Inexpensive hanging containers and wall brackets for miniatures are available in a wide variety at five-and-dime stores. But hanging baskets are not so easy to handle, as they must be suspended from wire or screwed to the wall. I’ve seen a doll’s hat used delightfully, and also some nice little woven baskets. Or try anything of metal or ceramic if it has a lip to hold a wire or chain—or a two-handled consommé bowl; or a soup ladle with its handle fastened to the wall. You can easily punch holes in most plastic containers—and without cracking—by using a red-hot awl or old-fashioned ice pick.
Pawnbroker’s planter set with ivy
Occasionally I have seen props or accessories used in these miniature plant-and-container compositions that were successful, but only occasionally were they in perfect scale and harmony. More frequently, the silk, wood, or ceramic butterfly, bee, or bird is an unnatural and disturbing intrusion.
Be careful when you water plants in decorative containers. If possible keep the plant in its original pot so it can be lifted from the container and taken to the sink, where excess water will drain away. Otherwise, hold off on your watering until you are positive the plant won’t wait any longer; then stop before the soil gets soggy and wet. Excess water, trapped by a container, can cause roots to rot, in fact will promote rot in most cases.
Be daring, be creative, be artistic when planning container projects and arrangements. If a fat little fern looks right for a teacup, let the cup be squat and fat; or let it be fluted gracefully and flared up to the delicate frond-fans. If a miniature orchid looks like a gem without a case, set it on pebbles in a clear crystal bowl; or perhaps invert a dome-shaped watch glass over it. If a succulent makes you think of a tough little gnome, for goodness sake don’t plant it in one of those grotesqueries which is the hump of a camel’s back or a cavity along the spinal column of a ceramic cat. (Remember how ridiculous a Venus stomach clock looks.) Use a little imagination. Perhaps you have something at hand—a droll bucket, a miniature fishing creel, a butter tub. Interesting containers make interesting compositions if you use good taste and imagination. Try to achieve the quality and feeling that the plant and container were “made for each other.”
DISH GARDENS
A dish garden is the combination of a group of living plants and the container holding them. It should be designed and planted with artistry and originality, but without artificiality. Each dish garden should look distinctive—certainly without any resemblance to the ones which florists seem to make by formula. It should be neither crowded with too many plants, nor cluttered with accessories or small ornaments. It should be eye-catching but not brazen, harmonious but not dull, unusual in some manner and yet comfortably natural.
Like cut-flower compositions, dish gardens are arranged so that plant and container together complete an artistic design. And like any artistic design, these gardens follow (or have a good reason for not following) certain basic principles:
Plants and container blend into one pleasing picture.