Embrace Your Space With Monrovia

The weather is finally perking up here in Northwest Ohio and Monrovia has given me another chance to enjoy my outdoor green space.  As a provider of high quality, selectively bred annuals and perennials Monrovia Plants asked me this time to find a way to “embrace your space” with beautiful plantings.  There are hundreds of plants to choose from so focusing my attentions on just a few was difficult.

This time how I chose to grow beautifully is by creating a container planting that combined perennial flowers, annual grasses and other annual plants with interesting foliage.  Creating a project like this is a challenge for me because I’ve always been a bit intimidated by the process of combining plants for a structured yet flowing look that doesn’t end up looking like a messy hodge-podge.  My mom is really, really good at arranging flowers and creating beautiful container plantings so I asked her advice when I chose my plants at the local Lowe’s store ~ my closest Monrovia dealer.

How To Compose A Beautiful Container Planting

• Choose plants of varying heights

  • Tall for back accents or centerpieces
  • Low or short plants to fill areas around the front
  • Middle height plants with contrasting foliage if you have the space

• Select either a plant with foliage interest or showy flowers to be your centerpiece and work the other plants around it.

  • If you use a tall grass you can definitely add colorful smaller flowers of the same type around the edges to bring brightness and textural contrast.

• Choose plants with interesting foliage – try not to make them all the same

  • Mix plants with spiky leaves, rounded softer foliage and/or trailing vines to give the illusion of a much larger planting

• Make sure you have a container large enough to fit them all.

  • It’s easy to go crazy, but your plants won’t do well in the long run if they are too crowded.  Taller, fuller plants will require more root space as will vining plants as the season wears on.

These are the plants that will go into the container which will sit in front of my house –

Tiny Padhye Asiatic Lily – (Perennial) Grows 16″-18″ Tall x 12″-16″ Wide with beautiful two toned dark maroon and white blooms in the summer.  It is winter hardy to -40 Fahrenheit below 0 and can tolerate partial to full sun in semi moist well drained soil.

Red Star Cordyline – (Annual) Tall spiky grass in a dark burgundy color that grows to 3′-4′ H x 3′ W.  It’s cold hardy to 25 Fahrenheit and prefers full sun and semi-moist soil.

Sidekick Sweet Potato Vine – (Annual) Like the lily, these plants like partial to full sun and semi-moist soil.  They grow 12-18″ H x 24-36″ W.  This plant is prized for it’s foliage which trails gorgeously over the edges of baskets and containers for visual interest.  I choose both the green and burgundy varieties.

My girls love flowers and so that they could share in the joy of embracing their green space I got them a Beauty Yellow Marquerite Daisy to plant in a pot on the front steps. The reason I chose container plantings this time around is because it will be easier for me to keep the soil moist and position them in the best possible location for proper sun exposure. Monrovia Plants have so many choices to grow beautifully that it truly was difficult to choose. My front steps were naked and in need of some flowers or bright colors so the lilies and daisies were a perfect choice. It helps make the house look lived in and loved.

Thanks to Monrovia Plants for sponsoring this post.