a competitive open market, artists began to specialize. Rachel Ruysch became known as one of the greatest flower painters of her time.

Ruysch’s career paralleled the growth of the Dutch horticultural industry and the science of botany. The Netherlands became the largest importers of new and exotic plants and flowers from around the world. Once valued primarily for their use as herbs or medicine, flowers became newly appreciated simply for their beauty and fragrance. They became prized luxuries and desirable status symbols for the wealthy. Botanists and gardeners sought the rarest specimens imported from overseas trade. The tulip, like the one featured prominently in Ruysch’s painting below, was the most exotic.

Coveted for their intense and unusually varied colors, tulips were introduced into the Netherlands from Turkey in the late 16th century. The Dutch fell madly in love with them. Because it takes so long for a tulip to be grown from seed, demand far outpaced supply. The rarest and most valuable tulips were the variegated or “flamed” tulips, those with feathers of contrasting color on their petals. This exotic coloration was actually caused by a virus that infected the tulip, shortening its life span and making it even more sought after and valuable. The stage was set for a buying craze.

The word tulip mania is often used today to refer to certain types of economic crises. It describes a financial bubble caused by large numbers of people speculating on unproved commodities or companies. Tulip bulbs were so avidly desired in 17th century Netherlands that a “futures market” was born. Buyers bought bulbs still in the ground, speculating that they would be worth more in the future and could then be sold for a large profit. Prices rose steadily and irrationally. At the peak of tulip speculation in 1636, some bulbs sold for more than a skilled craftsman earned in ten years. A nursery catalog of the time notes that at the height of the madness, a rare “Semper Augustus” tulip sold for 5,200 guiders, more than the price of a fine house, a ship or twelve acres of land.

In February, 1637, investors suddenly decided that tulip bulbs were grossly overpriced, and began to sell. Within days, panic ensued. With more sellers than buyers, demand for tulips evaporated. Prices plummeted, tulip bulbs lost 90% of their earlier value, and the market crashed. The world had just experienced its first financial bubble.

A successful Dutch still life painting was highly valued for its degree of skillful realism. Flowers Still Life depicts a profusion of scientifically accurate floral details. Each petal, stem, and leaf is minutely and precisely rendered. Textures are remarkably realistic, from the delicate paper thin poppy petals to the crinkly, brittle leaves. Looking closer still, we see that Ruysch has also meticulously depicted tiny insects: a caterpillar crawls on a stem, a bee gathers pollen from the center of a poppy, a white butterfly alights on a marigold.

Flower Still Life depicts a lush variety of different flowers, from popular common European blooms to rare overseas species. Ruysch combines a complex and intricate arrangement of poppies, snapdragons, roses, carnations, hollyhocks, marigolds, morning glories and a single red and white flamed tulip. Flowers lavishly spill out of the vase, filling the entire picture space. Some are in full bloom, others droop and wilt, as leaves and curving stems entwine throughout. While many of her contemporary flower painters used more symmetrical and formal compositions, Ruysch was known for these lively and informal looking arrangements. The flowers are asymmetrically arranged, leading the eye diagonally from the lower left drooping marigold to the upper right red poppy. Our eye is first attracted to the lightest flowers in the center, then to the brightly colored surrounding flowers, and finally out to the small darker flowers at the edges of the bouquet. Complementary colors create harmony, as warm yellows and rose balance cool blues and greens. Light alternates with shadow, enlivening the flowers as they stand out dramatically against the darker background. 

Vanitas”: Hidden Meanings?

Some scholars believe there is another way to view Ruysch’s flower paintings. One common interpretation is to understand them in light of vanitas, a moral message common at the time. Taken from a passage in the Christian bible, it was a reminder that beauty fades and all living things must die. While still life paintings celebrated the beauty and luxury of fine food or voluptuous flowers, vanitas was a warning about the fleeting nature of these material things and the shortness of life. In Flowers Still Life, some flowers wilt and die while insects have eaten holes in the leaves. Wealthy Dutch consumers were being reminded to not become too attached to their material possessions and worldly pleasures; eternal salvation came only through devotion to God.

Rachel came from a great amount of wealth, her father, Frederik Ruysch, amassed a fortune over his lifetime as a doctor, anatomist, obstetrician, botanist, and doctor for the judicial system, not to mention through selling his collection to Peter the Great and through charging for private tutorship and admission into his museum, which he published over ten books on. From childhood Rachel's interest in art was supported and encouraged. She began painting before the age of 15, and was apprenticed to an artist who was not a family member - Willem van Aelst - which was uncommon for female artists and gave her the chance to become a professional. She had already established her career by the time she was married to portrait painter Juriaan Pool, and insisted on continuing her work despite her marriage. Her interest in flowers was not uncommon at the time - flower painters were highly sought after and highly paid, and Amsterdam, where she worked, was home to the Hortus Botanicus, a garden full of flowers and herbs from all around the world - at which her father worked. It is likely that she gained an interest in painting floral still lifes from her father's work as a botanist, and from her master van Aelst's work in floral still lifes. She also painted a few incest and fruit scenes, and forest floor or 'sottobosco' paintings when she was young.

