Fun-Tainer (how much fun can you have with containers?) or Love on the Dry Side

  How exhilarating it was today to put my plants into the hypertufa troughs that my husband and I made (he did help me with this -  see my earlier post on this subject).  It was a sunny day, and we worked, together with a few other designers and their hubands, sons or 'significant others',  at the entrance to the Del Mar Spring Home Garden Show that starts tomorrow, fitting one plant after another into our containers, critiquing our friends' creations, moving pots and screening plants back and forth to find an angle that would most enhance the display.  There was a very congenial atmosphere, and we were all stoked to be showing off our creations as "design experts" of APLD  (Association of Professional Landscape Designers) that were invited to create a display of containers for the entrance to the fair.  We’ll also be on-hand to answer questions about plants, design, gardening, and how to save water in the landscape.   Check us out - the creativity and talent of these people is contagious, and I hope it will infect and inspire many. Mine is a collection of 'dry climate' plants, all sun-lovers, low in maintenance requirements and unthirsty, perfect for our sunny region where water is so precious.  It's amazing how satisfying even a mini-garden can be, and when I was putting together my selection for these two containers, I noticed that it is reveals where my heart is:  A profusion of textures, vibrant colors, plants in close proximity contrasting or complementing each other.  All evoking the warmth and richness of perennials, grasses, trees and privacy hedges in my mother's garden where I spent so many beautiful summers.To see so many exceptional plants close up is exciting, again and again.  (The word is getting a bit overused - but I haven't found another one that expresses what I feel when I see beautiful plants).  The sunny, warm colors, the contrasts of foliage and form... A balanced design can enchant for a long time.Here the plants that I used  (it's difficult to see - but there are two containers  -   one in front of the other):(front container)                                        Aeonium ‘Sunburst’Tricolor Geranium Pelargonium hortorum ‘Tricolor’Protea Yellow Bird Leucospermum cordifolium ‘Yellow Bird’Statice Limonium perezzii Echeveria ‘Metallica’Purple Queen Setcreasea pallida  (back side)Crown of Thorns Euphorbia milii Firecracker Broom Russelia equisitiformisPelargonium ‘Vancouver Sentenniel’ ‘Flambe Yellow’ Chrysocephalum apiculatum ‘Flambe Yellow’                       Zwartkop Aeonium Aeonium arboreum ‘Zwartkop’  Crassula perforata N.C.N.              Portulacaria afra’ variegata’String of Pearls Senecio rowleyanus          Check in for photos of these plants  to comes soon!  And here a link to the fair:http://www.springhomegardenshow.com/Pages/ShowFeatures/EntryGarden.htm And a  link to APLD:  http://apldca.org