From homeowners to apartment dwellers, everyone dreams of a lush and colorful patio, a welcoming porch or a balcony overflowing with the blooms of the season.
Sometimes it's easy to picture how beautiful flowering containers will be, but the many choices of colors, textures and habits can be overwhelming at the garden center.
So most people revert back to the familiar "one of these and one of those", hoping the combination will look "pretty enough" in the end.
What's a weekend gardener to do in order to have confidence in their choices at the nursery? Take a virtual test drive and create container combinations that turn design failures into design successes – before making the purchase.
Available as a free online tool for computers and tablets, the Virtual Container Designer from The Suntory Collection makes creating and "test driving" container combos a snap. It's a fun and easy digital design assistant, without the fuss and muss of dirty hands and costly mistakes.
"Having an idea of what flower colors and plant shapes will look like when planted together and full grown in the container helps boost gardeners' confidence immensely," says James Farmer, a professional garden designer, lifestyle expert, and author of A Time to Plant.
"The Suntory Virtual Container Designer Tool takes out the guesswork. You instantly know if you like the combination or if you don't like it, even before you've opened your wallet and have made the purchase," he explains.
How It Works
Designing with the Suntory Virtual Container Designer app is as easy as 1-2-3.
1. Start by choosing a style of container-hanging basket, small container or two sizes of urns.
2. Next, select up to three types of flowers ranging in a number of colors and styles and drag those selections onto the virtual container.
3. Click the OK button and voila! a full-grown version of the combination appears.
Not happy with the results? Just click the restart button to start over and try additional combinations.
"This tool makes envisioning the look of your patio, porch or balcony super simple," says Farmer. "I've used the Virtual Container Designer for a few of my own projects, and I have to say that a few of my initial plant combos-ones I thought would look fantastic-turned out only so-so when tested with the virtual designer. It steered me away from making some big mistakes."
Top Shelf Sampling
The Virtual Container Designer tool uses the many flowers in The Suntory Collection to create these virtual designs. The ever-popular Million Bells® calibrachoa, vibrantly colored Senetti® and tropical splendor of Sun Parasol® mandevillas are just a few of the 20-plus types of flowers with which gardeners can play mix-and-match.
Backed by superior breeding, The Suntory Collection is easy to grow and produces lots of flower power with little to no maintenance, perfect for today's busy lifestyle.
"Add to this a wide variety of colors within each flower type and the design combinations reach into the hundreds. The tool saves me time in the store during the busy spring and summer seasons because I know in advance what and how many plants I need," Farmer says.
To access and use the free Virtual Container Designer tool online, find it at: http://suntorycollection.com/popup/container_design.html.
To learn more about The Suntory Collection of beautiful flowers, visit www.suntorycollection.com.
Source: The Suntory Collection