Outdoor Styling Tips from Adorn

Summer will be here before we know it, so that means NOW is the time to get the wheels in motion to enhance your outdoor living area. Here are 3 simple steps if you already have an outdoor space that could be improved or you would like to create a space to relax with friends and family.

Step One:
Purpose - Determine how you will use your space. Do you love to cook and want a big outdoor table with plenty of seating to host friends for dinner? Can you envision relaxing on a comfortable outdoor couch? Once you decide the purpose of your outdoor space, measure the space to find out the ideal dimensions of furniture and sketch a layout.

Step Two:
Aesthetic - Create a mood board! Check out Pinterest, Instagram and magazines to get an idea of styles and colors that speak to you. Let that look guide you in your shopping choices. If you can’t decide on what color scheme to use, the Pantone colors of 2021 are “illuminating” (vibrant bright yellow) and “ultimate gray.” These colors look great paired together, or on their own, and we’ll be seeing a lot of these shades this year.

Step Three:
Accessorize - Once you have your furniture in place you’ll want to personalize the space with accessories.

• Pots/plants – Of course, we would suggest this! Adding living elements to your space is a must to bring additional life and color to your outdoor space. We’d recommend at least two large planters and a tabletop arrangement. The planters don’t have to match, but make sure they coordinate. For example, Julie has all white planters in all shapes and sizes on her back deck. Elizabeth has different colored planters (blue, black and rattan) on her back patio but she brings them all together by only using only one color of flower in all the pots.

• Lighting – We love string lights that you can find inexpensively everywhere. So festive! Also, candles and lanterns, the more the merrier.

• Pillows / blankets – Pillows and blankets are an easy way to add a pop of color to an outdoor living area and can be changed out seasonally.

• Rug – An outdoor rug is a great way to bring a furniture grouping together and provides cozy vibes.

• Wall space – You wouldn’t leave a wall blank in your home, so why would you in your new outdoor living area? We love any and all of these touches: a beautiful mirror, wall planters, vertical garden, fountain and art.

• Fire pit – A relaxed seating area with a fire pit is an inviting place to linger outdoors on cool evenings and don’t forget about s’mores!

• Fountain – The sound of trickling water is so soothing and perfect to create a zen environment in your outdoor living area.

Pop over to our curated “outdoor living and decor” storefront to see our top picks to help you get started on creating or adding to your own outdoor living room.

Valentine's Day Gift Ideas for the Gardener in Your Life

What’s red, white and pink and right around the corner? You guessed it - Valentine’s Day! Never fear, we have you covered with several options, depending on how dirty your loved one wants to get his or her fingernails.

For the hands-off gardener, we have gift certificates available in any denomination for container gardening services in Kansas City and Oklahoma City. We will come to your home and create a beautiful custom container garden for your loved one to enjoy all season without lifting a finger.

Does your sweetie love to garden but wants new inspiration on selecting flowers and plants to combine in outdoor planters? Gift certificates can also be used for digital consultations, no matter where you live. We will create a custom container garden design and provide your lovie with planting instructions and a shopping list.

Please give us a shout if we can play Cupid and spread Valentine’s love for you.

For more ideas, visit our online store with so many gardening must-haves.

2021 Garden Trends from Adorn

Welcome to the New Year! We are excited to share 5 exciting garden trends with you for 2021. Whether you are a wannabe gardener, gardener extraordinaire or just enjoy spending time in your yard without digging in the dirt, we’ve got something for you.

Gardening – It’s no surprise that gardening is trending since everyone is still spending so much time at home. Gardening reduces stress and is good exercise. What’s not to like about that, right? If you are new to gardening, or find it difficult to get on your hands and knees to dig in the flowerbeds, an easy way to get started is container gardening. Creating our own small garden in the confines of an outdoor planter is satisfying and easy to care for. We’re always available to answer container garden questions and be sure to check in regularly to our Instagram and Facebook pages to see our how-to videos, plant pairing suggestions and other helpful information to make your experience a success. Additionally, if you need help with your outdoor planters but want to do the shopping and planting yourself, we can customize a design for your planters and provide you with a shopping list of plants and flowers and planting instructions. As avid gardeners ourselves, we hope you take the plunge and enjoy digging in the dirt as much as we do. We have tried and true garden tools in our garden store to take the guesswork out of what you need for a successful gardening experience.

