Container gardens at Vivero to banish the winter blues
I popped in at Vivero Growers in far southwest Austin last week and was smitten by their beautiful container plantings, like this absolutely stunning succulent pot. The owner tells me her niece created it while working at the nursery last summer. Of course they’ve protected it from our freezes this winter, but clearly cool weather agrees with these plants, which include aloe, sedum, echeveria, graptopetalum, and crassula (I think).
A close-up of succulents nestling together
By the greenhouse door, this container caught my eye, with lady slipper (Pedilanthus macrocarpus) as the “thriller,” pink-flowering pelargonium (geranium) as the “filler,” and silver ponyfoot as the “spiller.” If you want to replicate it, lady slipper and silver ponyfoot will work year-round (with some freeze protection), but you’ll have to sub out the pelargonium once our weather heats up.
Here’s an easy plant for year-round enjoyment, come summer heat or winter freeze (in Austin’s zone 8b anyway): toothless sotol, also known as Mexican grass tree (Dasylirion longissimum). This is the plant I have in a steel-pipe container, and it grows beautifully if planted in fast-draining soil, given lots of sun, and basically left alone.
Did you know you can carve a design in a prickly pear pad? A star has been carved into this one for a Texas-style accent.
Vivero has many other beautiful containers and plants for sale, so if you need to banish the winter blues — although our winter weather has been pretty perfect lately! — head on down to see for yourself.
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Thank you for sharing these beautiful succulent planters. I love the combinations of plants and they are a wonderful sight as the snow comes down here on Long Island. I have gained an appreciation for succulents over the last few years and have a collection of terra cotta planters, which are inside right now for the winter.
I love them too. I try to limit the number of succulent pots in my garden because I lack a greenhouse or place to store them inside for winter. But they are so lovely to have outdoors the rest of the year. —Pam
They are very nice, so much so that the photos look summery!
Nope, took these last Friday! Our winters here in Austin are probably like your summers in England. And our summers are probably your idea of hell. 😉 —Pam
What a beautiful post!!! You have such a knack with the photos- I can take pictures of the same thing and yours blow mine away!! So pretty. It’s fun to see all our stuff on your blog- thank you for showing our pots off!! The prickly pear is fun- I tried a longhorn for a customer (by request) but never got it quite right- they liked it, but to me it looked more like a blob. The star is by far the easiest.
That’s so kind of you to say, Katherine, but your photos are gorgeous. I always enjoy seeing your shares on Instagram, especially. That’s funny about the longhorn you did for a customer. Did you ever see ESP/Philip’s smiley face opuntia? It didn’t heal properly and eventually kind of melted. Luckily there’s never a shortage of prickly pear pads, once you plant one. —Pam
I loooove their succulent arrangements! Thanks for the inspiration!
They do the best succulent containers, don’t they? —Pam
I am so taken with these containers! I especially love the combination of plants in the first one. It kind of takes my breath away, so fresh and pretty! And I would have never thought to put Pedilanthus with geraniums so perfect!
Me neither, Laurin. Well, partly because I don’t like subbing out plants for the changing seasons. I’m more of a one-plant-one-pot, leave-it-for-years kind of gal. But for those willing to make the effort of redoing pots a few times a year, this is an awesome cool-season arrangement. —Pam
Here in Indy, my containers in the front, those I left out, have evergreens still stuck in them. I at least removed the Christmas decorations from those “plantings”. In the back, the containers that are too big to move inside for the winter are covered with trash bags to keep them from getting too waterlogged. All the freezing and thawing is not good for them. It’s nice to see some containers with actual growing plants!
I agree, Carol. Many of mine are looking the worse for wear after several hard freezes pre-Xmas. I’ll be doing a lot of refreshing this spring. —Pam
I wish the pots that I am protecting looked as worthwhile as these. ” Thriller, filler, spiller’ I love it. Must remember that.
I didn’t coin that (wish I could remember who did), but yes, it’s a great way to think about container combos. —Pam