A winner in my book. Was just right in all respects.

Congratulations, Bev.

Aw, Marilyn, you are so sweet! very much...it was all so fun, wasn't it?

Yep and I was rooting for you.

I agree with Marilyn, an amazing and deserving entry in the 'Container' catagory.
Composition, focus/clarity and framing of the subject. Wonderful work Bev.

Lynn!!

You have such a great eye for things like this.

Sometimes it's nothing more than the process of: place here, don't like it. Place there, don't like it. It eventually gets to, "I Like!" and everything being put in the right place (and reject plants scattered all over the counter) and the basket arrangement gets done. Viola!

Beautiful!

Zuzu

This is such a gorgeous container.

I voted for this. I remember when it was on the forum. Very nice.

This was the one category where I knew which pic would win. Absolutely perfect!!

Gee, thank you much for all the support and kind words, Tiff and JoAnn and Julia!!!!

Oooh, I love my new Blue Ribbon!! Thank you to all the people that voted for my Basket Arrangement...

I was excited to see you win too and I was really hoping and voting for the big prize for you. I don't think I've ever seen a container that I like as much as this one. It is so beautiful! The Lola Echeveria almost seems to glow!

Susie, you are so sweet and supportive! And while I'm thinking of it...I don't know if I ever showed the unplanted container basket that I purchased at an antique/collectibles store while waiting for a ride home; here it is without the preparatory steps of placing window screening and sphagnum moss and cactus soil in it:

Bev, although it is beautiful on it's own, when I talked about the container being the most beautiful, I meant with the way you planted it. I sure wish you would do an article about how you put your containers together,(with the window screening, sphagnum moss, and cactus soil), in the ideas and articles section here.

How long do your container arrangements grow before the plants get to big and you need to replant or restart them?

with what Susie said.

4susiesjoy said:
How long do your container arrangements grow before the plants get to big and you need to replant or restart them?

It really varies on what plants have overgrown or died or just looks silly now...Sometimes I just replace dead elements and other times I don't like the way the arrangement (still perfectly healthy and growing) is headed in terms of scale or shape, and then I replant the entire thing. So arrangements have lasted as short as 6 mos or and others as long as 2 years depending. It's really all experiments.

That winning basket was due for renovation after one year and here's that other 3 tiered basket I planted in Jan 2013 and it's almost been two years with a few replacements for one reason or another:


I will think about trying to put together something for an article on container planting!

Okay, now you thought about it. When will we see it?