The Scout Outdoors

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  (Annie Wells / LAT)