The magnificent gardens of England are the inspiration for
many gardeners in this country. For Elaine Martin of Vintage Gardener, it is
Sissinghurst, a garden created by Vita Sackville-West that coloured her vision
of a planter featuring only two colours.
“She (Sackville-West) was the one who came up with all white
plants and all variegated leaves,” Martin explains.
Martin says that white on white is now a popular colour
motif that a lot of people, including herself, copy. Sackville-West was a
romantic who favoured profusion and surprise and those qualities can also be
found in this Sissinghurst garden planter design.
The miniature white garden Martin has designed includes a
mass of spring blooms with a nod to May and Mother’s Day. As the year
progresses, the potted plants should be exchanged for seasonal varieties, white
in colour of course.
“It can be done so that you can move from one season to the
next,” suggests the owner of the shop in Toronto’s
historic Distillery District.
The white plants grow at the base of a towering obelisk -
that surprise element Martin always likes to include in her creations and
something Sackville-West favoured as well. A heavy, boxy planter serves as the
base for this container garden. Since the plant’s roots won’t reach down to the
bottom, Martin suggests recycling some plastic pots by using them as filler at
the bottom where they’ll also help with drainage.
She then adds soil, allowing space for the plants to be set
on top. Once placed, she backfills around the plants, being sure to keep the
soil height below the lip of the planter. This precaution will keep water from flowing
over the edge when the container is watered.
Once the plants are in place, add the obelisk and begin to
wind the ivy up the structure. Martin stresses that it’s crucial to use a
mature ivy plant so that it will actually reach up the tower. The container
won’t accommodate the entire plant so you’ll have to cut it apart. Martin
literally takes a saw to the hard mass of entwined roots. It wont’ hurt the ivy
and neither will stomping on the roots to reshape them for replanting.
As the year goes on the ivy will continue to grow but you’ll
need to replace tired plants, being sure to choose white flowers. If the
planter is indoors some great choices for winter include paper whites,
gardenias, azaleas and white amaryllis, suggests Martin who also displays her
skills as a home stager with Dan Cooper’s Royal LePage Real Estate.
To find out about workshops offered at Vintage Gardener and
for more information and inspiration, visit
www.vintagegardener.com.
