Knockout Garden Containers 

After moving to California in pursuit of movie stardom, Mark Bartos (626/791-2040) went back to school to study landscape design. His containers often combine small trees, billowy shrubs, and mat-forming groundcovers with plenty of Hollywood pizzazz.

Q: What do you choose first, the pots or the plants?

A: The pots. Their style is always driven by the setting, which includes the style of the house. The containers pictured here, for a ranch-style home with a bit of art deco thrown in, are simple and contemporary; they're large and have strong architectural shapes. But then I always prefer big pots ― 24-inch-diameter minimum. You need that scale to create drama.