The 2024 Southern Living Idea House in idyllic Kiawah River, South Carolina offers an enchanting blend of coastal living and farmhouse chic. Taking design cues from the “agrihood” of Kiawah River Farm in which the house is situated, the 2024 Idea House’s architecture, landscape, and container plantings highlight the best of gracious outdoor living. Drawing inspiration from the farmhouses of the Lowcountry, a lush coastal landscape filled with stunning Southern Living Plants takes center stage against the airy white walls and enormous windows of the home.
To add artistry and design to the plant palette, we partnered with Steph Green of Contained Creations, who crafted an extraordinary series of container combinations for the 2024 Idea House. Inspired by her artful combinations, we’re sharing three tips you can use to bring a lovely Lowcountry flare to your porch, patio, or planting:
We Southerners adore charm when it comes to home design. There’s nothing like a piece of furniture with a good story to tell. When it came to designing the 2024 Southern Living Idea House, the interiors told a story of new classics, iconic designs, and a big ol’ helping of charm!
With elegant urns and planters from Elizabeth Stuart, Steph Green played up the “new classic” feel of the home’s interiors with a stately container combination on the back deck anchored by Mini Touch™ Holly. This cute and compact evergreen looks like boxwood, but don’t be fooled! Its perfectly petite emerald leaves hold their color every year, and the shrub requires very little pruning to hold a globe shape.
With the 2024 Idea House’s airy color palette of crisp white and soft gray, Steph wanted to keep the plant color palette to predominantly white and green hues. But gorgeous green is anything but boring when it comes to design. The secret? Use exciting texture!
Texture in garden design means the tactile sensation of the leaf, the size of the foliage, and even the way the plant moves in the breeze. By sticking to a consistent green color palette, Steph achieved visual interest by mixing up her foliage texture. This shade-friendly combination uses ‘Soft Caress’ Mahonia, a compact evergreen with feathery, bamboo-like foliage that blows in the breeze. In winter, a burst of yellow flowers will enchant pollinators and porch guests alike!
Have you heard the term “habit” or “growth habit” before? In the gardening world, it means the shape, direction, or height a plant will take as it matures. When you purchase a plant at the store, chances are that it will be relatively small. This is good news for the trunk of your car, but maybe not-so-good news when it comes to long-term planning. Will the plant grow tall and skinny, or wide and bushy? Will it stay short and compact, or will it spill over the side of a container? Without this information, you could find yourself in a (literal) tight spot as an out-of-control shrub takes over your yard!
Thankfully, key tidbits about your new plant’s habit can be quickly found on the plant tag. Make it a “habit” to check the height and width of your plant at maturity, as well as the growth rate (slow, medium, or fast). A slow-growing plant often requires less pruning to stay small; a plant with a mini mature height and width is often a good fit for containers.
In this elegant poolside trio, Steph takes advantage of the narrow, upright habit of Diamond Spire® Gardenia and Clarity Blue™ Dianella to create containers with impressive height that don’t reach too far beyond the bounds of their pot. Their upright growth means she’s also able to tuck in attractive annuals like euphorbia and dichondra that cascade over the side to add another layer of beauty.
We hope this trip down the cozy Carolina coast inspired you to craft your own containers. If you’re looking for more how-tos, Steph has inspiring courses to get you started! From country porches to city balconies, planters offer the perfect opportunity to stretch your creative muscles and bring your design aesthetic into the great outdoors!
