This Mary Jane , with its one plant , is staring just as it is . No razzmatazz .
I hate rules .
I mean really , I do . I always have . My brain wo n’t take them . If someone tells me that THIS is the way to do a matter , I will try and find another way to do it . It may number from my year as an actor , and theater of operations training – we are supposed to be curious , questioning , open to new matter . A set rule or a path that strike one from A to B in a straight line just is n’t interesting , and tends to concede insipid results . So when I come across “ rule ” in garden design , I tend to balk .
This pot, with its one plant, is perfect just as it is. No razzmatazz.
The worst rule , in my centre , has to do with container horticulture . When I see it re - printed ( which it is , constantly ) I want to tear up the magazine at fault in an old , dull , rusty paper shredder . Imagine the pain . When I see it enthusiastically champion on a website , I have to resist hurling my computer against the wall . I vow never to travel to whichever website / web log that vomit up this peppy garden pap ever again .
Here is the kernel of the offending “ baksheesh ” :
When designing a container , you must use a magniloquent , striking works ( Thriller ) , a intermediate sized , leafy plant ( Filler ) , and a cascade plant life of some sort to soften the sharpness ( Spiller ) . Thriller , filler , spiller – GET IT ? It RHYMES ! ! ! ! So it must be a good rule , being all rime - y and everything .
I want to acknowledge who came up with this platitude of container design ? I always believe of Pallen Smith when I read the phrase , but I do n’t lie with if it is because it truly originated with him or if it just seems like precisely the variety of thing he would have get up with . Or , ( let ’s be honest here ) , it would be more potential that someone come up with it FOR him and he went and run with it , his syrupy southern drawl making it that much more homey and appealing – and EASY ! WOW ! Now anyone can have an awesome container , cuz THRILLER FILLER setline ! ! ! It is so attention-getting ! What a breeze to remember !
It is n’t the real advice that I have a problem with – it is pretty good advice . If you flux a tall striking flora with a full , leafy one , and then bestow a procumbent little friend to fall over the edge of your pot , you ’re bound to have yourself a skillful container . It ’s a look – one of many looks that can be attain with plant and containers . That ’s all . It is n’t magic .
catch phrase can create an sound reflection chamber that make people think they have just received wisdom . No – what they have is an well retrieve chemical group of words that take the position of actually think . Have you ever spoken to someone who is always spouting catchprases and apophthegm ? You ’ll be trying to afford up a conversation , to get to the good talk , to try and see something , and then they will pop up with something like “ Well , you roll in the hay what they say , what ’s good for the goose is safe for the gander ’ ” – and you are all like “ what ? ” ? Goose ? What is a gander anyway ? Your conversation has come full stop , and the catchphraser recollect he just tell something meaningful and profound , when in reality he just drop a word turkey at you that served to do nothing but to block off conversation and thought .
The Thriller Filler Spiller rule is the design version of that . It exists precisely to make things simple , to give you a template that you do n’t need to motley – it is the end of a design conversation that you could be birth with your containers and your plant . What if you just put a thriller in a fabulous pot ? That could be exactly the affair you call for in the entry of your midcentury spread house – light , dramatic , elegant . None of this showy charge and fill and spill – it may not be appropriate . Or what if you have the crazy idea of just using a trawl to drape over the lip of a low bowl – peaceable and calm , like H2O cascading over the border of a fountain ? A thriller would just be obnoxious , unneeded . I personally screw a pot with just a makeweight in it – it is my new “ matter ” . The repeat of filler in pot can provide a elementary structure to a interfering landscape painting , giving it residual .
All of these ideas , which could be peachy , would be unexplored if someone just ran with Thriller Filler Spiller and did n’t enroll into a veridical conversation with the infinite , the industrial plant , and the container they are dealing with .
I am not much of a lover of simplifying thoughts . I like simple space , but not childlike mind . I have intercourse when I see design work that has been beautifully considered – THAT is why I have always had trouble with tips , tricks , and easy formula . Sure , some people just need to get affair done – I get it . For them , there are many of spot to learn the gentle room to do just about anything . In fact , it seems like the internet may have been invented just for this very reason ( or was it for leisurely admission to porno ? Hmmm … . )
So that ’s my fustian . Do n’t EVEN get me started on Sleep Creep and Leap ! ! !
