The outdoor terraces and stone ledges around my Winter House are filled with potted plants.
This time of year, I always display a variety of warm weather specimens around my home - potted flowering plants, small evergreens, and even some ground covers look good planted together in urns. This week, my head gardener, Ryan McCallister, potted several planters outside my carport.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
Before potting anything, Ryan places the plants in their designated spots and positions them in the order that looks best. He selects plants that not only fit the containers but also look good grouped together.
It’s always fun to visit local nurseries and select plants for one’s own gardens and terrace planters. Neighborhood shops sell what grows best in the area and experts on staff are there to answer any questions. This is a weeping dawn redwood, Mesasequoia glyptostroboides ‘Miss Grace.’ It has green needles that turn bronze in autumn.
Landscape fabric is made from a solid sheet with perforated holes to allow water to soak through. It is available at any garden shop.
Ryan places a layer of weed cloth in every pot to protect the vessel itself. This will also make it easier to remove the plant next autumn, when it is put back in the greenhouse or planted outdoors.
The fabric is cut larger than the pot and then positioned generously so it covers the entire inside of the container.
Ryan does this for all the pots on the ledge.
Then the container is filled two-thirds of the way up with a good quality potting soil. Using a proper soil mix will help to promote faster root growth and give quick anchorage to young roots. Here is the inside of the urn. One can always add more soil later if needed. I use Miracle-Gro potting mix.
Fertilizer is also added to the soil. This is Miracle-Gro Shake ‘n Feed, an easy to use plant food that nourishes above and below the soil.
Ryan removes the plant from the urn and inspects the root ball.
Remember, whenever transplanting always scarify the root ball, meaning tease or loosen the roots, so they are stimulated. This will help the plant roots grow and form a good foundation in the pot.
He fills the pot with soil to just under the urn’s lip.
And then cuts off the excess weed cloth. Any cloth that can be seen afterward can be tucked into the soil.
Ryan top dresses the potted specimens with natural colored mulch.
Miracle-Gro makes an organic variety that is available at garden stores.
Here is the potted weeping dawn redwood. It will add so much interest on the wall. It is planted in an antique faux bois, or “false wood,” planter.
Here, Ryan prepares to plant artemesia, also known as wormwood, absinthe, southernwood, and mugwort. Artemisia leaves are covered with whitish hairs that give it a silvery, grayish look.
When planting different specimens in one pot, be sure to consider the growth habits of each plant to ensure there’s enough room to last all season.
Here is small evergreen which will do nicely in this pot before it is transplanted somewhere outdoors next fall.
This pot is planted with a young Abies koreana, a small to medium-sized evergreen coniferous tree. It is underplanted with Dichondra argentea, or silver ponysfoot, a trailing perennial known for its striking silvery foliage and drought tolerance.
After everything is planted, Ryan gives all the plants a good drink. Don’t forget, if you drank today, so should your plants.
Using potted plants to decorate the outside of one’s home can totally transform a space. These plants will thrive in this location.
I hope you caught a glimpse of my pergola garden on @MarthaStewart48 - it is putting on such a colorful and gorgeous display.
Soon after I bought my Bedford, New York farm, I built a long pergola along the carriage road leading to my home. Over the years, I've added lots of bulbs and perennials that bloom at different times throughout the season. Right now, the Camassia and alliums are covering the area in an eye-catching palette of blue and purple.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
Across from my stately bald cypress trees is my long and winding pergola. This pergola starts just outside my flower cutting garden and runs along one side of the carriage road leading to my Winter House.
The uprights for this pergola are antique granite posts from China – originally used as grape supports in a valley that was going to be dammed and flooded to create a reservoir. The cedar rafters were just replaced earlier this year.
Bordering the garden on both sides are these boxwood shrubs. There are more than 300 boxwood shrubs planted here. These boxwood shrubs were grown from small saplings.
This is the pergola garden late last month – lots of fresh, healthy green foliage.
This is the garden now filled with varying hues of purple and blue – it’s breathtaking.
The most prominent plant right now is the Camassia – it’s blooming profusely and so beautifully.
Camassia leichtlinii caerulea forms clusters of linear strappy foliage around upright racemes.
On this, one can see the six-petaled, two-inch, star-shaped flowers of Camassia.
Camassia is a genus of plants in the asparagus family native to Canada and the United States. It is best grown in moist, fertile soil and full sun.
Camassia also comes in this lighter shade of blue.
Both the lighter and darker shades look so good growing together in this garden.
The flower stalks stand 24 to 30 inches tall and display dozens of florets that open from the bottom up.
Alliums are often overlooked as one of the best bulbs for constant color throughout the season. They come in oval, spherical, or globular flower shapes, blooming in magnificent colors atop tall stems.
An allium flower head is a cluster of individual florets and the flower color may be purple, white, yellow, pink, or blue.
