Nick Bailey’s container masterclass
Nick Bailey explains how ratio, shape and form are key for a display that will look good anywhere in the garden
To make the most of container plantings in your garden, one of the key aspects to consider beyond colour and position is ratio – plus the scale, form and impact of the plant! A beautiful pot can be let down by a badly chosen plant. Equally, a beautiful plant can look less than its best if the pot you’ve chosen as its home is the wrong scale, shape or size.
To get it right, it’s always worth considering or even sketching the ratio and form of the pot, and its intended plant. A tall, skinny container with a short alpine in it could look ridiculous, whereas growing the same alpine in a low bowl will make both plant and pot shine.
Beyond the dome Why it works
Pairing a domed plant with a bowl-shaped pot always makes for a pleasing whole. Together, the pot and the heuchera form a near-spherical shape – the perfect balance. This principle can also work well for domed grasses, doming alpines and clipped topiary forms.
Golden rules
◼ Pick an evergreen perennial or shrub for the pairing, so the spherical form and display works throughout the year.
◼ To perfect this pairing, choose a plant that at least has notes of the colour of the pot it’s in.
Conversely, growing a tall grass in a shallow pot has aesthetic and physical issues. Avoiding these challenges is easy – the guiding principles are straight out of a florist’s handbook. Think ratios. A 50:50 pot and plant pairing works, as does a 35:65, but a 20:80 starts to look out of proportion. Forms are also important. A half-ball pot is the perfect partner for a domed annual, perennial or shrub that will complete the ball, whereas the same pot planted with floppy grasses would lose the whole shape altogether.
There are no absolutes, but by following some simple principles it’s possible to get the best from your plant and pot pairings.
◼ Keep it simple. To make this pairing work, choose a single specimen or a maximum of two.
Nick used
1. Heuchera ‘Marmalade’ 2. Astrantia major ‘Star of Billion’ 3. Pot: Primrose, Volcanic-Grey, Round Planter, 55cm, £24.99, primrose.co.uk