If you are lacking in creative ideas for your potted floral arrangements or would like some new ideas to widen your scope, this is an excellent resource book for container gardeners. P. Allen Smith includes 'recipes' for all four seasons as well as sun and shade, and uses plants which will grow in a wide range of climates. The plans and instructions can be used as-is or easily modified to create the color, shape and size of display you want.

The book is broken out into eight main sections. The Introduction gifts hints on how to select the plants for your containers, including such considerations as color, shape, size and balance. It also discusses how the containers will change throughout the growing season and ideas for keeping them looking at their best. The introduction also has many beautiful photographs of planted containers to add ideas far beyond the sixty recipes given later in the book.

Next are four sections, each dedicated to a different season. The first recipe in the Spring section is for two pots of mixed flowers and lettuce. Yes, lettuce. It sounds strange, but when you see the photos you'll see that it actually works very well. The red leaf lettuce drapes over the edges of the containers and frame the flowers quite nicely. And you'll have the added benefit of fresh lettuce leaves to harvest! Other designs in this section use daisies, ivy, various grasses, bacopa, viola, nemesia, spring bulbs, herbs, wild ginger, hosta, columbine, and fern, plus many more. There are shade containers, sun containers, and drought-tolerant ones – 14 different recipes in all, some of which are for clusters of two or three pots together.

The Summer section includes twenty-six recipes for single and clustered-container plantings. Again, there are plantings for full-sun and partial shade. Ideas include containers for an entryway, as a garden focal point, for attracting hummingbirds, to frame a view, for adding whimsy, and for adding texture, pattern and rhythm to your garden. There is even a recipe for a table-top container water garden.

The Autumn section contains eleven recipes using plants to brighten up the shorter and cooler days of the fall. Some cool-weather vegetables are again used (cabbage in a mixture of geranium, fountain grass, chrysanthemum, and viola) along with a wide variety of hardy plants and flowers. Window boxes, entryway containers and focal points are all included, along with recipes for sun and shade. There are several photos showing the containers arranged with groupings of pumpkins and squash, extending the ideas for Autumn holiday decorating, as well.

The Winter chapter includes nine recipes for outdoor and indoor container combinations. One interesting rectangular container contains an abundant mix of Dwarf Alberta Spruce, variegated ivy, white pansy, lilyturf, flowering kale, and paperwhites. The effect is quite dramatic.

The last three chapters are 'The Well-Appointed Potting Shed', 'Container Fundamentals', and 'Plant Directory'. These sections give a lot of good suggestions for container garden basics, hints for container choice and care, and suggested plants for use in your containers. My only disappointment in the book comes from these sections. Several areas of text giving tips and outlining techniques are printed in a small font with an olive green background. They are hard to read even with excellent lighting. But they are well-worth the effort! The ideas laid out in these sections are a good resource even for a well-seasoned container gardener.

“P. Allen Smith's Container Gardens” is a great resource for planning and planting your floral containers for all areas of your garden, and would make an excellent gift, as well. I highly recommend it.

See more reviews of P. Allen Smith's Container Gardens at Amazon.com: