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A very simple way to create elegance outside when you are adding potted plants to your porches, patios or focal points in the garden is to choose containers made of the same material. You don’t have to have every container in the same material but certainly the majority!

I use terra cotta because it is the classic garden pottery and has practical advantages in addition to its universal availability. Its understated elegance lets the flowers and foliage stand out. Plants are healthier when the soil can breathe through the porous walls and it is easy for excess water to drain out through the walls as well as the drainage hole in the bottom. It is almost impossible to overwater.

If you do indeed choose terra cotta, you will find so many sizes, shapes and styles to choose from. There are urns shapes, wall pockets, tall bulb pots, flat sided geometric shapes, round tubs, some with classic fluting, foliage, flower and animal designs and more incised or added to the pot surfaces. And, of course, there is always the classic  rimmed flower pot available  in every size from1” to 18” or more at every local nursery or garden shop.

It takes discipline to resist all of the shinny, colorful containers available at nurseries and garden shops, but actually these containers look better on the store shelves there than they will in your garden. When there are so many colors and materials in your containers, these compete with the color and splendor of the flowers and foliage. Let your plants play the staring roles in your garden and learn to have discipline in selecting unified containers. Practicing this use of repetition, one of elements of design, will create a pleasing and unified result in your garden landscape.

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This spring I bought several Iceland poppy plants. I tucked them in front of the various boxwoods that frame my front door. I have watched with fascination the fuzzy elongated green buds open little by little and finally unfold into flowers with ruffled organza petals and golden crowns of stamens.

The fuzzy sepals that wrap around the bud to protect it before opening finally start to crack open to reveal delicate petal edges. Unlike most buds, the Iceland poppy does not unfurl or spread open, but rather it unfolds from a fist-like position with petal edges breaking out at the bottom of the sepal. To think that these gathered, gossamer thin petals emerge from this cramped position without any evidence of their captivity to appear for their grand finale of bloom is a miracle of design and engineering.

Last Friday I was out in the garden between the spring showers weeding and working my compost piles when I heard the familiar chit-chit-chit-chit-chit of a hummingbird. I immediately held still and began to follow the sounds with my eyes hopeful to see my first hummingbird of spring.  When my eyes feasted on the tiny bundle of movement, I discovered it was a female Rufous Hummingbird.

She hovered above a laurel bush and then promptly landed on a large horizontal leaf for a spirited and joyful splashing in the raindrops. She then moved to another leaf and repeated the ritual. What a perfect joy to watch that feisty little bird bathing in the precious raindrops captured in the laurel leaves.

The Rufous Hummingbirds return to the Northwest in March when the wild current bushes are blooming and spend the spring, summer and fall feasting on the nectar of the lush flowers so abundant here in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.

I am always anxious to plant these two terra cotta wall planters that I have hung under one of the front south windows. This year I chose orange pansies and an orange-red ranunculus. I know this might seem overly simple, but it is always so effective to simply choose a color and then plant different flowers in that color or color range. This creates a simple and stunning show of a unified flower combination. I much prefer this to a little of this and a little of that.

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One of my favorite things to do in late winter is to enjoy spring blossoms inside. The white Japanese quince I have photographed in my dining room is from my backyard. It will bloom outside naturally in late March in my climate, but I force the blooms inside for an early and encouraging display of flowers while the winter still presides outside.

I cut long, lovely branches anytime in January or February and bring them in the warmth of my house. After I crush the cut stems with a hammer, I put them in a deep container of water and check every couple days to add more water. In two to four weeks I have a spring time of stunning white blossoms to decorate my house.

While I am waiting for the buds to blossom, the elegant branches are full of expanding buds, maturing into perfect little spheres of tender white. I believe I like these pregnant buds equally as well as the fully realized blossoms. This indoor preview of spring feeds my soul with hope and beauty for the future.

Trees and shrubs to choose for forcing:

• Japanese quinces of all colors
• Forsythia
• Ornamental flowering trees
• Fruit trees