A colorful European dish garden featuring Chocolate Drop Coleus and other fall plants makes a striking addition to your Autumn dining table!
One of my favorite centerpieces is centered around the concept of a European Dish Garden. Since it is early Autumn, I wanted to design the European Dish Garden featuring colorful fall plants. The secret behind a European Dish Garden is in the way it is put together and what types of plants are used. By definition, a European Dish Garden combines green and blooming plants. They are left in their individual pots and grouped together in a single container. Leaving the plants in their individual containers and arranging them in the container (pot, basket or ceramic type) is a great time saver!
Since dough bowls and European dish gardens are two of my favorite things, I decided to combine them into one attention grabbing centerpiece for an Early Autumn event! The European Dish Garden in a Dough bowl is a quick centerpiece for an outdoor autumn event. I am making this European Dish Garden for a specific occasion and then re-purposing the plants once the event is over. After my event is over, the plants can be planted into a patio pot. Another idea would be to give one or more of the plants to the quests to take home to enjoy.
HOW TO PUT THE GARDEN TOGETHER
CHOOSE YOUR CONTAINER
The first step is to choose your container. You can use any type of container you want. Please take into consideration where your finished European Dish Garden will be sitting. If the container is not water tight, you will want to add a liner or something that will catch the water so it doesn’t leak on to your furniture.
For this dish garden, I chose a square wooden dough bowl. This dough bowl is 16″ x 16″ and 4 3/4 inches deep. The inside is unpainted while the outside has been painted an off white color. This dough bowl is a reproduction piece that I recently purchased at an event. I lined the inside with plastic wrap. I also placed the plants in either speed covers or terra cotta pots before adding them to the dough bowl.
CHOOSE YOUR PLANTS
I like to use the “thriller, spiller and filler” method of planting. In simple terms, the thriller is the focal point, the spiller adds motion and the filler fills in the “holes”. This time, I was able to find a plant that filled all three roles!
MEET CHOCOLATE DROP COLEUS
Chocolate Drop coleus is a Proven Winner Color Blaze plant. The interesting foliage includes a deep crimson center, crimson veins and rounded green leaves. I chose it to be the focal point (thriller) and its sprawling growing habit also meets the requirements for filler and spiller! A very versatile plant. It is an annual in most growing zones of the country. It can also be grown as a houseplant.
ASSORTED ANNUALS
In addition to the Chocolate Drop coleus, I decided to use petunias, mums and one of my very favorite plants: Diamond Snow. All of the plants are considered annuals and will work great in this European Dish Garden featuring fall plants.
The petunia is called Queen of Hearts. The edge is lined is what appears to be a deep red heart. The flowers also have some yellow accents. This particular petunia is a plant that Miracle-Gro offers for sale. Dave, my husband, actually found it at the local hardware store. He took pictures of it so I could see how unique it was.
In the plant world, what says “Fall” better than a mum? Mums and fall just seem to go hand in hand! The bright yellow color of these mums is so vibrant.
To add even more interest to the centerpiece, I wanted to use the Diamond Snow euphorbia by Proven Winners. Diamond Snow has tiny, dainty white flowers on very thin stems. I just love it! It is almost my signature plant!
Because the plants are going to be kept in their individual pots and watered individually, you don’t need to pay attention to differences in water requirements like you would if you were planting plants together in soil. When watering the dish garden, make sure you water into each individual pot. I use a watering can with a slender spout (sometimes called a goose neck spout) to reach in to the planter. As I earlier mentioned, I placed each plant into either a speed cover or a terra cotta pot with out a drain hole to help keep the water from running through the plants and possibly damaging the dough bowl.
The color palette of yellow with a hint of red was my personal preference . I was looking for something for this occasion to compliment the dishes I was planning to use. Any color combination can work. Choose something that works for your celebration!
I was able to order the Proven Winner plants directly from Proven Winners. The mums and the cute little petunias came from the garden center at a local store.
THE “PLANTING” PROCESS
Since I was using the coleus as my focal point, I placed it in the dough bowl first. It is almost in the center of the bowl.
Then I added the mums, one on each side of the coleus.
I placed on of the petunias next to one of the mums. The Diamond Snow was placed to the rear of the dough bowl. I turned the bowl around and repeated the process to finish filling the dough bowl with the plants.
ONE LAST STEP
Actually, there are two last steps! To help keep the individual pots from showing , I wound dried angel vine throughout the dish garden. This also helps keep the plants in place and adds more texture to the dish garden. I also used the two raffia balls from the picture on the below to fill in an empty spot and to add interest and texture.
Save This Pin For Later!
THE COMPLETED EUROPEAN DISH GARDEN IN A DOUGH BOWL
[…] Having an oval dough bowl makes creating a stunning seasonal centerpiece so quick and easy! Dough bowls get their name from their former purpose: making bread dough! The bowl was a great place for the bread dough to rise as the wood helped retain the heat which in turn helped the dough rise. They are also sometimes referred to as trenchers. Mine is 20 inches long and oval. The oval shape of this one works great for use on my gathering room coffee table. My oval dough bowl is a reproduction but there are still many antique ones available. I love dough bowls so much, I recently added a large square one to my collection! It is definitely a reproduction and not an antique but I fell in love with the size and the off white color of it! I used it to make a European Dish Garden for an Autumn celebration I was having. […]