Make Mom a Mother’s Day Planter She’ll Love

Consumers in the U.S. spend 2 billion dollars on Mother’s Day plants and flowers every year. While fresh flowers are indeed a lovely gift, why not give Mom blooms she can enjoy for months, instead of just days?

Living plants make terrific Mother’s Day gifts, and while you may be tempted to simply stop at the nursery and grab a hanging basket or potted hydrangea for Mom, she’ll appreciate a one-of-a-kind Mother’s Day planter built by you even more.

Picking Plants for Mom

While there are many Mother’s Day plant ideas, creating a planter composed of the plants she enjoys means you’re giving a tailor-made gift built especially for her.

Here are a few great ideas for Mother’s Day plant combinations:

• For moms who love cooking, make a container plant arrangement filled with culinary herbs like basil, thyme, and rosemary.

• If mom’s into growing food, a container of fruit and vegetable plants is right up her alley. Partner an eggplant or pepper with some strawberry plants, or combine a patio tomato with basil and Swiss chard.

• Are flowers more her style? Then pick a variety of flowering annuals in her favorite colors and pot them into a container together.

• For hard-core gardening moms, make a container plant arrangement comprised of perennials she can eventually plant into her garden.

Container Concerns

Don’t want Mom to be a slave to her Mother’s Day plants all summer long? Then build your container combination in a fabric aeration pot, rather than a plastic or terra cotta container. With a fabric pot’s excellent aeration, Mom’s planter will grow quickly and fill the pot faster. It won’t become pot-bound and require excessive irrigation.

Before planting, fill the container with a well-mixed 50/50 blend of high-quality potting soil and screened compost. This blend provides your Mother’s Day plants with both good drainage and a source of slow-release nutrients.

Design Tips

When planting Mom’s favorites into the container, it helps to keep a few things in mind.

• Plant the tallest plants in the center so they won’t overshadow smaller plants and they’ll have plenty of room to grow.
• Place low-growing plants around the edge, allowing them to cascade over the side.
• Position mid-height plants around the tall plant at the center, essentially filling in the space around its base.

Caring for Mother’s Day Container Plant Arrangements

Once Mom receives her gift, share these five container gardening tips with her:

1. Keep the container well-watered. Hot summer weather requires daily watering.

2. For optimum growth, fertilize the container with a liquid, organic fertilizer, such as fish emulsion, twice per month.

3. Prune and pinch. If plants become unruly, don’t be afraid to give them a haircut.

4. Keep flowering plants deadheaded to generate more blooms.

5. If Mom’s container plant arrangement contains a tall or vining plant, train it to grow up a stake or trellis.

Give Mom a living gift this year and make her Mother’s Day extra happy.