Container Gardening

For would-be gardeners with thin pocketbooks or limited outdoor space, this book is a delightful guide to raising plants in pots. Like skillful flower arranging, container planting starts with an artistic vision of complementary colors, shapes and textures. British gardener Williams's volume blossoms with striking creations, but he also shares practical advice on recreating the""container portraits"" pictured. Like a chef, Williams lists necessary""ingredients,"" and offers detailed instructions on plant care and container size, shape and material for each of the 44 displays. Williams (The Garden Color Book; Digging Deeper) also covers critical gardening principles for picking healthy plants, rich potting mixtures and attractive containers. For readers who want to experiment beyond his arrangements, Williams provides a detailed directory of 300 plants that thrive in containers, including staples like impatiens and begonias, as well as unusual suspects like the soft, silver-leafed plectranthus argentatus, which he calls""a textural delight."" The full-color photos are also sure to inspire.