Award-winning designer Jo Thompson offers new container-planting inspiration with three ideas for flower combinations for late spring
WORDS JO THOMPSON PHOTOGRAPHS JASON INGRAM
How to achieve the look
Container and composition
This container has been slowly rusting over the years in a corner of my cottage garden, and each year it comes into its own as I plant it up in the brightest of colours, picking out shades with hints of orange and red to make the most of its rusty tones.
I wanted to create that laid-back look that comes from a careful choice of plant forms. You’ve got the grassy element from the calamagrostis, while the geraniums’ leaves provide that all-important foliage that softens the top of the metal planter.
As soon as you put these plants together, they start working into and around each other. There’s a bit of teamwork between the mathiasella and the black stems of the ornamental cow parsley as they move and twist to accommodate each other. Around this structure, the vivid orange of the geum sits perfectly with the dusky maroon of the geranium; a colour palette inspired by the shades of an early sunrise. The erigeron’s daisy heads try to make a break for freedom at the foot of the display. Their white petals subtly pick up the colour of the anthriscus flowers and are indispensable in bringing highlights to the planting.
Cultivation and care
The longer these plants have time together, the better they look. The mathiasella doesn’t like to get soggy in winter, but is very happy in a pot. Leave its bracts on, as they fade to a beautiful yet subtle dusky pink that gives colour through to the autumn.
Plants
1 GERANIUM PHAEUM ‘Samobor’ Scalloped leaves and dusky flowers. May – June. Height and spread: 80cm x 45cm. RHS H7, USDA 5a-7b†.
2 ANTHRISCUS SYLVESTRIS ‘Ravenswing’ Selfseeding, ornamental cow parsley with black filigree foliage. May – July. 1m x 30cm. RHS H6.
3 ASTRANTIA ‘Roma’ Soft pink bracts create a star-like shape. June – September. 60cm x 40cm. AGM*. RHS H7, USDA 4a-7b.
4 GEUM ‘Prinses Juliana’ Delicate bright-orange flowers. 50cm x 60cm. RHS H7.
5 ERIGERON KARVINSKIANUS Daisy-like flowers. Will happily self-seed. April – October. 30cm x 1m. AGM. RHS H5, USDA 6a-9b.
6 MATHIASELLA BUPLEUROIDES ‘Green Dream’ Umbels made up of bracts encasing small black flowers. May – September. 1m x 80cm. RHS H5.
7 CALAMAGROSTIS BRACHYTRICHA Grass with fresh green leaves and feathe
