Whether it be Memorial Day, Flag Day or the Fourth of July, a decorative window box filled with red, white and blue flowering plants always fits the bill for your front porch or apartment patio. Your place will have a patriotic look, just in time for summer guests.
Fill the window box with tall, spiky, red, old-fashioned gladiolus, which can hold their own as background for the frilly, white, miniature flowers of alyssum, and the pop of blue or purple lobelia.
Learning the ropes
The first gardening job I had almost 20 years ago in New York state was at a tiny, two-greenhouse shop, aptly named Carefree Gardens, owned by husband and wife Mary and Brent Leonard. Mary was an expert at creating highly visible window boxes for her clients in the Cooperstown area for the Fourth of July Window Box Contest.
The contest was organized by the Cooperstown Garden Club, and let’s just say the competition was fierce. Impeccable front porches showcased Colonial Revival and Federal-style homes. Some of the famous names who owned their “second homes” in this historic, lakefront city included the Clarks, the Coopers, and most of the Anheuser-Busch family.
I was certainly not among the rich and famous but studying horticulture at SUNY Cobleskill. My job as a member of the Carefree Gardens’ staff was to select the perfect red, white and blue flowers that would festoon the contestants’ window boxes.
Placement is everything
According to Mary: “The secret to creating the perfect window box is all about the placement of the flowers. Too many, and it will look overcrowded; too few, and it will have empty spots. Also, be very careful that you choose colors that complement each other, not colors that fight each other for attention.”
1. Choose from the color list below, or ask the staff at your local garden shop for suggestions. It is best to bring your empty window box with you to fill, and you can experiment with which plants go well together. Be prepared to spend time at the garden center for a successful finished product! Our list is a selection of red, white and blue, so use them as examples and feel free to change them up.
2. Divide the window box into three horizontal sections with a pencil or chopstick. Starting with the back of the box, dig three equidistant holes in which you will place your three tall red plants as the backdrop for the other flowers. The tall selection should also be the brightest and fullest of grouping. Example: red geranium.
3. In the second horizontal segment, place three medium-size blue plants to be placed alternately in front of the tall selection. Example: blue lobelia.
4. The final step is to plant three white cascading or upright selections that will grow to fill the front of the box. Example: white alyssum.
Choose the right flowers
(Bring this list with you to the garden center)
• Tall red: For your tall, red backdrop, look for red geraniums, spiky gladiolus, cardinal flowers, red hollyhocks, the list goes on ….
• Medium blue: lobelia, blue salvia, delphinium, upright verbena, ageratum, to name a few ….
• Short or cascading: trailing alyssum, nemesia, white nasturtium, bacopa, cascading white petunias, short white zinnia, short white begonia and more ….
Learn from your first effort
I learned so much from Mary and Brent Leonard that summer that I was inspired to continue my horticultural interests and receive a degree from my favorite alma mater, SUNY Cobleskill.
“The devil is in the details” when you begin a new skill. I fondly remember working on my first few Fourth of July window boxes and presenting them for final review before delivery. Mary would come to the work table to take a look and always turn the window box around to view the back of the planter.
“Keep an eye on those geraniums, they have a front and a back!” Sure enough, the red geraniums I had planted were backwards! I turned them around and the buds faced forward. Mistakes corrected, and our client did win the Best of Show in the Cooperstown Fourth of July Window Box Contest. With a little help from her friends….
Visit your local garden center
Take your empty window box to fill with red, white and blue flowers at one of our favorite local garden centers: Anderson’s La Costa Nursery, 400 La Costa Ave., Encinitas; Armstrong Garden Centers, 5702 Paseo Del Norte, Carlsbad; Bamby’s Flowers, 2763 State St., Carlsbad.
Jano Nightingale is a horticulturist and Master Gardener who teaches classes at the Carlsbad Senior Center community garden. For information regarding her upcoming classes and garden consultations, contact her at [email protected].