The Kitchen Garden – The demand for growing our own food exploded when the world went on lockdown last spring and will continue through 2021. Since we’re cooking more at home these days, there has been a huge interest in growing your own veggies and herbs. Happily, this can easily be accomplished in any size yard, large or small, as long as they are in a sunny spot. You can even grow herbs and vegetables in planters, which require hardly any space at all. Don’t forget your kitchen windowsill! What a great place to grow herbs. We’ve gathered a few of our favorite organic gardening items here.

Outdoor Living Spaces – Adding or enhancing your outdoor living area continues to be a super hot right trend right now. If you and your spouse are working from home and/or the kids are attending school virtually, your house may feel a little confining and crowded. What a better way to increase your home’s square footage than to create an extra living space outdoors. If you’re going to be buying new outdoor throw pillows, rugs and accessories and wonder what colors to choose, don’t forget that the Pantone colors of 2021 are “illuminating” (vibrant bright yellow) and “ultimate gray”. These colors look great paired together, or on their own, and we’ll be seeing a lot of these shades this year. Of course, adding a few planters with seasonal plants is a must to bring additional life and color to your outdoor space. Outdoor living is one trend that we see sticking around forever. Pop over to our curated “outdoor living and decor” storefront to see our top picks to help you get started on creating or adding to your own outdoor living room.

Sustainability – As we become more aware of our effect on our planet, using native plants in your garden is one step everyone can take to make our world a safer, cleaner and healthier place to live for generations to come. Native plants are plants that grow naturally in your part of the country. They are adapted to the growing conditions in your area, so they need less water and fertilizer. Using native plants is also a great way to attract pollinators to your yard. Additionally, we always recommend using organic fertilizer and pest control. To find native plants that thrive where you live, click here.

Houseplants – The houseplant craze is still in full swing. It’s so nice to have a pop of green in every room, especially to brighten the dreary days of winter. Here’s a list of easy to care for plants for our non-green thumb friends: snake plant, bromeliad, ZZ plant, Chinese evergreen, kalanchoe, pothos, peace lily and succulents. We use many types of tropical plants, essentially what people consider as houseplants, in our summer container garden designs. We like to bring them indoors in the winter and take them outside again to beautify our outdoor spaces next spring. We have linked a few of our favorite plants and indoor pots in our storefront.

Top 5 Gardening Tool Must-Haves

Do you want to up your gardening game? Pop over to our Amazon page to see items from our curated gardening tool storefront. We can’t live without these tools and know you’ll love them too!

1. Garden Knife: Julie and I never plant without our garden knives. The knife can cut through roots in an outdoor pot without any problem. The serrated edges also can open bags of mulch or soil if you don't have scissors handy. The garden knife is also a perfect tool for planting bulbs in flower beds.

2. Potting Scoop: We love the large potting scoop because you can add new soil quickly to a planter.

3. Hand-held Pruning Saw: If you have really, really stubborn roots we suggest a hand-held pruning saw. We call this the “magic knife”.  We don’t have to use it often, but it sure makes work quicker when those plants are super rooted and won’t come out easily any other way.

4. Nitrile Gardening Gloves: We are big fans of nitrile gardening gloves because they are not bulky and you can pop them in the washing machine.

5. 7-Gallon Tubtrug: When we go onsite to plant, we load all these tools into a 7-gallon tub trug. We have these tubtrugs in every color. We usually bring at least 3 of these when we plant and use the empty ones for the old plants that we are removing from the planters. These are also very handy when you are weeding a flower bed.

Outdoor Styling for the Holidays

Fresh cut evergreens are a must for fluffing your outdoor spaces during the holidays.

Drape some fresh garland around your mail box, outdoor bench, lamp post or door. In this picture we secured the garland to the back of the bench with zip ties. Of course we needed a pop of red, so we added red pillows and tied an evergreen sprig and pinecone to them - you could also add a pretty ribbon. You can secure the pillows to the bench with clear fishing line so they don't blow away.

