Choosing a Plant Container

There are a number of options when choosing a plant container. You can make your own, or go for a simple plastic pot, or something more sophisticated such as an urn, wooden or metal container

Making  Your Own
When possible, construct boxes to fit your needs. For example, a long, narrow box can be built for the driveway area adjacent to the house. If raised a few feet, it will be easier to care for. For that matter, you can make the box in units that are small enough to be easily moved and stored in winter.

Long boxes can be constructed for the front of the house to give interest and avoid the monotony of the traditional foundation planting. Or modular boxes of the same size can be arranged in a row for a pleasant effect.

You can also make boxes of special shapes and sizes to fit around your swimming pool, on your terrace, or in front of a fence or tool house. Planters are also well adapted to small city or rooftop gardens.

In some instances, boxes can be tiered in front of a house or along a garage or fence for the sake of variety. A large box, with a shade or flowering tree, can give accent to a terrace or a doorway. Best of all, plant boxes can serve to guide traffic in the garden and through the outdoor living area. Some gardeners also like to maintain two or more sets of boxes to replace those with plants past their prime. This plan gives the gardener the fullest value from his portable garden.

Plastic Pots
Plastic pots, often preferred by growers of house plants, are attractive, lightweight, and water retentive. Available in neutral grays, greens, and black, they do not gather fertilizer salts on their surfaces. In clay pots, roots concentrate along the sides where water and nitrogen collect; in plastic, roots are distributed throughout the soil area. Yet plastic pots are not always practical because they are easily knocked over. The larger sizes, of course, are more secure.

One way to make plastic pots heavier is to slip them into clay pots, jardinières, or wooden tubs or boxes. Another method is to arrange them in sheltered locations, grouped for support. On the other hand, they make desirable hanging baskets because they are light and attractive.

Urns for Grace
Urns, whether decorated or plain, are charming containers. Often they are used as a pair at each side of a doorway or driveway entrance, but just a single specimen will enhance a terrace or a garden nook. Urns are often made of cast iron, but clay and concrete are also used. In old palace gardens of Europe at Versailles and Quelez, outside Lisbon urns were important accents, and they may be seen today gracing these lovely, elegant formal gardens.

Concrete Containers
Sturdy concrete containers have a solid appearance. They do not topple in strong winds or crack where winters are cold. Usually they are left outdoors all year to ornament house, shop, or hotel. Concrete containers may be plain or highly ornamented, and what you select will depend on the setting.

Though generally purchased, they can be custom made in small sizes for geraniums, petunias, and other flowers or in large sizes for evergreens as arborvitae, yews, Japanese privet, aucuba, camellia, pittos-porum, or holly. These are often placed in front of large apartments, hotels, restaurants, department stores, and public buildings. Plants grow well in concrete containers because the soil remains moist and the roots cool. As a rule, they have a single large drainage hole. To avoid clogging, the holes terial at planting time. Burlap and sphagnum moss are spread over this to prevent the soil from washing through.

Tin Cans
Gardeners in many places rely on tin cans. In sections of southern Europe, they are used almost exclusively; even oil drums are planted with trees. To improve their appearance, they are whitewashed or painted and either decorated with designs or covered with tiles. On Rhodes, I remember a yellow cottage with plant tins also painted yellow. In Piraeus, a little old woman grew grapes and pink hollyhocks in blue tin cans scattered over the roof top and placed in front of her dazzling white house.

Plants thrive in tin cans because they hold moisture well. As in plastic pots, roots are distributed through the soil. One professional grower who experimented with geraniums in both tin and clay concluded that the cans gave superior results.

To make drainage holes in tins, use a hammer and a large nail or spike, punching from the inside out. This will bring the rough edges outside and not interfere with the outward flow of water. The larger the tins, the larger the outlets; with oil drums, make them with a crow bar. Set large tins on bricks or blocks of wood to allow water to pass freely through the drainage holes.

Plastic and Fiberglass Containers
Besides the smaller sizes, plastic pots are available in various shapes and forms, and in many colors. Indoor gardeners plant them with philodendrons, dracaenas, aloca-sias and other tropicals. In summer, the planters are taken out to shady terraces or porches where they perform double duty.

Also procurable are containers of other synthetic materials. One, a combination of fiberglass and plastic, known as Fiberglas, is made into window boxes, room dividers, and liners for built-in plant boxes. If custom made, these cost more because they are hand moulded. They are obtainable in white, beige, slate gray, charcoal, turquoise, coral and other colors. Fiberglas containers are light, durable, and unaffected by cold. Nor do they corrode or conduct heat. The surface, which is soft and opaque, has a dull attractive lustre that requires no refinishing. Non-porous and strong, a container weighing five pounds can hold 150 pounds of soil. In winter, plants suffer little damage from cold, but there is danger of flooding.

Rope and Basket Containers
Containers made of sisal rope (also used for boat rigging) are fine for seaside gardens. They are a burnished brown due to several coats of liquid plastic. Artistic in appearance, they are not harmed if left out through the winter.

In the garden, baskets give an Old World look and are effective near cedar or picket fences or on gates. Durable baskets hold soil for planting, but the lightweight types are only intended to cover unattractive tin cans or tar paper pots. Baskets also give weight to plastic pots and lessen the evaporation from clay containers.

Strawberry Barrels
The strawberry barrel is a delightful novelty for terrace or doorway. If you have not seen a wooden barrel with strawberries growing from openings at the sides, you may know the glazed strawberry jar, with strawberries, sedums, or strawberry begonias planted in the protruding cups.