
Knockout Garden Containers

Thomas J. Story
Each pot contains Pittosporum tenuifolium 'Marjorie Channon', cotoneaster, red 'Dragon's Blood' sedum, and chartreuse juniper.
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.