Urn as patio table - or container for a living bouquet

Living bouquet

Plantings as glorious as the one at right, in Karla Waterman's Seattle-area garden, deserve to be raised to eye level for close-up viewing. The concrete urn (21 inches tall and 11 1/2 inches across) sits atop a brick pillar capped with Arizona flagstone to match the patio.

The plants, carefully chosen for color and texture, are arranged by height. A tall Mexican feather grass rises in the center; it's flanked with a green geranium and a frilly ruby red coleus. Lime green sweet potato vine, white-flowered bacopa, and small-leafed creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia) spill over the urn's edges. Waterman chose the plants with Gail Halsaver of Foxglove Greenhouses; Halsaver did the planting.