Look Ma, No Flowers! February 2021 Virtual Meeting via Zoom

Presided over by Program Co-Chair Sarah Bates, the February 9, 2021, DGC meeting garnered a sizable Zoom audience. The evening’s presentation by Westwood-based Deborah Trickett, a container garden designer who founded her firm, The Captured Garden, 17 years ago, was packed with robust, helpful, and sometimes surprising information about a category of plant material many regard as filler.

Who could imagine the allure of Hobbits Foot Sage and Curly Fries Hosta in a container on your porch? And the lowly coleus which now comes in an astounding number of shapes and colors, qualifying it as a “lead plant” in container design?

Members can find a list of some of Deborah’s other favorites in a handout Sarah has emailed to the membership. Instagram, Facebook, and www.thecapturedgarden.com are other platforms showcasing her work, which also includes speaking engagements throughout New England, TV appearances, garden maintenance services, and workshops at Boston’s Arnold Arboretum.

According to President Barbie Saraceno, 31 gardeners participated in the event, which was DGC’s second program of 2021. Four were Cottage Gardeners. Barbie noted a good number of attendees whom she hadn’t seen at programs in the recent past.

From the outset, Deborah won over her audience with three unarguable benefits offered by her favorite kind of plant: low maintenance, lasting good looks throughout the growing season, and less waste. In fact, she pointed out that instead of being thrown in the fall on the compost heap as is the fate of flowering pants, many foliage plants can winter over in the garden as perennials or be moved indoors and become houseplants.

Deborah also won over her audience by promising the gift of a hat with her logo to whoever could answer a question at the end of her talk and thereby resist the temptation to multi-task while Zooming. Evonne Peters was the first to answer the speaker’s question about her favorite color—green, no less.

Last, the speaker reminded her audience that low maintenance foliage containers give the gardener the chance to relax in her garden at the end of the day. Better a glass of wine and a book outdoors than the endless chore of deadheading flowering plants.     

           –Harriett Magee

Photos 1 & 2 courtesy of Deborah Trickett, The Captured Garden