If you have decorative lanterns, put ornaments or pine cones inside of them and add an evergreen sprig, pine cone and ribbon to the top of each lantern.

We like to drape garland around our mailbox and tie in the holiday decor that we use in our planters and wreaths to create a consistent and festive look.

Fresh evergreen wreaths are the perfect welcoming touch for your front door and windows. You can buy inexpensive wreaths everywhere and add your own holiday decor elements to it so it blends with your existing holiday look.

Happy decorating friends!

Holiday Planter Bling

These last few weeks the Adorn elves have been busy spreading holiday cheer to front porches and store fronts all over KC and OKC. We are in the holiday spirit and wanted to share some of our favorite decorating ideas with you to get your outdoor planters ready for the season.

In the picture above we started with a 2 gallon Dwarf Alberta spruce and then added natural holiday décor (pinecones in two different sizes, birch poles, magnolia leaves and red berries) to create our finished product. For a more glitzy look, try adding gold & silver ornaments or red ornaments in various sizes and textures. What is so fun about decorating your holiday planters is there are absolutely no rules and you can use any or all of these baubles for a magical combination! If you have a wreath or other door decoration, you can use coordinating decor as filler in your pots to tie it all together for a cohesive holiday look.

We love fresh evergreen garland! It smells SO good and is SO lush! One of our favorite things is to encircle the top of a planter with it. Word of warning though - fresh greenery dries out over time. We recommend initially spraying the greens with an anti-desiccant product like Wilt-Pruf, so the needles will stay on longer, and misting the greenery with water three times a week so it stays fresh. Fresh evergreens are so beautiful and festive, it is worth the extra effort to keep it pretty. Trust us!

Adorn's Holiday Offerings

It's go time for holiday planters and exterior decorating! Julie will start planting in Kansas City the week of November 9th and Elizabeth will start planting in Oklahoma City the week of November 16th. 

In addition to our normal container gardening services, we are also offering these festive items to enhance your holiday decorating:

Magnolia Wreaths

These beautiful 18" square or round magnolia wreaths are made from fresh magnolia stems and perfect for a front door or inside your home. Please note that they will begin the drying process as they are exposed to different elements of temperature and humidity. They are $65 each.

Evergreen Garland

We are offering 15' sections of cedar and douglas fir mixed garland which can be used as a festive accent to your mailbox, outdoor bench, mantle, door or anywhere else you want a welcoming, seasonal touch. We are pre-treating them with an anti-dessicant so they will hold onto their needles longer. The garland is $35 for each 15' section.

Mint Julep Pine and Rosemary Trees

If you are looking for a darling hostess gift, teacher gift, a present for your neighbors or your own holiday table decoration, we have something for YOU! How cute is this little norfolk pine all dressed up for the holidays in a "silver" mint julep cup! It's the perfect seasonal touch near a kitchen sink, in a powder room or on a tabletop. We are sure you need one or two or three. Give us a shout if we can pot one up for you. They are around 11-12" tall and $18 for the norfolk pine or $22 for the rosemary tree.

Holiday Outdoor Styling Inspiration

The most wonderful time of the year is right around the corner! That means it’s time for holiday planters and exterior decorating! This is a picture of Julie's festive front porch. 

We love to change our outdoor decor seasonally and have gathered a few favorite holiday outdoor pillows, lanterns and door mats. Check out our Amazon storefront for festive decor ideas to enhance your outdoor living area this season. 

HERE ARE A FEW SNEAK PEAKS:

Holiday Container Garden Design 101

The holidays are almost here! Time to get your front entry and outdoor planters looking festive for the season. See below for recommendations based on your Zone, using the “thriller, filler, spiller” design theory.

ELIZABETH’S TIPS FOR ZONE 7 (THAT’S YOU, OKLAHOMA CITY!)

The “thriller” is the one tall plant in the middle that gives the arrangement height. A live evergreen is our thriller of choice for winter planters. Other good thriller options, in addition to the evergreen, are red twig dogwood sticks and birch poles. Depending on the size of the planter, good evergreen options are boxwood, juniper and dwarf alberta spruce.

