Ring around the azalea - gift plant decorating - Brief Article

Sunset, Dec, 1999

Showy holiday gift plants such as azaleas and chrysanthemums usually come in foil-wrapped plastic pots. They aren't bad-looking but you can improve a gift plant's looks by nesting its plastic pot inside a larger terra-cotta container. For interest around the pot's edges, add a fringe of variegated needlepoint ivy. The ivy conceals the inner pot, and makes a good companion for just about anything that blooms.

DIRECTIONS 1. Start with a beautiful 15- or 16-inch pot. Fill it partway with potting soil fortified with controlled-release fertilizer, then nest an empty 6-inch plastic pot in the center of the larger container. Fill the space between inner and outer pots with more soil, then plant the space with ivy from 4-inch pots; gently pull apart stems with roots attached (as shown). 2. Remove the empty inner pot, then drop a 6-inch gift plant (such as the azalea pictured) into the hole, where it will look as though it had been growing forever. You can swap it for a fresh flowering plant any time during the year - or replace it with a fern or flowering indoor plant like spathiphyllum. - J.M.