The Bold Container Garden
Description
Establishing striking container gardens doesn’t require years of experience or a natural design instinct—just the right guidance. In The Bold Container Garden, professional container garden designer Christina Salwitz shares her signature approach to high-impact planting, combining fearless color, dramatic texture, and thoughtful composition into easy-to-follow templates.
Organized to both teach and inspire, the book walks you through the foundations of great design—then shows you how to break the rules for even more exciting results. Whether you’re styling a small balcony, framing an entryway, or elevating a patio, each project is designed to help you achieve maximum visual impact with minimal uncertainty.
Inside, you’ll find:
- 75 plant-by-number design templates, each accompanied by a labeled color photograph of the finished container, to take the guesswork out of creating stunning container combinations
- Expert guidance on color, texture, scale, and form to help you design your container garden with confidence
- Detailed plant lists and layout advice for easy planning and flawless execution
- Practical advice on pot selection and placement to maximize both plant health and visual impact
- Seasonal inspiration and finishing touches that elevate your containers from simple to showstopping
More than just a how-to guide, this book is a creative toolkit for transforming everyday pots into extraordinary focal points—helping you design boldly, plant confidently, and grow beautifully.
More details
Person
Christina Salwitz is The Personal Garden Coach—a horticulturist, garden coach, dynamic garden designer, award-winning author, and horticultural photographer with an eye for bold beauty and practical elegance. A lifelong gardener and former fashion merchandising major, Christina has a knack for blending form, function, and fabulous foliage into unforgettable container gardens and landscapes.
Her design work and signature style—centered on stunning foliage combinations and year-round impact—have been featured in numerous books and magazines internationally. Christina co-authored the top-selling books Fine Foliage and Gardening with Foliage First with Karen Chapman, inspiring gardeners everywhere to rethink the power of leaves. Her newest book, The Bold Container Garden, offers guidance on designing dramatic and inspirational container gardens and includes 75 plant-by-number templates.
Christina is also a sought-after speaker across North America, known for her high-energy presentations on design, merchandising, and horticultural trends. Her striking plant photography appears in publications, blogs, retail spaces, and marketing campaigns. She served as a merchandising consultant for The Garden Center Group while maintaining a horticultural trade magazine column titled “Dirty Secrets” for many years.
Content
Introduction: The Bold Container Garden Manifesto
Part 1: The Rules and How to Break Them
Chapter 1: What Makes a Container Garden Bold?
Chapter 2: Container Rules to Follow and Break
Part 2: The Foundations of Design with Attitude
Chapter 3: Why Does Texture Make or Break a Design?
Chapter 4: Scale, Silhouette, and Swing
Chapter 5: Color Theory for Rebels
Chapter 6: Pot Psychology
Part 3: The Art of Placement
Chapter 7: From Nursery Cart to Completed Pot
Chapter 8: 75 Plant by Number Recipes
Chapter 9: Easy, Sexy Finishing Touches
About the Author
Acknowledgments
Index