 

Maria van Oosterwijck was born at Nootdorp in 1630, She studied with Jan Davidsz. de Heem (1606-1684), and later worked in Delft, Utrecht, and Amsterdam. Though barred from joining the Dutch guild of painters, her work nevertheless gained popularity in the royal courts of the Netherlands, Poland, Austria, France and England. She gave artistic instruction to her maid servant, Geeren Wyntges (1636-1712), who was to later become a floral painter in her own right. Today her work is housed in prestigious art collections worldwide, including the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Royal Art Collection in Great Britain.

A stil5l life, by Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder (1573-1621), that includes broken tulips.Credit...Getty Images

Still Life with Flowers in a Vase and a Bird's Nest, 1783
Georges Frédéric Ziesel (1755–1809)
The National Trust

Table I: Tulips Considered Heritage Tulips for Historical Gardens with bloom Time, Height, and Coloration

I haved used information available in old catalogues and from growers such as the following:

Sources and Research

• Brent and Becky’s, brentandbeckysbulbs.com.
• McClure and; Zimmerman, mzbulb.com.
• Old House Gardens, oldhousegardens.com.
• Van Engelen, vanengelen.com.
• Peter Nyssen
• Colorblends (Schipper and Co. USA)
• Keukenhof Gardens, Amsterdam
• Bulb Museum in Limmen, Holland
• Hortus Bulborum
• Hortus Tulipus
• The Tulip Gallery
• Tulipmania

Table 2:  Classification of Tulips by Divisions

Division  0I - Single early flowering tulip	Early-season tulips
Division  0I - Single early flowering tulip, Duc van Tol	Early-season tulips
Division  2 - Double early tulip	Early-season tulips
Division  3 - Triumph tulip	Mid-season tulips
Division  3 - Triumph tulip, Mendel	Mid-season tulips
Division  4 - Darwin Hybrid Tulip	Mid-season tulips
Division  5 - Single late tulip	Late-season tulips
Division  5 - Single late tulip, Breeder	Late-season tulips
Division  5 - Single late tulip, Darwin	Late-season tulips
Division  6 - Lily-flowered tulip	Late-season tulips
Division  7 - Fringed	Late-season tulips
Division  8 - Viridiflora	Late-season tulips
Division  9 - Rembrandt Group	Late-season tulips
Division 10 - Parrot tulips	Mid-season tulips
Division 11 - Double late (peony flowered) tulip	Late-season tulips
Division 12 - Kaufmanniana	Early-season tulips
Division 13 - Fosteriana	Early-season tulips
Division 14 - Greigii tulip (Tulipa Greigii)	Early-season tulips Early-season tulips
Division 15 - Species

There are many corrections and additions needed. I will update this chart as I find additional information.

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~ Grassroots Horticulture ~

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THEMED GARDENS | HARRY POTTER GARDEN COLORS

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Hogwort Gardening 

What plants would you use to create a Theme Garden for Harry Potter fans?

creating gryffindor SHADEs

The particular characteristics of students sorted into Gryffindor are courage, chivalry, and determination. The emblematic animal is a lion, and its colours are red and gold.

You will have no problem finding the rich yellow lions mane gold if you have the courage to look. Asters are what pop into my mind first. Asters hold a treasure trove of golden disc flowers from sunflowers, coreopsis, tickseeds, and rudbeckia to name a few. The medium dark red or dark burgundy is a more nebulous jewel tone and might be more challenging to find. I have a few photographs of short blooming flowers but we might want to look for this color shade in a few of the showy leafed plants such as coleus and crotons. 

Asisiatic lily 'tiny epic', purple basil, purple oxalis, purple transcendia plant.

Plains coreopsis, garden tickseed, golden tickseed, or calliopsis, Coreopsis tinctoria, is an annual forb. The plant is common in Canada, northeast Mexico, and much of the United States, especially the Great Plains and Southern states where it is often called "calliopsis." Wikipedia

CREATING ravenclaw SHADES

 RAVENCLAW VALUES INTELLIGENCE, LEARNING, WISDOM AND WIT. THE HOUSE MASCOT IS AN EAGLE AND THE HOUSE COLOURS ARE BLUE AND BRONZE.

Blue and Bronze

This might be the most difficult Happy Potter group to colorize. Blue flowers include Larkspur and delphinium, perennial bachelor buttons, Salvia, bluebonnets, love-in-a-mist, myrtle, Siberian iris, mountain bluet, and calibrachoa.

The metalic bronze is a shade found in tree bark of the Crape myrtle or in actual sculptures.  More blue flowers link: Indigo and blue

 

CREATING slytherin SHADES

The determinate character traits of Slytherins are cunning, resourcefulness, ambition, fraternity, pride, and determination.

Green and Silver

1. Dusty miller, santolina, cardoon, lambs ear, 
2. Green of the hollies (Ilex)

  

CREATING Hufflepuff SHADES

Hufflepuff was the most inclusive among the four houses; valuing hard work, dedication, patience, loyalty, and fair play rather than a particular aptitude in its members. The emblematic animal was a badger,yellow and black were its house colours. A link to yellow and gold flowers: Yellow Flowers.

1. Of course, bumble bees
2. Day lilies, St John's wort, tickseed, coreopsis
3. Black in the form of a dark purple (i.e. basil, purple ruffles)

   


          

What would you put in your Harry Potter Garden?

Themed Gardens including discovery gardens,  fairy gardens, and gardens for the senses.