Halloween in a pot: celebrate the season with orange and black plants

Sunset, Oct, 2006 by Julie Chai

TO DECORATE YOUR PATIO or porch this month, try plants instead of plastic pumpkins or gossamer ghosts. Combine black foliage with orange blooms in pots of similar hues like ebony and persimmon. Then add some gnarly twigs--like the pod-laden phormium stalks shown above--from your garden or a craft or floral supply shop among the plants.

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A trip to the nursery can turn up other bewitching choices, such as Ajuga 'Black Scallop', black pansies, ebony Colocasia, or orange violas. Curly willow branches, papery Chinese lantern pods, and cobwebby Spanish moss from a craft store complete the look.

Cluster plants in three pots of different sizes near the front door, or display them in a black cauldronlike vessel beside a gate or on a patio.

PHOTOGRAPH BY NORM PLATE