Urns are back: here are three fresh ways to use the classic container - Garden - gardening tips - Brief Article

Sunset, June, 2002 by Kathleen N. Brenzel

Long-necked and lovely, urns are the timeless beauties of garden containers, presiding over well-tended plantings with dignified grace. But stuffy they're not; nurseries are now selling them in a variety of sizes, shapes, and materials--from poured concrete and Italian terracotta to rusted iron. More gardeners are finding creative ways to use them in gardens of any size and style.

Keep in mind that the most durable terra-cotta is high-fired. Cast concrete generally lasts longer than terra-cotta, but it can be heavier. Much of it is gray too, but you can paint or stain it.

Most urns are handsome enough to display unplanted. But if you do plant one, make sure it has a drain hole. And put it where you want it before you plant, since large urns can be heavy (One good solution to both problems: Nest plants already potted in plastic inside them.)

* Higher ground

Freeland and Sabrina Tanner wanted height in a difficult, mostly shaded border in their Napa, California, garden. So they pulled what Freeland calls a "microclimate trick"--planting sun lovers in an urn raised on a pedestal "to grab more sunlight." Filled with fast-draining cactus mix, the large (30 inches across by about 2 feet deep) rusted iron vessel features fountainlike Puya coerulea, with Helichrysum argyrophyllum 'Moe's Gold' and lavender-flowered campanula tumbling out around it. A drip system handles the watering.

* Patio table greenhouse

When Sunset's test garden coordinator Bud Stuckey roots succulents, he puts them in an 18-inch-diameter urn filled to 6 1/2 inches below the rim with potting soil, then centers a 24-inch round of tempered glass--sold as a tabletop--on the rim. The mini-greenhouse doubles as a table for a lightly shaded patio. To keep condensation from building up on the underside of the glass, he removes the glass tabletop every few days for an hour or so. Once the succulents are rooted (in four weeks), he transfers them to pots or garden beds.

Between periods of use as a mini-greenhouse, the urn displays objects such as glass balls.

* Living bouquet

Plantings as glorious as this one, in Karla Waterman's Seattle-area garden, deserve to be raised to eye level for close-up viewing. The concrete urn (21 inches tall and 11 1/2 inches across) sits atop a brick pillar capped with Arizona flagstone to match the patio.

The plants, carefully chosen for color and texture, are arranged by height. A tall Mexican feather grass rises in the center; it's flanked with a green geranium and a frilly ruby red coleus. Lime green sweet potato vine, white-flowered bacopa, and small-leafed creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia) spill over the urn's edges. Waterman chose the plants with Gail Halsaver of Foxglove Greenhouses; Halsaver did the planting.

RELATED ARTICLE: Urns in the landscape

* Use a single urn to mark a crossing of intersecting paths, as a sculptural accent in the center of a courtyard or formal pool, or at the end of a long strip of grass with a leafy hedge behind.

* Space several urns along the edge of a patio, terrace, or walkway. Put the same plant in each, like little kumquat trees.

* Near the base of a single urn, cluster three to five smaller pots of the same material. In each container, put the same kind of plant, whether a frothy sweet alyssum or a sculptural succulent like aloe. Or plant a single upright herb, like Salvia officinalis 'Icterina' or rosemary, in the urn and lower-growing kinds such as basil and chives in the smaller pots.

* Create a changing display by nesting plastic pots filled with plants inside an urn. Replace them as needed.

Rusted iron

18 inches in diameter 24 inches tall $150

Terra-cotta

12 inches in diameter 16 inches tall $43

Concrete

18 inches in diameter 16 inches tail $150