The Scout Outdoors

Bartenders, sort of

Annie Wells / LAT

Bartenders, sort of ROLLING GREENS is calling all creative types with an eye for botanical design. The company recently opened an "arrangement bar" where shoppers can create custom pots and planters, perhaps for the patio table or outdoor living room. Nursery co-owner Greg Salmeri (below, with manager Angela Tapp) says the idea stems from one client's special request. "They asked, 'Can you put this plant with this plant with this plant?' And we thought we could do more of this," Salmeri says. Now customers follow a simple drill. Step 1: Select one of Rolling Greens' thousands of containers, which include inexpensive metal boxes, fancy European imports and stunners made of faux seashells or gnarled wood. Step 2: Choose your plants — ferns, orchids or perhaps less conventional picks ("begonias over gerbera daisies, hydrangeas instead of roses," Salmeri suggests). Step 3: Choose the top dressing: mosses, pebbles, even recycled glass in more than a dozen hues. Professional designers put together your selections at a counter with barstools, where you can watch while sipping iced tea or coffee. Unlike cut flowers, these arrangements can last a month or more. The best part: When friends ooh and ahh over the design, you can take credit. 9528 Jefferson Blvd., Culver City; (310) 559-8656; http://www.rollinggreensnursery.com. --Leslee Komaiko

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Seeds of change

Christopher Humes

Seeds of change Give this piece a chance. Plant a 9-millimeter gun or seed bomb from artists Christopher Humes and Noah Scalin, and you'll soon see blooming Shasta daisy, European columbine, foxglove, purple coneflower, spurred snapdragon, lupine or black-eyed Susan. Created as part of the traveling anti-violence exhibition "Swords Into Plowshares, Plant the Piece," the gun pictured here ($75) is formed of red clay power, dry organic compost and wildflower seeds. The seed bomb is composed of clay and soil humus ($12 per pack). Available at Gracie at the Santa Monica Museum of Art, Bergamot Station G-1, 2525 Michigan Ave., (310) 586-6488; http://www.threemiles.com/plantthepiece . — Lisa Boone

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