Next comes the “filler” which fills in around the middle of the planter. Our favorite fillers for the holidays are pinecones, berries and ornaments.

Last come the “spillers” which cascade over the sides of the planter. You could use one gallon evergreen shrubs that have a trailing habit (like pacific blue juniper or blue rug juniper), fresh evergreen garland or cut evergreen branches as spillers. Our favorite cut evergreen branch is incense cedar because it looks good long after the holidays are over. If you use fresh garland or any cut evergreen branches make sure to spray them with Wilt-Pruf or another anti-dessicant product and keep them misted with water on a weekly basis throughout the holiday season so they don't dry out.

In the picture below, we’ve used a boxwood as the thriller, pinecones and berries as fillers and blue rug juniper as the spillers. Doesn’t it look festive for the holidays? Once the holidays are over, just remove the pinecones, berries and garland and the evergreens will look great all winter long.

JULIE’S TIPS FOR ZONE 6 (KANSAS CITY, THIS IS YOU!)

Look at this gorgeousness that Julie created last winter! Since it is a lot colder in Kansas City, she will be using spruce tops as the thrillers instead of live evergreen shrubs. Her favorite fillers are pine cones, berries and various evergreen branches (princess pine, noble fir or silver tip fir). Julie likes to use an evergreen garland as the spiller and / or incense or coned cedar.

Fall Gifts and Centerpieces to Make Your Life Easier

Thanksgiving will be here before we know it! Give us a shout if we can create a pumpkin centerpiece for your table. These pumpkins also make great teacher or hostess gifts. Both pumpkin options will last for months. 

Succulent Pumpkins

Aren't these succulent topped pumpkins so festive and unique! They will last for months as long as the succulents are misted with water once a week. Prices range from $12 to $45 depending on the size of the pumpkin.

Faux Pumpkin Centerpieces

The large flower filled faux pumpkins are $35 and are available in white or orange.

Adorn's Favorite Fall Plants

When it comes to fall plants, there is no shortage of awesomeness. Check out a few of our favorites!

All hail the mighty croton!

The thriller in this arrangement is one of our favorites for fall - THE CROTON! You can find these tropical plant beauties in the greenhouse section of big box hardware stores or local garden centers. We love using this plant in the summer too, but the colors in the croton just scream fall, especially if the leaves have a little red in them like the plant in this picture. They will do well outside until the first freeze and then bye-bye croton. If you are super industrious, you could always dig it up, repot it and bring it inside to enjoy all winter as a house plant and then bring it outside again in the spring. That's what we call getting our money's worth out of a plant.

The croton looks amazing with yellow, orange and / or red flowers such as pansies or mums. Try adding a few orange pie pumpkins to bring out the warm colors of the croton. 

Ornamental cabbage and kale

One of our favorite plants in a fall container garden is ornamental cabbage or kale. We adore the ruffled texture in its broad leaves and use it in almost all of our fall plantings as a filler. There are so many different varieties and colors of cabbage and kale and all are perfect to use in your outdoor fall planters. Ornamental cabbage and kale are very hardy and can withstand a light freeze.

Ornamental grasses

We use grasses as "thrillers" quite a bit in our summer and fall planters. We love their toughness! They are drought tolerant and thrive in the hot afternoon sun and high temperatures. Dwarf fountain grass is pictured here as the "thrillers" in these planters. We love the wispy plumes - very fall-ish. Other favorite grasses are purple fountain grass or maiden grass.

Celosia

We adore the seussical look of the celosia! Plume celosia has soft feathery flowers in red, orange, yellow, pink and purple. In this arrangement we used a gorgeous purple celosia and paired it with a croton, mum, ornamental pepper and moneywort. 

Ornamental Peppers

These are fun plants to pop in a container! Ornamental peppers come in shades of red, purple, yellow, orange, black or white. It's interesting to watch the peppers change colors as they ripen, so you may see several different colors on the same plant. 

