Medium gardening
Summer to early autumn
Full sun
Moderate watering
Feed every two weeks in the growing season with a general-purpose fertiliser
Medium gardening
Summer to early autumn
Full sun
Moderate watering
Feed every two weeks in the growing season with a general-purpose fertiliser
Made from COR-TEN steel, this incredible planter is very large and makes a real statement in any outdoor space. Due to its size, I didn’t fill it completely with potting mix. Instead, I placed plastic plant pots in the base to fill some of the space first.
The planting has a lovely, cottage-garden feel, but with a modern edge. Delphiniums, for example, are mainstays of the cottage garden, but can need staking in the open garden. Here, however, I used a compact cultivar from the perennial Magic Fountains Series, which have dense flower spikes in white or shades of purple and blue. ‘Lollipop’ verbena is a dwarf cultivar of the familiar tall-growing species, making it another ideal choice for container planting. The large, pinkish-purple, thistle-like flowers of globe artichoke put on a fantastic display into early autumn, looking beautiful among the feathery stems of ‘Karl Foerster’. This tall grass forms the architectural backbone of the planting – in fact, a striking container such as this calls for a powerful star plant.
Although the colour scheme is based around purple, mauve and pink, the black foliage of ‘Black Pearl’ coral flower ticks all those dark, sultry boxes. Truly black plants are few and far between, but the coral flower’s prettily scalloped, nearly black leaves look stunning against the steel.