How does your garden grow?

This may be too late for most of our readers, but if you have been slacking and haven't gotten around to planting your flowers (ahem. me.) then this is for you!

A nicely planted flower box is made up of the same design elements used in all forms of design--interior, graphic, fashion, floral and of course landscape!

The Rule of Odds:: Our brains like to see odd numbers. Even numbers look like they are fighting to balance each other. 1 spike, 3 geraniums, and 5 lobelia will result in a balanced basket.

Color:: Pick a color scheme, any color scheme you can't go wrong. Monochromatic (one color), Analogous (colors next to each other on the color wheel), Complimentary (2 colors opposite on the color wheel) or Polychromatic (any and all colors).

Mix Textures:: Just like fabric has a texture, so do plants. Some plants have feathery leaves, and others have spiky. Texture will add another dimension to your container when the flowers aren't at their best.

Height:: Plants grow different heights and it is important to know which is going to be your tallest and which is going to trail. The tags that come in the plants will tell you this. Plant the tallest in either the center of the pot or in the middle back depending on where the pot will be. Make sure your trailing plants go along the edge and fill in with medium sized plants.

Other things to consider::

• plant flowers with the same light and water needs together
• don't plant deeper than the plant is already (in the container from the nursery). if you do it can cause the plant to die
• don't over water. plants like to go through wet and dry (but not too dry) cycles. roots need oxygen and they can't get it when they are sitting in soggy soil all the time.

And there you have it, an extremely quick crash course in how to plant beautiful containers!