Tips for Instant Container Style

We love nothing more than a beautiful container overflowing with colorful plants. It serves as the perfect decor for porches, patios and balconies. Costa Farms makes coordinating plants for containers simple and fun. 

The new “Grow Gorgeous Container Gardens” ebook from Costa Farms covers all of the basics. It helps gardeners and outdoor decorators learn how to choose, plant and care for potted gardens for every season.

Here are some expert tips.

GMG's Friday Find: Create an Instant Oasis this Memorial Day!

The Memorial Day holiday signals the beginning of summer celebrations on decks, patios and backyards across the nation. 
Here in the east, we're just getting around to planting from a long, cool spring and if you're feeling a bit rushed to get your outdoor space just right for the Memorial Day weekend, relax!  A beautiful blooming combination of hibiscus and mandevilla from Costa Farms® Tropic Escape™ Patio Collection can create an instant oasis.

A vibrant outdoor experience doesn't require endless hours of bending and digging when you pair and pot the big, bright blooms of hibiscus and mandevilla.

Hibiscus from the Tropic Escape Collection bursts with some of the biggest, most flamboyant blooms around -- up to seven inches across.  And the color range and mixes are enough to make a rainbow jealous! These hibiscus are sold in citrus-hued deco pots that immediately add color to you patio or porch for an instant view.

The Tropic Escape mandevilla with its trumpet-shaped flower loves the hot summer weather and pumps out flowers in pink, red, fuchsia and white. This twining and climbing plant splashes color while comfortably making a home just about anywhere from trellis to fence to container.

For a dramatic statement, pair them both in a pot and you'll enjoy show-stopping blooms all summer long. Heat tolerant and not fussy, this combination from the Tropic Escape Patio Collection is easy to care for, produces abundant flower power, and is readily available at local home improvement stores or mass merchandiser.

A backyard getaway doesn't have to cost a fortune or require hours of labor.  These tropical wonders can transform your outdoor space quickly so you can enjoy the seasonal celebrations with ease.

Happy Memorial Day!

~Peggy
Garden Media Group 

 

Your Ticket to Paradise

We are all just loving the new Tropic Escape Hibiscus collection from Costa Farms! I first saw these beautiful and bold plants in January down at the TPIE show in Ft. Lauderdale. The size and colors of the blooms just blew me away!

This new collection comes in 12 varieties with blooms in tropical colors of yellows, reds and oranges. Plus, the names sound like delicious cocktails - Sunrise Mimosa, Tiki Temptation, South Pacific Sipper to name a few. They are all easy to grow and bloom twice as long as traditional hibiscus. I can't wait to plant up a few to punch up my patio this summer!

To learn how to create your own tropical paradise in your backyard, visit www.costafarms.com.

-Stacey

Garden Media Group

Spring Ushers in New, Easy to Grow Plants to Color Your Garden

It’s the first day of spring and time to take a lesson from Mother Nature’s palette to create a garden masterpiece with new easy to grow, low maintenance plants.

Susan McCoy, gardening expert for the Garden Media Group, a Philadelphia area firm specializing in green living and garden trend spotting says, break the rules when choosing colors. “You learned to color with crayons and experimented with mixing paints, so take that sense of play and extend it to the garden.”

Design and Photo by Margie Grace Associates, APLD

McCoy says to take cues from Mother Nature’s color wheel. “Mother Nature is daring,” explains McCoy. “She mixes amazing color combinations, from bright hues to soft pastels.”



Gardening experts say it’s easy to have a show stopping garden with continuous color spring through fall by picking the right plants for the right spot. New plants out this spring prove to be just what the gardener wants: easy to grow, full of blooms, and low maintenance. 

“The first thing you want to do when planning this year’s garden is to determine the “feel” of the garden, where you want your plants and the overall color scheme,” says Margie Grace, Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD) member. “Then select plants that will create balance and draw the eye.”

Tropic Escape Hibiscus from Costa Farms

“Those looking for a backyard oasis can bring it home with the new Tropic Escape Hibiscus Collection from Costa Farms,” says McCoy. The over-sized flowers almost the size of dinner plates come in a dozen tropical colors like Caribbean Cocktail yellow and Tiki Temptation orange, and bloom twice as long as traditional hibiscus. These easy care hibiscus take the heat in sunny locations and add punch to any outdoor décor and quickly turn a deck, patio or balcony into a party.

 

Bambino Bougainvillea
from Hines Growers



“Bold colors are dominating this spring,” says McCoy. Purple, red and orange are showing up in many new plants, like the new dwarf Bambino Bougainvillea from Hines Growers. These new plants are more compact than traditional bougainvillea and produce abundant flowers. Plus, they’re drought tolerant once established. “They give spectacular color in the landscape, are ideal for containers and create a colorful spot in small outdoor spaces.” 



American Beauties Native Plans

Another planning idea is attracting birds and butterflies to the garden. McCoy loves native plants from American Beauties Native Plants for beautiful flowers and plants that are ideally suited for regional conditions. Plus a portion of each sale supports the National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat program.



Herbs in the landscape, in pots or in the kitchen garden are also hot this spring. Grace uses herbs to add color and texture in borders and mixes them in containers with veggies or perennials. 

Using herbs. like this wall of rosemary,
in the landscape gives gardeners beauty and function

McCoy agrees. “It’s so easy to pot up herbs indoors and out for fresh ingredients year round.” She loves the rare and traditional new herbs like stevia, lemon grass and bee balm, the herb of the year, she’s found at The Growers Exchange. “Perennial herbs like rosemary look stunning cascading over walls or out of containers,” says McCoy.

If planning a garden is challenging, it may be time to call in a professional. She says that professional landscape designers like Margie Grace, a recent International Landscape Designer of the Year, can help bring life to a garden with beautiful native and low-maintenance plants and natural materials. To find a local, professional landscape designer, check out APLD’s website.

 -Karen

Garden Media Group