Inspiration
Overwintering Tender Plants: Tips for Keeping Your Tropicals Cozy
CONTAINEDBRILLIANCE As temperatures drop this time of year, my phone buzzes nonstop with texts and calls from friends wondering how to protect their beloved tropicals—like hibiscus, citrus trees, and aeoniums—from the chill of winter. It all boils down to one word: overwintering. Overwintering is about giving your plants the care and protection they need…
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Fall Foliage: The Secret to Stunning Container Gardens
CONTAINEDBRILLIANCE One big reason fall is a favorite season is the focus on foliage. Yes, those classic wine purples, burnt oranges, and golds that people travel to see. But as a container gardener, I appreciate foliage not just for its color, but as a design element for its texture and form. Just like layering…
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Summer Garden Hack: The Self-Watering Planter
CONTAINEDBRILLIANCE Gardening enthusiasts and newbies alike can agree on one thing: maintaining healthy and thriving container plants during the summer can be both rewarding and challenging because many gardeners struggle with either underwatering or overwatering their planters. One innovative solution that has gained popularity in recent years is the self-watering planter. These planters significantly…
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Give Your Houseplants a Summer Break Outdoors
CONTAINEDBRILLIANCE Houseplants Outdoors? You bet! Summer offers the perfect opportunity to give your favorite houseplants a rejuvenating vacation while simultaneously creating a beautiful outdoor oasis. By moving these indoor favorites outside, they can easily transform into stunning shade container beauties. This shift allows you to think beyond traditional seasonal choices and create a lush,…
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The Art of Selection: Crafting a Stunning Container Garden with the Right Plants
CONTAINEDBRILLIANCE As garden centers burst at the seams with an array of plants in all sorts of pretty colors and interesting textures, the task of plant selection can at times seem daunting. But, following a few nifty guidelines and simply decoding the plant tag will help you select plants that will give you success…
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Designing a Container Garden for Sensory Delight
CONTAINEDBRILLIANCE Container gardens offer a fantastic opportunity to craft a lasting experience that engages, sight, smell, touch, even taste, right outside your door whether it’s at your front entry, balcony or patio. Plus, sensory stimulation enhances our well-being. At this point in my career, incorporating the five senses into my container garden designs and…
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March Makeover: Tips for Refreshing Your Spring Containers
CONTAINEDBRILLIANCE March can be such a tease, luring us with its transition from winter to spring and often bringing about unpredictable weather changes. It can be a mix of warm spells and sudden cold snaps. During this period, our container plantings might start looking a bit dreary. So how do you transition your container…
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Growing Citrus in the Pacific Northwest
CONTAINEDBRILLIANCE Citrus, the fragrant, fruit-bearing beauty Citrus has a special place in my heart. When most people think of citrus, they think of its fruit but some citrus is grown for its fragrant leaves and flowers. It’s all of this and more for me. My parents have been taking care of kumquat trees since…
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Designing a Winter Planter with Style
CONTAINEDBRILLIANCE Get Creative and Stylize Your Winter Container Planting this Holiday Season I recently partook in a “Winter Style-It Container Challenge” sponsored by Monrovia and Digging In Gathering. The structure of the competition was to have a small group of container gardeners from various regions across the country design a winter planter using Monrovia’s…
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Bring a Sunny Disposition to Your Container Plantings
CONTAINEDBRILLIANCE There’s just something about yellow Last month, I shared that tete a tetes signify the arrival of spring for me. I recently found myself thinking about what is it about tete a tetes that makes me feel so cheerful and happy. Is it something as simple as their color? Yellow symbolizes happiness. One…
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