Fall Outdoor Styling Inspiration

The cooler weather means it’s go time for fall planters and exterior decorating! This is a picture of Julie's festive front porch. 

We love to change our outdoor decor seasonally and have gathered a few favorite fall outdoor pillows, lanterns and door mats. Check out our Amazon storefront for festive decor ideas to enhance your outdoor living area this season. 

HERE ARE A FEW SNEAK PEAKS:

Fall Wreath

Throw Blanket

Hanging Solar Lights

Farmhouse Pillows

Adorn Pro Tip: Summer to Fall Transition

If there is one phrase that Julie and I associate with our awesome dad, Smitty, it's "Use what you have." We grew up learning to recycle and repurpose things long before it was cool. So you know we are all about saving our plant babies.  We used many tropical plants as the "thrillers" in our summer planters. These plants won't withstand a freeze in most zones so you are left with a choice...pitch or keep them. We advocate for keeping them, of course!

Before the threat of a frost sets in your area, remove the tropical and repot it in a pot with drain holes. We recommend gently spraying it with a hose and using an insecticidal soap on the leaves since it's been outside all summer and probably has a few creepy crawlies that you don't want to bring inside. We are planning to bring our bird of paradise (pictured here), majesty palm and dracaena inside this winter. Your tropical plant will live happily in your cozy home all winter long and you can bring it back outside next spring. Like Smitty says, "Use what you have."

Adorn's Fall Offerings

It's go time for fall planters and exterior decorating! Julie will start planting in Kansas City the week of September 14th and Elizabeth will start planting in Oklahoma City the week of September 21st. 

In addition to our normal container gardening services, we are also offering these fall specials:

Fall Porch Package

These packages include a large mum, small hay bale, large pumpkin, three pie pumpkins and two decorative gourds. We bring it all and arrange it so you don't have to lift a finger. Let us know if we can bring a little fall curb appeal to your front porch or storefront. Each fall porch package is $75.

Gardens To Go

Just what you need for a touch of fall by your front door. These will be available for pick up (or delivery for a fee) in Kansas City and Oklahoma City mid-September. They make a lovely housewarming gift or a "just because" gift to brighten someone's day. The planter is 13.5" wide and 12" tall and is $60.

Fall Outdoor Decor Styling Inspiration

The cooler weather means it’s go time for fall planters and exterior decorating!

We love to change our outdoor decor seasonally and have gathered a few favorite fall outdoor pillows, lanterns and door mats. Check out our Amazon storefront for festive decor ideas to enhance your outdoor living area this season. 

HERE ARE A FEW SNEAK PEAKS:

Velvet Pumpkin Set

Fall Wreath

Solar Lantern

Fall Doormat

Color Palettes for Your Fall Planters

Kids are going back to school (whatever that looks like for your family this year!). The air is starting to have a crisper, cooler feel. It’s official - Adorn’s favorite season is here! When it comes to fall planters, there are two color palettes that just can’t be beat. Read below for plant suggestions for each palette.

Cool colors

We adore the color purple! Especially when variations of the color are packed into an outdoor planter. Purple cabbage or kale and a combination of purple and white pansies are ideal plant options to incorporate purple into container garden design. The color blends perfectly with a green grass as the thriller and chartreuse moneywort as the spiller. We love to tuck in cute white pumpkins to add a festive, seasonal touch to finish the look. Love this cool palette for fall!

Traditional fall colors

You can't beat traditional fall colors in an outdoor planter. Our go to plants for this warm palette are grasses, crotons, yellow and orange pansies, green cabbage and moneywort. In the picture below we used a green grass as the thriller, but you could also use purple fountain grass if you want to bring a burgundy color into the mix. Our fillers are yellow pansies, crotons, green cabbage and orange pumpkins. Chartreuse moneywort rounds out the arrangement as the spiller. 

The 5 Best Gardening Tools for Efficient Container Gardening

Fall planting season is just around the corner so make sure you have the right tools to make your container gardening more efficient. Here’s the scoop about our 5 favorite gardening tools that we can not live without!

