Fire Up Your Summer Containers

By Delilah Onofrey, Suntory Flowers

Bold, glorious summer color! That’s what Sun Parasol FiredUp Orange brings to container plantings. FiredUp dipladenias are freestanding and upright, making them the ideal summer thriller. Unlike classic mandevillas/dipladenias, the blooms are pinwheel-shaped instead of trumpet-shaped, and the foliage is upright and slender.

To demonstrate how to use FiredUp Orange, we partnered with Crescent Garden to recruit eight professional container designers for a social media competition last summer. Each designer received a 2-gallon FiredUp Orange plant and a Circular Positive Step Planter and TruDrop Flex self-watering insert. Then they added their own mix of plants and creativity to make stunning large planters. Here are four standout designs.

Orange Reflection

Julie Cruz of Adorn Planters, Leawood, KS, chose a tropical looking petunia that matched FiredUp Orange perfectly! And then an assortment of greenery filled it out to create a nice balance – euphorbia, dusty miller, dichondra and sedum. Even the calla lilies provide green foliage. The blooms are secondary.

Complementary Colors

We like how Mari Guadagno of Willow & Oak Custom Planters, Point Pleasant, NJ, chose pops of blue as a complementary color scheme to FiredUp Orange. Intense blue delphinium is a second thriller, while a nice blue hydrangea serves as a filler. Verbenas in peach and light blue fill and spill. A bright pink geranium echoes the nearby window box. Dark foliage elevates the design.

Fabulous Foliage

FiredUp orange shines as the sole blooming component in Leanne James’s design. Her business is Urban Oasis Containers in Wheaton, IL, near Chicago. Asparagus fern serves as the filler while Sansevieria (snake plant) supports the background. Light green helichrysums (licorice plant) provide balance. And the dark coleus with the bright edge is the perfect accent.

Poolside Beauty

You’ve got to have blooming tropicals if you have a swimming pool! We love the beauty and grace of this design by Anne Brooks Rudzki of Capital Roots Containers, Bethesda, MD. We love FiredUp Orange with shades of purple, like the gomphrena and lamium. A tuft of dark grass centers it above the tropical lantana in shades of bright pink and orange. Light greenery balances it out.

Look for Sun Parasol FiredUp varieties at your favorite garden retailer. In addition to the orange, there is a more compact FiredUp Coral that’s a National Garden Bureau Green Thumb Award winner.

For more information on Sun Parasol mandevillas, visit www.suntorygardenclub.com.

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