Going Rogue, Part II: Innovation Not Dracena Spikes

No offense to Sarah Palin, but I’m “Going Rogue” again. (See Part I on Mums & Pumpkins ) I left off last time talking about the following paragraph from an e-letter that came out Monday:

“Here’s a quick and easy idea that adds value and gives customers an easy purchase. XXX puts together multiple items for a Fall Decoration Package that sells for $34.99. The package includes three mums, a medium-sized pumpkin, a cornstalk, a mini-straw bale and a scarecrow pick.”

Ugh… Why doesn’t anyone suggest something different?

Garden centers should be teaching people how to do really cool, different things, but they’re not. We need to change the way people think about the seasons, about what’s available, and about what’s cool!

The industry needs to get out of the boring cycle of pushing the same old crap and start innovating. I like to compare this to a dracena “spike” in every mixed container. You know the grass-like green spiky annual that is sold by the millions to put in the center of every mixed container and window box?

I was taught at a very young age that that was completely unacceptable. Dick Hutton from The Conard-Pyle Company taught me. In his usual, loving way of insulting everything I did to teach me to make things more impressive and innovative, he completely made fun of my very first effort to create a mixed container for the office. I thought I was making this fantastic container for the porch (at the ripe young age of 22, right out of horticulture college…). Boy did he give me the business for using a dracena spike. He challenged me to find something different. I’ve never used one since and I’ve been challenging myself to make better containers every year.

Dracena spikes…I’m going to start ripping them out when I see them – just for fun. Let’s all do it!
If you feel the need to have “spiky” plants in the center of your mixed containers, try Swiss Chard – especially the ‘Ford Hook’ selection. It’s upright and bold and you can cut leaves for eating all summer. Try using good old spider plants – yep – right from the sale shelf in the house plant section (one of my favorite places to find cool plants). Spider plants (Chlorophytum comosum) are cheap, underused and they make lots and lots of babies for use the following year in containers.

If you want something more challenging (which often means harder to find and can mean more expensive), Cordylines (often called Ti plant) are lovely. So are Dianellas (variegated flax lily), Phormiums (New Zealand flax) and Furcraeas (variegated Brazilian aloe). These are all grass-like plants with interesting foliage colors and often times they have smashing parings of variegation that will liven up any container, and, give you that spikeyness you crave. Google them…you’ll love them if you don’t already. I love to use small yuccas and then plant them in the garden in the fall. My current favorite is Yucca recurvifolia ‘Margaritaville’ . The foliage striping is scrum-dilly-umptous.

OMG…lest we not forgot bromeliads. How cool are they? I predict we’ll be seeing more of these tropical beauties. They are so easy to grow and so completely cool. Everyone will be planting them in containers for 2011. That is, if my good friend Bradley has his way. Bradley Evans, Horticulturist and master container designer at The U.S. National Arboretum told me he’s gone crazy with bromeliads. He’ll be using them in mixed combos all of the Arboretum terrace in 2010.

Watch out…he’s a trendsetter!

Lastly, please don’t forget to try cabbage, kale, broccoli and cauliflower. I’m not talking the ones you can find at every box store, I’m talking real vegetable selections.

Garden centers actually carried (for the first time that I’ve seen) vegetable starts late this summer for those wanting to continue their veg patch till Thanksgiving – the ultimate harvest holiday. My wise veg expert and friend Larry Klose, who helps me design and maintain the 2200 square foot veg garden at City Hall in downtown Baltimore once told me,

“There’s nothing more beautiful than rows of red and green cabbage in the fall.”

Apply this to containers. Add them in and then harvest them for Thanksgiving. How cool is that? What a great lesson to teach your children!

Any garden center buyers out there reading this – I challenge you to come up with some fresh ideas for fall 2011 displays and give your customers some really cool, new recipes for their fall containers (and no more dracena spikes!!!) Use shrubs with fall color. Sadly, I did because there was nothing else to buy, but it got me thinking. I bought upright, yellow barberries, knowing they were invasive and that I’d have to pull off their fruit for fear they would spread around my yard, just to add some upright color to my big front containers. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for new uses for old things (especially things that are on sale in the fall), although as hard as I’ve tried, yellow mums and pompom marigolds are two for which I have yet to be able to create an acceptable container combination. Believe me…I’ve tried.

If breeders can’t come up with new, exciting things for fall containers and growers can’t find ways to successfully grow the really “cool” mums and one gallon, ready-to-plant veggies that we crave, then we need to start using other plants with fall interest.

How about using Nandina domestica (heavenly bamboo) selections with some crotons in autumnal shades?

I combined Nandina ‘Gulf Stream’, simple crotons (Codiaeum variegatum) from the house plant aisle, an annual Pennisetum setaceum var. rubrum selection (fountain grass) called ‘Burgundy Giant’ and lime green upright barberries (Berberis thunbergii ) called, ‘Gold Pillar’ to make a lovely fall combo on my front porch.

No mums. No corn stalks. The grass sort of resembles a corn stalk, but it’s a much better color. Best of all, this combo looks quite lovely with my chartreuse, bumpy gourd (best find of the season) and my Mexican hat pumpkins. Too cool!

I did promise a rant every week, didn’t I?

Happy Weeding and remember…no more cornstalks, perfect pumpkins and impeccably pinched, round mums! And please, no more dracena spikes!

Happy Weeding,

Angela Treadwell Palmer
President, Plants Nouveau

P.S. – Although this plant is not proprietary to Plants Nouveau, I am trying to raise more awareness for this selection, so I would like to present you with the ultimate new perennial for fall.  Brought to us from The Netherlands, Helenium ‘Loysderwieck’ is a long blooming selection with blooms the color of a Thanksgiving cornucopia.