Considering Containers in the Garden

Containers offer a good place to start gardening, no matter where you live. They require much less effort and preparation than a full-scale garden. It’s much easier to plant some pots and arrange them than to tend to a yard or acreage.

Plants in pots still require care, which is what this book is about: getting good soil, planting from seeds or bulbs, watering and fertilizing. But the most exciting part of container gardening, according to Danish gardening celebrity Claus Dalby, is designing beautiful arrangements of flowers and foliage.

“Often I feel like a fashion designer who is creating a collection that in many ways needs to fit together,” he says.

Dalby’s book is loaded with lushly illustrated examples of container arrangements in full bloom, from a staircase full of flowers to welcome guests to a fireworks display of colorful blooms in a small backyard, all in pots.