When pot meets fleur

As fans of Nancy Meyer’s movie "The Holiday" know, a script writer’s ‘meet cute’ is when an unusual situation throws two people together who ordinarily might not meet. 

Our horticultural ‘meet cute’ pairs rooted plants, in or out of their pots, together with cut flowers in one arrangement.  This kind of arrangement can last a long time, with occasional changes of the cut flowers.  Of course, the trick is regularly watering the plants!

These potted plants come from the supermarket, the nursery and the farm stand.  From back clockwise,  purple leaf Sedum, ivy, maidenhair fern and ornamental purple peppers. 

The maidenhair fern has been taken out of its pot and put in a plastic bag with the soil level left open for watering.  Do provide some protection from overwatering leaks in the form of baggies over the pots. 

Choose a large container.  This wooden box is 12” deep so almost everyplant needs something to perch on.  A shallower basket, bowl or box would not require so many extra mechanics! 

Clockwise, a Tupperware cylinder with a pin holder,  oasis, a plastic container upside down and piece of dry oasis.

Later I added more pieces of Styrofoam and  two water filled jars.





This is an ad hoc kind of presentation - anything can be used as the 'container'.  The new Crate & Barrel catalogue has lots of interesting baskets that would suit this.  Salad bowls or planters or window boxes would be fine.  If the container isn't as deep as the one above, you avoid having to fiddle with all the hidden pieces.

However, my box = my fiddling.  Looking at it from the rear, the plants are lined up with the container of water (with one gladiola stem) behind them.

Add the gladiola stems in the pin holder in the container plus any other flowers in the oasis.  In between the plants and the cut materials, put  moss or other filler to hid gaps and all the plastic and the pots.

Here you are looking at the front of the box and can see the entire 'back' row of the box, styrofoam plants, jars of cut stems and moss hiding containers.

 I decided I didn't like the messy thread-like brown eucalyptus in the right front of the box (first picture) and substituted a creeping fig plant from the supermarket.  In doing so I changed the order of the plants.

Here is the pot et fleur with the changes to the group of materials.  What was missing (picture one) is a cohesion of all the different colors and textures into one unit.  This is a little better.   Have fun with this!

Cheers!