1. Garden Knife: Julie and I never plant without our garden knives. The knife can cut through roots in an outdoor pot without any problem. The serrated edges also can open bags of mulch or soil if you don't have scissors handy. The garden knife is also a perfect tool for planting bulbs in flower beds.

2. Potting Scoop: We love the large potting scoop because you can add new soil quickly to a planter.

3. Hand-held Pruning Saw: If you have really, really stubborn roots we suggest a hand-held pruning saw. We call this the “magic knife”.  We don’t have to use it often, but it sure makes work quicker when those plants are super rooted and won’t come out easily any other way.

4. Nitrile Gardening Gloves: We are big fans of nitrile gardening gloves because they are not bulky and you can pop them in the washing machine.

5. 7-Gallon Tubtrug: When we go onsite to plant, we load all these tools into a 7-gallon tub trug. We have these tubtrugs in every color. We usually bring at least 3 of these when we plant and use the empty ones for the old plants that we are removing from the planters. These are also very handy when you are weeding a flower bed.

Do yourself a favor and buy these tried and true tools for the fall planting season! You won't be sorry! Pop over to our Amazon page if you’d like to see other items from our curated gardening tool storefront.

Our Go-To Plants for Fall Container Gardens

Hooray! Fall is almost here! Time to start thinking, planning, scheming and dreaming about getting your front porch or storefront looking festive for the season. 

So...what are our favorite thrillers, fillers and spillers for fall planters? Colorful crotons and ornamental grasses are our thrillers of choice. Be aware that crotons will not survive a freeze. If you would like to keep your croton as a houseplant over the winter, make sure to dig it out before a frost.

Next come the fillers, which fill in around the middle of the planter. Our favorite fillers for fall are pansies, cabbage, kale and pumpkins. What? Pumpkins? You bet! Just pop some pie pumpkins or mini-pumpkins right into the pot. So festive!

Last come the spillers, which cascade over the sides of the planter. Our go-to spillers for fall are bright green moneywort and vinca major. You can find all these plants at your local garden center or a big box hardware store.

In the picture above, we used a croton as the thriller. There are lots of fillers going on here – cabbage, small pumpkins and bittersweet stems. Moneywort finishes out the design as the spiller. Doesn’t it look festive for fall?

Festive Gifts for Fall

For a unique teacher or hostess gift, check out the ideas below.

Succulent Pumpkins
We adore these sweet succulent topped pumpkins! The pumpkins and succulents will last for months as long as the succulents are misted with water on a weekly basis. The mini-pumpkins are $12 (1-2”), small pumpkins are $15 (3-4”), medium pumpkins are $30 (5-7”) and the larger pumpkins are $45 (8” or larger). Let us know if you'd like to preorder any.

Faux Pumpkin Centerpieces
These pumpkin centerpieces make great teacher or hostess gifts! The small pansy filled faux pumpkin is $18 and the large flower filled faux pumpkin is $35. We're taking preorders now so give us a shout if we can pot some up for you this fall.

Curb Appeal Shout Out: Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum

One of our favorite places to plant in OKC is the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum. The Memorial Museum is an interactive learning experience that takes you on a chronological self-guided tour through the story of April 19, 1995, and the days, weeks and years that followed the bombing of Oklahoma City’s Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. The story tracks the remarkable journey of loss, resilience, justice and hope. The Outdoor Symbolic Memorial is a place of quiet reflection that honors the victims, survivors, rescuers, and all who were changed forever on April 19, 1995. It encompasses the now-sacred soil where the Murrah Building once stood, as well as the surrounding area devastated during the attack. 500,000 people visit the OKC National Memorial and Museum each year and millions have visited since it opened in 2000. 

Adorn donates to the OKC National Memorial and Museum and would love for you to consider giving to this important organization also so it can continue to tell stories of resolve and resilience and of heroes and healing. Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum does not receive any annual operating funds from the federal, state or local government. The Oklahoma City National Memorial Foundation is a private 501(c)(3) organization which owns and operates the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum. The Foundation is the caretaker of both the Outdoor Symbolic Memorial and the Memorial Museum.

Together we can continue to educate and inspire this generation and future generations. Please click here for more information on making a tax deductible gift.