Princeton Container Pots for Pools and Patios

Since it is super hot here in Princeton  I thought I would share one of my clients container pots and pool.   Around this property I design eight containers that change with the seasons.  I stick to water plants and succulents and some annuals for continuing color.  It feels refreshing to have plants at eye level with stepping down into a private pool. It really makes your home feel like a resort in many ways.

Hopewell Carriage House Window Boxes filled with Cottage Classics

I don't know what happened to me this spring but I am all about pink with my grey cedar shake nest. As a woman that loves songbirds nothing pleases me more than a nest from a bird already used and ready for some recyling.  I will add some blues to this arrangment but it's still too darn early! Right around Mother's Day is frost safe.

I have weeded, trenched, fertilized and pruned and now it's just that time to fill the window boxes and containers.  For my clients I am sticking to early spring arrangement that are safe from frost right now.
Who loves lush hostas but not that fact that they are deer candy..Solution is what I do for my clients and myself.  Pick varieties that are small to dwarf and put them in pots where you can pick and change locations.  I am going to show you mine this week that are all lined up in pots!

English Daisies Bellis Perennis Blooming at the Hopewell Carriage House

Spring is showing up early though we are still in frost danger until the end of April towards the beginning of May. I have a real mainstay blooming now which is the English Daisy. It is a strong landscape performer and produces masses of large double flowers which are perfect for borders or rock gardens. They are lovely with early spring bulbs and easy to grow but prefer well drained soil.   Dead head them to prevent self seeding.
 Also your helleborus should be in full bloom and most started activity in February!  I love these for a garden. No worries, no fungus, no predators! No slugs and no deer! Only thing that they have going against them is that they are rather expensive in the perennial world.  I have a coveted pale yellow speciman and white and pink varieties. Most of mine are doubles which is peculiar for me considering I prefer the non fuss of a single bloom in most plants.

Custom Cabinetry from Princeton Design Guild

Here's probably the last piece of cabinetry that has been finished in the Carriage House nest.  Princeton Design Guild's Kevin Wilkes gave me a super idea to add a cork board to the cabinet.  I went to Stone Tec and picked out a remnant again of Calcutta Gold Extra Marble.  It has been the right decision for me to go with custom cabinetry for my space.  The weight of the doors alone are lovely to open and close!    We now will amend the walk in master closet next.   Shelves are being designed for this space. I am not a fashionista at all but I am a neat freak.  I prefer style in the garden and home.

Winter Containers for Princeton and Hopewell

It's that time of year for your winter pots to be filled with firs, cypress, hollies, junipers, kales and various winter clippings.   I love doing the winter installations but they are prickly!

These pots just arrived from Italy made for the client.   We pick them out together and they are some kind of Lovely! More pictures to come.

Leaf Online Home and Garden Rag!

I want to share this new online magazine for garden lovers and home dwellers.   It is really inspiring to see so many stylists  be open to the homemade artisinal  movement that has returned which is  similiar to the Arts and Crafts Movement hundred years ago.  This is Leaf's preview issue and I really like it a lot.
Check out the middle of the magazine and decide if you are Homespun, a Neo Prep or an Industrist!  Anyone that knows me knows I am mostly Homespun though I love creating different moods that work for my clients spaces.
The magazine nods a tribute to Ellen Biddle Shipman who was  known as America's best woman flower garden maker. Inspiring to read and nice to be validated with the feminine choices in a perennial garden like Peonies, old fashioned roses and irises and lillies.
 I planted Heirloom species Lilies today- L.tigrinum splendens circa 1870 which will have a radiant salmon orange with maroon garnet spots.  The carriage house was built in 1890 and it is lovely to have some plants that honor the time period.

I also will add Triandrus Narcissi variety Thalia circa 1916 which smells divine and usually bears two or more pendant of flowers per stem and can handle some shade.
I have chosen Rosalie as a tulip which is a Triumph Tulip and is a rose pink that looks will with the Nantucket grey cedar shakes on the carriage house.
For a ground cover I have planted Grecian Windflowers with a daisy like flower circa 1898. These can also be forced in pots though I have not ever done this.

Thank goodness that the weather has been on my side this winter so I have a few more days to complete bulbs in the ground for winter.   Christmas trees are up and so are my English boxwood wreaths.  I always grace the front of the carriage home with a super large Frazer Fir wreath and that is hung. Pictures to come. I promise!

Princeton Garden Design Pots Grow at Bell and Whistle

I had to share what one of my clients container pots looks like at the end of the fall season before there is a change to a different arrangement.  Coleus, Hibiscus, Sweet Potato Vine, Lantana, and Succulents to name just a few!

Italian Pots and Italian Furniture with Princeton Pots and Princeton Design Guild

Wow!I bet you are wondering where have I been this summer? Have I been gardening for clients? You bet I have.  It has been so busy that I have not been very good at keeping up with pictures at all.  Thought I would share a client's lovely bluestone patio designed by Princeton Design Guild and beautified with some Italian outdoor furniture that we picked out for the client. We have a few more pieces coming for this client that will compliment the patio dining furniture.

We selected some graphite grey Imported Italian pots and I jazzed them up with some annuals, tropicals and some perennials that will last until frost. Nothing nicer on a patio than to bring in some three dimensional plantings that work with the space and align with a client's decor.

I encouraged the client to go with a mandarine cushion for the chairs on this blue select patio and they look stunning.  Unfortunately the client took them in.  When the club chairs arrive I will photograph them with a few more Italian pots coming on the next container from Italy.

It is fun for me as a garden designer to work with an architect/builder during the project so that a client is left with a truly finished product that is now a "green living space" ready for entertaining and relaxing.

Tuscan Hills in Kingston for Imported Italian Pots

I work  with Tuscan Hills in Kingston/Princeton for clients that want pots imported from Italy.  Their selection is lovely whether it be contemporary or old world in taste.  I can help with  tasteful selections  and help clients with proper plant selection for the exterior space.  I  take into consideration the sun exposure or lack thereof and a clients skillset in maintaining these plants.   .
Remember the easiest way to make a small space alive is with some container pots on  a patio. terrace or porch!

Step in Stone Container Pots

Sometime the best thing you can do as a store owner is some containers for landscape.   I love working with black containers for contrast.  It is important to make sure that plants chosen suit the site and have water needs that are very similiar.  Also these annuals need to be fertilized throughout the season for abundant blooms. I chose hibiscus, exotic geraniums , succulents and grasses.

Spring Perennial Garden in Hopewell Carriage House

Spring is here in Central Jersey!  I love planting Creeping Jenny because of her chartreuse color that pops in the shade and looks wonderful in container pots as it cascades down the sides. It returns every spring  because it is a perennial.

This is only a wee look at some of the containers that I have on my property.  Many,  I plant  dwarf specimen hostas  that return every year and even ferns in some of the pots.

Don't forget to add some things that are special so that visitors will know that they are invited into your space.  Wrens are my most favorite birds for many reasons and it is some folly to see one in the garden all of the time.

Copper sundials hearken back to another time and I take any opportunity I find to place a pot!


Sometimes simplicity is at its best with some violas for spring in an aging pot.

Containers Pots for Bell and Whistle

It is that time of year that if you are a gardener for a living or pleasure you are busy!  Hopewell is lucky enough to await The Bell and Whistle coming to town and I have started their container plantings as we all wait for them to open.   I love to install container plantings for my clients either for commercial or home pleasure.  Things to take into consideration are location of the sun or lack thereof, mood of installation, maintenance,  and differing heights of plants and textures.  I love doing them!!