Susan Wheeler, a garden designer in the White
Rock/South Surrey area, is writing another guest blog to-day! She uses photos
from her own gardens to illustrate her ideas. She has a Garden Design business:
www.greendesign-gardenstolivein.com as well as her own
blog at www.greengardeningtips.net
Many of the plants that she recommends are available here at West Coast
Gardens.
We thank Susan for sharing her expertise with
us!
Interior Garden Design... using the same principles required for your outdoor
garden design.
Hello to all my gardening
friends,
Today I will be talking
about how you can bring your outdoor garden’s beauty and interest right into
your house, especially during this Christmas season.
I love to have flowers
inside my house anytime, but especially at Christmas. And not just flowers but
a whole range of plants that provide texture and colour, just as I have in my
gardens, outside.
I had been asked by White
Rock Gallery, a very beautiful art gallery (at 1247 Johnston Road) to
provide them with an indoor arrangement for one of their Open Houses in
December. I wanted a large planter , black and very plain and large enough to
hold a number of real living plants, not just cut flowers or greenery. I found
one for this shop and also bought a second one for my own home.
Below, you can see how it turned out for the Open House, set in front
of one of their large windows.
Caption: Most of this
greenery is made up of live plants which will last a long time, right through
the Christmas season, and beyond.
I wanted to keep the colour
scheme as neutral as possible so as not to draw attention away from any of the
artwork on display and yet it still had to be interesting. And so, I relied on
texture.
The main plants were the
large white Poinsettias, together with tall, unopened white Amaryllis buds
which provided the height and had the look of ‘spears’. In addition, I added
some small Norfolk Island Pines (Araucaria heterophylla).
Some of the plants that I
used on the edges, were small Skimmia japonica ‘Fragrant Cloud’ which has very
pretty greenish buds in almost a lime green tone. Also, you will see
small-leaved Ivy, ferns and Selaginella. West Coast Gardens had all of these
small house plants that I needed to complete my project.
Below, you will see how my own planter turned out. The white
Amaryllis opened up very nicely and lasted a long time. I had it placed on a
very sturdy glass and wooden tray on an ottoman in our Living Room.
Below, is another arrangement that I had made for the front cabinet
that guests would see as soon as they entered, right at the front door.
The tallest plants are
fragrant Narcissus, together with more white Amaryllis as well as some red-twig
Dogwood stems, for added height. The middle white blooming plants are my
favourites, especially at this time of year, the Helleborus X ‘Jacob’.
To finish off the edges, I
added several Ivy and ferns. Some variegated cut twigs were included to
disguise the soil at the edges of this large planter. And because the decor
colour in this room has quite a lot of gold in it, I added a few golden pine
cones.
Caption: Fragrant white
Narcissus greeted our guests as they came through the front door.
Another year, I made up this
planter, below.Because it rested on my glass and wooden tray and would not
stain the ottoman, I was able to use a real wreath as the base, to which I
added more of the golden pine cones. The plants were white Poinsettias and
Diffenbachia, together with stems of variegated greenery, added at the edges.
The basket is one that is very heavily lacquered which I have used many
times, for any number of live plants.
Caption: A live wreath
provides an interesting base for this planter.
Caption: Close-up showing
the two complementary variegated greenery pieces: the Diffenbachia and
variegated twigs, used to disguise the edges.
Below, our Powder Room, which is a dramatic white and black scheme
with textured wallpaper and red accents in the paintings, needed a strong red
planting. For this room I chose a most unusual Poinsettia which had very
crinkly bracts. I bought this one at West Coast Gardens but I have never been
able to find one again. I do wish that they would try to find it again! I would
certainly buy them...
I added a lovely red
Kalanchoe (Kalanchoe blossfeldiana) at the front of the
arrangement.
Caption: The strong reds
of the Kalanchoe and the unusual red Poinsettia complement the red accents in
the paintings and the border, above.
Because ‘eye goes to
colour’, I always consider the accompanying pieces carefully. Here you will see
that the guest towels have the same colours as the Harlequin mask beside them.
Caption: If at all
possible, try to have the co-ordinating pieces work together, colour-wise.
Our Family Room is more
casual than our Living Room, and so I have chosen a more rustic basket in which
to add my plants, below. As I love white flowers, I have done this
arrangement using the white Poinsettia but have added the brown tones that are
in this room as well, by using the large Magnolia leaves with their undersides
of velvety rusts. And for some spiky-ness I have added in the false Aralia, Dizygotheca
elegantissima.
Caption: In our less
formal Family Room I have used a more rustic basket.
Even the leaves of this
false Aralia, below, seem to have a somewhat brown-ness about them that
helps tie the colours of this room together.
Caption: The fuzzy brown
indumentum on the back of the Magnolia leaves works well with the colours in
this room.
Gardening and Design Tip: I think that one of the most important things to consider
first, whenever you are planning anything to do with design, is colour. Whether it is outside in your
actual gardens, or inside your house, remember that ‘eye goes to colour’
and if you start with this in mind, it will be hard to go wrong!
I would like to take this
opportunity to thank all of you who have been so very patient with me this
year.... it was an especially busy one and I did not get to my own Blogs as
often as I wanted to, but there is always next season!
Also, if you are interested,
I will have a new blog post on my Tips Blog, at www.greengardeningtips.net on Friday, which
will be all about the principles of design which you can use when decorating
your Christmas trees.I plan to have several photos of my own trees, to show
exactly what I mean. I also plan to add a number of tips that I have learned over the many years of tree decorating!
Hope you can check it out....
And may I wish all of you a
most wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year. Take the time to remember
to always ‘smell the roses’.
Cheers,
Susan Wheeler
Susan Wheeler
Designer/Owner
Green Design
Gardens
South Surrey,
B.C.
Canada
email: swgreendesign@shaw.ca
tel:
604-542-1960
”Close your eyes and see the
beauty” – Author Unknown
NOTE: all photos and text in this website/blog are copyrighted
and may not be used without the written permission of Susan Wheeler.
P.S. If you would like to be notified when Susan posts a new
article, just sign up here.
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