The art of still lifes

“Welcome to our dining room,” Brian Sullivan says, as we step out of the 1920s El Sereno bungalow he shares with partner Alex Flores and land on an immaculate raised deck. The wood-slat table, slick from the season’s first rain, is neatly set with four vintage metal pots that Sullivan painted white and topped with perfect bumps of pea-green sea thrift, Armeria maritima. “I’m afraid the benches are a little wet.”

Who wants to sit? The décor demands closer inspection. Planted containers punctuate every corner of this outdoor room and spill down the steps to the postage-stamp garden. Alone and in clusters, like still lifes in the mist, they stabilize, expand and transform this space-challenged landscape.

Sullivan, who is horticulture supervisor at Descanso Gardens in La Cañada Flintridge, applies basic design principles to container gardening, starting with repetition. Some pots are unique, but many have matches. One or more plants from each mixed pot are singled out for solo display. For contrast, he stages light against dark, glossy with flat, narrow with rounded, vertical and spilling.

These containers gush with calculated color: golden bacopa, garnet hibiscus, chartreuse and near-black coleus, blood-red grass, rosy sedum, silvery carex. This is a palette of foliage, with very few flowers (all tiny). Some plants, such as the coleus, come and go. Succulents and the citrus are permanent fixtures. Next year, the theme of burgundy and green leaves may be tweaked to gray and hot orange to underscore the rust red trim of the house.

At Descanso Gardens, Sullivan designs far grander schemes, including the thigh-high concrete vessels that reside, unmovable, inside the entrance. From January through April, flowering hyacinths, daffodils and tulips erupt in that order through a pastel carpet of annual toadflax, violas and ‘Bloomingdale’ ranunculus and a permanent fringe of small-leafed bacopa, moneywort and ‘Glacier’ ivy. In summer and fall, roses and dahlias in shallow pots are nested in atop the resting bulbs.

On a bluff in Brentwood, the Getty Center houses one of the grandest container gardens in the region, with no fewer than 250 smooth-walled ceramic containers, glazed in muted bone or olive and mated with a wide range of flora. The colossal low bowls on the arrival plaza steps ripple with whitecaps of prostrate rosemary, Santa Barbara daisy and honey-scented sweet alyssum. “In any combination, one plant always dominates and crowds out the others,” says Getty horticulturist Michael DeHart. “Here it’s the rosemary, so the daisy and alyssum are changed out regularly.” These bowls are completely renovated every two years, but some containers need less maintenance. A group of tall pots with mounds of large-leafed succulents will be refurbished in spring, for the first time in nearly a decade.

Containers on the museum’s south terrace hold New Zealand flax, Phormium ‘Rainbow Dawn,’ variegated bougainvillea ‘Raspberry Ice,’ blue and purple trailing lobelias and burgundy boat lily, Rhoeo spathacea — a mix that merges with the rich tones of nearby bird of paradise. DeHart recently packed 18 pots on the museum garden terrace with soft-colored plants that have been successful in other areas: phormium ‘Maori Dawn,’ blue Senecio mandraliscae, pale green Agave attenuata, Scaevola ‘Mauve Clusters,’ Santa Barbara daisy and boat lily. The containers, he notes, complement the exhibits and are meant to rest visitors’ eyes as they move from gallery to gallery.

Of course, any of the mega-pots at the Getty or Descanso can be replicated on a residential scale. When mixing plants, DeHart says it’s most crucial to judge relative sizes and growth rates. If flowers are involved, will color be constant or intermittent? What will pots look like out of bloom or when parts are cut back? Other than that, he recommends choosing plants with similar needs and letting your imagination soar.

On a protected shady patio, Sullivan and Flores maintain a collection of rare palms and ferns. With sufficient root room, water and nutrients, most vegetables and many fruit trees will work.

Even California native bulbs, often tricky in the ground, make terrific container subjects. Bart O’Brien of Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, Claremont, recommends Dichelostemma ida-maia — a hummingbird magnet with scarlet flowers like firecrackers on sticks — and Humboldt lily, Lilium humboldtii, a shade-loving skyscraper with 5-inch-long orange blossoms. When bulbs are in pots, rodents can’t get to them. To exclude earwigs and sow bugs, he covers drain holes with fine-mesh screen.

Many natives have proved their pluck. At the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, a single scarlet bugler, Penstemon centranthifolius, has grown in the same 12-inch container for eight years. After six, director of horticulture Carol Bornstein lifted the plant, added more soil and plopped it back in. A large potted clump of wild ginger, Asarum caudatum, decorates a deeply shaded corner. In a brighter spot, willowy monardella and a new manzanita, Arctostaphylos ‘Arroyo Cascade,’ spill from a concrete urn, and desert lavender, Hyptis emoryi, lightens the texture of a terra-cotta jar.

For ongoing color, Bornstein suggests long-blooming monkey flower hybrids; for overall ease, try succulent dudleyas, both rosette and clumping species, alone or in combination. “Everything is fair game,” she says, “if you’ve got the right plant, right pot and right place.”

Regarding placement, Sullivan and Flores appreciate that potted plants are portable. They like to reconfigure the groupings, and, to avoid staining the table and deck, lightweight pots can be moved for watering.

Also, Sullivan adds, should the pair ever relocate, their container garden can go along with them.

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Lili Singer can be reached at home@ latimes.com.

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Caring for potted plants

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The first container garden was, perhaps, a seedling in a hollowed-out gourd. Though container choices have broadened, these guidelines are ageless: Unlike ground dwellers, potted plants are totally dependent on gardeners, and, in general, they need more water and nutrients than the same kinds of plants in open earth. Here are some other tips:

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Mix and match: Use soil mixes that accommodate plants: for example, rich and water-retentive for tropical foliage and annuals; thinner and fast-draining for succulents, natives and bulbs; and somewhere in the middle for fruit trees.

Water wisely: Water only when the surface soil dries, typically to a depth of one inch or less for small or shallow pots, 2 or 3 inches for an 18-inch pot, and 4 to 6 inches for a half barrel or a Getty-sized urn. Soak thoroughly, until overflow exits the drain holes. If saucers are used to catch excess water, empty them as soon as possible. (Use a turkey baster for those that can’t be tipped.)

Feed when hungry: Irrigation washes nutrients from the soil. Replace with a liquid or granular food, in small doses — half or quarter strength — throughout the growing season. To avoid burning roots, never feed a dry plant.

Leave wiggle room: For long life, use containers with plenty of root room. Even they will need restoration every few years by lifting the plants, trimming their roots (if needed) and replanting them in the same pots with fresh soil.

Think globally: Local vendors stock containers from around the globe. Hot items include stone troughs and antique urns from anywhere; handcrafted Italian terra cotta and well-made Asian knock-offs; glazed stoneware from Vietnam and China; fancifully painted red clay from Mexico; and welded metals from the U.S. and abroad. Interesting selections can be seen at:

Jackalope Pottery, 10726 Burbank Blvd., North Hollywood;

(818) 761-4022

Marina del Rey Garden Center, 13198 Mindanao Way, Marina del Rey; (310) 823-5956

Pottery Manufacturing & Distributing, 18881

S. Hoover St., Gardena; (310) 323-7772

Sculpture Gardens, 1029 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice;

(310) 399-0321

Sperling Nursery, 244460 Calabasas Road, Calabasas; (818) 591-9111

Stevens Nurseries & Hardware, 12000 Riverside Drive, North Hollywood; (818) 763-6296

Sunset Nursery, 4368 Sunset Blvd., Silver Lake; (323) 661-1642

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— Lili Singer