Award-winning designer Jo Thompson offers container-planting inspiration with this idea for an inside pot display for high summer
A rust-coloured rectangular planter is filled with graceful aromatic plants, each having its own use. This is a planter to keep on a windowsill or near the kitchen door; it also makes a good centrepiece for an indoor or outdoor dining table. There’s nothing very manicured about this arrangement, as it’s designed to withstand a few leaves being pulled off here and there.
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How to achieve the look
Container and composition
This is the simplest of containers, a rectangular planter with a finish of rusted metal. Its simple geometric shape means that it can fit neatly on a ledge, and be kept handy for picking leaves from. Delicate foliage is all here. The leaves are small, creating cobwebby light in a sunny spot. The flowers too are all delicate; the blues of the lavender gently tying in with the blue-ish pink of the thyme and the paler pinks of the hyssop.
Every plant has a use: the thyme is as good as a flavouring as it is decorative, sprouting out of the edges of the container. Evergreen structure is provided by the rosemary, with a background of the tall spires of hyssop, whose leaves taste of bitter minty-sage and work well in a salad, along with its tiny pinkish flowers. The blue spires of lavender knit in with the leggy stems of the lemon verbena (Aloysia citrodora), the leaves of which can be used to make the most delicious infusion.
Cultivation and care
You’ll want to keep foraging from this pot, and this constant picking will keep the plants in check over the summer. Ensure that the soil doesn’t dry out.
There are plants in here that will be happy to be transferred into the garden as the display goes over: the rosemary and lavender will certainly enjoy more space eventually. The lemon verbena should be taken inside as temperatures drop.
Plants
Hyssopus officinalis ‘Roseus’ A small, spreading sub-shrub with spires of pink flowers and aromatic leaves. Flowers July – September. 60cm x 60cm. RHS H7, USDA 4a-9b.†
Aloysia citrodora A deciduous sub-shrub with long branches bearing strongly lemon-scented leaves and tiny white flowers. Flowers August. 2.5m x 2.5m. AGM. RHS H3, USDA 8a-10b.
Lavandula angustifolia ‘Munstead’ Evergreen shrub with grey-green leaves and fragrant
blue-purple flowers. Flowers July – August. 45cm x 60cm. RHS H5, USDA 5a-8b.
Thymus serpyllum ‘Pink Chintz’ Mat-forming sub-shrub with aromatic leaves and pale-pink flowers. Flowers June – August. 10cm x 30cm. AGM. RHS H5, USDA 5a-8b.
Salvia rosmarinus ‘Miss Jessopp’s Upright’ Rosemary with aromatic leaves. Light blue flowers in spring and summer. Flowers April – July. 2m x 2m. AGM. RHS H4 USDA 8a-10b.