Welcoming window boxes

Southern Living, Jan 2001 by Riley, Ellen

Containers don't last forever, so grab the chance to mix it up; take your pick ofmaterials, and have some fun.

In January, icy winds flex frigid fingers around the garden, where flowerbeds slumber, dreaming of spring. Window boxes, void of summer's hot colors, hug the house, seeming to search for warmth.

"Winter is a real opportunity to do something fun, when things are really drab," says Barbie Tafel Thomas, a landscape designer with Webb-Thomas in Louisville. "You can also use things that would never work any other time of year," she says. Whether you incorporate fresh fruit, small bushes and flowers, cut greenery, or dried material, your planters will take on a full, abundant look reminiscent of summer's substance.

"When you're having a party, pull out all the stops, and do up your window boxes with fresh produce," Barbie suggests. The containers pictured at left show how festive this can look Barbie first filled the boxes with cut pine boughs to provide a soft-textured base. She added cypress and holly for diversity, and then arranged the fruit. As always in good design, one element should be the focal point. Barbie chose a pineapple to center attention in each box, then built the arrangement around it. Clustered on each side of the main attraction, Chinese cabbage and artichokes add volume as well as additional green textures.

Winter fruit provides glorious color. Sunshine shades dominate citrus, and apples bring a drop of ruby red. For maximum impact, Barbie used citrus as the dominant color family and clustered each type of fruit. "The thing about lemons and oranges is that they're not terribly expensive in winter. They will stay fresh for several weeks, and they still retain color as they dry," she says. She placed apples sparingly throughout the collection for additional pizzazz. Drawbacks to using apples are their susceptibility to freeze damage and their tendency to show up on a squirrel's radar. As a result, they may need replacement more often than citrus.

Many garden shops and nurseries stock 1-gallon pots of hardy evergreens such as juniper, cotoneaster, Japanese boxwood, nandina, and ivy. Choose plants with good color, and avoid those with brown tips. Purchase ivy only if it has been outdoors. Greenhouse plants are not ready to face winter winds and will succumb to the first few cold nights.

Barbie designed the stone box (shown at top of page) with a combination of cotoneaster and brilliant pansies for the plant base. "The box required more impact than just the shrubs and flowers. By using cut magnolia, I added a large leaf, which was needed, and gave the box a focal point;' she says. Dried hydrangeas contribute additional texture and color, bringing unexpected lightness to the arrangement. "Using hydrangeas, and even cut magnolia, is a temporary thing. It will last for about three weeks and then most likely need to be replaced. But that's a simple thing to do," Barbie says.

Another application is to use small conifers. A formal look is achieved by repeating one plant type across the back of the box and pansies of one color in front. A more casual look results from mixing the evergreens and using a combination of pansy colors. Ivy is a good choice to cascade over the front. Add texture with clusters of nandina berries or pinecones.

Maintenance can be an acrobat's hobby when a window box is placed in an upper-story location. In such a situation, Barbie employs a combination of cut greenery to fill this vacant space. While it requires occasional replacing through the winter, the issue of watering is nonexistent. Greenery such as magnolia and holly hold up for long periods before browning, so the box always looks well-tended.

An easy-care, whimsical technique is to add a single piece of garden statuary to the window box. A container of shrubs or cut branches takes on new personality with the addition of a small bunny or a cluster of interesting pots filled with birdseed. Moderation is the secret here. Be sure to focus on one element and center everything else in the box around it.

"When homeowners place window boxes on the front of their home, they are committed to doing something special and unique with that part of their landscape," Barbie says. Winter is a time when imagination and personality can take over. "Use the boxes to have some fun, and make the winter planting something special."