Alliums require full sunlight, and rich, well-draining, and neutral pH soil. Alliums are rabbit-resistant, rodent-resistant, and deer-resistant, but adored by bees, butterflies, and pollinators.
Alliums pop up above the Camassia throughout the garden adding color and texture.
Spanish Bluebells, Hyacinthoides, are unfussy members of the lily family, and native to Spain and Portugal. They are pretty, inexpensive, and good for cutting – they add such a nice touch of blue.
Behind the pergola and across the “soccer field,” where my grandson, Truman, loves to play whenever he visits, are six matched standard weeping hornbeams, Carpinus betulus ‘Pendula’. Weeping hornbeams can grow to be about 50-feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 40-feet. These are very rare and precious trees.
In the center and at the ends of this winding pergola are wisteria standards. One can see them in the back of this image. Right now, these beauties are cascading over the pergola and giving off the most intoxicating fragrance.
Wisteria is valued for its beautiful clusters of flowers that come in purple, pink and white. Looking closely one can see flowers drape down from the soft green heads of foliage.
I am so proud of this pergola garden. It is among the first one sees when they arrive at the farm, and some of it can also be viewed from my terrace parterre outside my Winter House kitchen.
Here is a view from the carriage road beneath my allée of pin oaks. My gardens are looking stunning this spring.
I always try to make the most of business trips by visiting beautiful and interesting places in between scheduled commitments.
During a recent visit to Maryland I had the opportunity to visit Ladew Topiary Gardens in Monkton, just north of Baltimore. Ladew features more than 100 larger than life topiary forms across 22 acres and surrounding an historic Manor House designed and developed by topiary enthusiast, Harvey S. Ladew. As luck would have it, I not only toured the exquisite gardens, but also attended its 17th annual Garden Festival - a specialty plant, garden ornament, and antiques sale with more than 40 vendors from around the region.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
When Harvey Ladew first purchased his Maryland property, he decided he would take on the task of planning and landscaping the gardens himself. I am sure he would be proud of what it looks like today. This is a view across the Great Bowl to the Terraces of the Ladew Manor House. (Photo by Jim Lockard Photography)
The 18th century historic Manor House was completed over three centuries and houses Harvey’s collection of English antiques and equestrian-themed art. The Manor House was a great inspiration for the gardens. (Photo by Helen Norman)
Harvey Ladew began developing his gardens in 1937. After seeing many European gardens, he decided his would have two cross axes to allow for long vistas. The axes would intersect at a swimming pool placed in the center of what is called the Great Bowl. (Photo courtesy of Ladew)
These topiaries are yews, Taxus, and create the wall of the Great Bowl.
Here is a reproduction of what inspired Harvey’s love for topiaries. He had passed a similar sculpted scene during a hunt in England – topiary hounds chasing a fox. In his rendition, he also added riders on their trusted mounts.
Here is one planted over a fence. It is one of the most well-loved topiaries in the garden.
In all, there are more than 100 larger than life topiary forms at Ladew. (Photo courtesy of Ladew)
Here is another topiary on the terrace – simple in design, but wonderfully sculpted.
Here I am at the top of the steps into Harvey’s Garden of Eden. The steps are inscribed with one of his favorite Chinese proverbs – and one of mine, too. It says, “If you want to be happy for a week, take a wife, if you want to be happy for a month kill your pig, but if you would be happy all your life, plant a garden.”
In this corner is a bench in a nook built into the wall of the Rose Garden. The arch features Rosa ‘New Dawn’.
In almost every view around the Manor, one sees mature and meticulously groomed topiary forms.
In the foreground is Nepeta, also known as catmint. In the background is Stachys byzantina ‘Helene von Stein’ with underplanting emerging roses.
Here, topiaries also accent the tulip beds in the Croquet Court.
And this is a view of the Victorian Garden fountain through a bed of rhododendrons and towering Cryptomeria.
On this day, I was lucky to also attend Ladew’s 17th annual Garden Festival.
Hundreds attend this event every year to browse the more than 40 vendor tents. (Photo by Jim Lockard Photography)
Ornamental garden fountains, urns, and furniture can be found at the Festival…
… along with many rare and interesting perennials and annuals, and small trees. Some of the proceeds of the event go to the maintenance and preservation of Ladew.
Here is a colorful selection of Salvia nemerosa, also known as meadow sage.
And this is Sarracenia or pitcher plants – they’re carnivorous.
Here I am with renowned hellebores expert, David Culp. I’ve known him for may years. You may have seen him on my television shows. It was good to catch up with him at Ladew.
Visitors can pick up their purchases at a designated spot. It is very well organized and managed.
And here I am with David, the Garden Festival co-chairs Lynn Janney, Stiles Colwill, Dudley Mason, and Ladew Director, Emily Emerick. If you’re ever in the area, I encourage you to visit Ladew Topiary Gardens.
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