Container Theme Gardens

August 17, 2015
The latest from Ondra (Five-Plant Gardens) is a practical and planter-friendly guide to gardening—no garden required. Focusing on pots instead of plots, Ondra demonstrates the appeal of growing plants in containers with 42 original designs. Each design uses a five-plant palette of plants that complement each other and the pot they’re displayed in. For example, a terra cotta container holds fuchsia, coleus, spurge, sweet potato vine, and heuchera, their colors keyed to the clay pot’s. For each design, Ondra teases the bouquet apart with descriptions of each plant, then offers “Tidbits, Tips, and Tricks” plus commentary on the plants’ behavior through four seasons. She helpfully adds substitutes: if Arizona apricot blanket flower is not available for the mini-meadow design, she suggests mesa peach or “another mounded annual... with daisy-form flowers.” Rob Cardillo’s photographs accentuate Ondra’s seductive designs in this comprehensive, easy-to-use book. This is not an armchair gardener’s book—anyone can do it!

Starred review from October 1, 2015

Garden writer (The Perennial Gardener's Design Primer) and blogger (hayefield.com) Ondra has written a detailed, beautiful guide to creating lush, stylish container gardens. Complemented by Cardillo's stunning color photographs, the title highlights 42 container gardens, each using five plants. Themes include color, location, mini meadow, scented gardens, edibles, and many more. Each entry begins with a full-page image of the mature garden, site and container information, and a list of the five plants. The plant palette pages share a close-up of each plant, a general description of the plant's type, and a list of alternate plants/cultivars that would also work in the garden, making it easy to substitute one choice for another. Next are descriptions of the garden as it matures from spring through fall, specific seasonal information on caring for the garden, and dismantling instructions for the fall--what to keep and how to keep it and what to put in the compost pile. Tips and tricks round out each entry. VERDICT Gardeners will enjoy browsing this lovely book and will be easily able to create and maintain myriad variations of Ondra's container gardens using the wide range of plants she suggests.--Sue O'Brien, Downers Grove P.L., IL

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