French Style Landscaping: Potted Plants

As we said before, this blog will follow along with the construction of our French inspired home and all of the decisions from start to finish.  While some of the initial planning is still being decided, we will go ahead and start posting about some of the things we have been learning the last few years.  On occasion, we will probably throw in a great recipe or something unique (and at a great price) that we bought for the house.

Today we want to talk about potted plants.  It’s funny because several other blogs have also discussed potted plants and urns this week.  I guess spring fever is taking over and we are all ready to start getting our hands dirty and our yards back into bloom.

Keeping with the French style, we love to use pots / urns; terra cotta, glazed, concrete, it doesn’t matter.  There is nothing that accents a French style home better than a nicely organized arrangement or a simple hydrangea or boxwood.  What we love is that they are mobile!  Did your hydrangea not like where it was last year?  Okay, get a dolly and move that pot to another location. It’s so easy because you don’t need to dig it up and replant.  Trust me we learned the hard way.  I think half of the plantings in our landscape were planted two or three times over just because we played with their location.  Also, if you have an atrium then you can just wheel those plants right into the protection of the sun filled room and enjoy them a little longer, if not all year.

I tend to favor terra cotta pots made in Italy.  There may be no science to it, but these pots seem to grow more beautiful as they get older.  The plantings also seem to do better than those planted in terra cotta made elsewhere (sorry USA).

Love this Courtyard.  You could change the landscape just by rearranging the pots !

(Also great for when you move - take the landscape with you!)

The classic american boxwood.  These are courtesy of Southern Living. 

The Meyer Lemon Tree; a must for any serious home cook, plus they look great in the kitchen in front of a large open window.

Any flower looks great in Terra Cotta pots.

Tomorrow I will post some videos showing how we keep our outdoor pots watered all summer long while never touching a watering can.  Till then, happy planting!