Potted Garden

The Potted Garden is introduced by SoundEagle in the year 2000 as an innovative gesture for the Society’s Silver Anniversary, and is the Fifth Section for the Competitive Display of Plants. There are many ways to be creative in growing potted plants. One obvious ways is to decorate the pots or to use attractive pots. Another way is to use more than one plant in a pot such that the pot contains a scaled down version of a garden. When used imaginatively, the Potted Garden can serve as an experimental platform, a new frontier, a creative space, an artistic medium, a living montage, a botanical sculpture, a miniature landscape, or a portable ecosystem. The following four categories are applicable:

• Miniature Trees, Plants, Garden or Landscape
  1. Bonsai or Bonkei
  2. Urn, dish, sink, tub, trough or windowbox garden
  3. Cacti and/or succulent garden
  4. Herb garden, rockery and/or alpine garden
  5. Bromeliad, orchid and/or epiphytic landscape or garden
  6. Novelty container garden

• Enclosed Garden
  1. Bottle garden
  2. Bowl
  3. Terrarium
  4. Wardian case or miniature greenhouse

• Suspended or Elevated Garden
  1. Hanging or elevated pot/basket
  2. Wall basket
  3. Novelty pot/basket

• Wet Garden
  1. Water garden or bog garden
  2. Carnivorous plant garden
  3. Aquarium garden
  4. Floating plant garden

The following points should be observed for plants displayed under the new section Potted Garden:

1. There must be two or more different plants used in a display, with the exception of Bonsai, which may have one or more plants.

2. These plants must be different at least in variety or cultivar. They need not be different species, families or genera.

3. With the exception of seedlings, plants must be well rooted. Sprouts or seedlings may be used if raised by member. Cuttings must be more than three months old. Fungi, lichens and mosses are not assessed as plants but as ornaments or accessories.

4. The whole garden or landscape may be itself created or constituted anytime by member. However, individual plants used in the display must be grown by member for at least three months, except seedlings raised by member.

5. If the garden or landscape has not been created or constituted by member, then it must be kept and grown by member for at least three months prior to being displayed.

6. There are no restrictions on the intended size, colour, variegation, texture and theme of any plant, container or whole display.

7. Any Bonsai subject must be a woody shrub or tree bearing prominent and old-looking trunk(s). Otherwise the subject must be chosen from the following succulent plants: Portulacaria, Crassula arborescens, argentea or portulacea (all commonly known as jade plant), and Adenium obesum (desert rose).

8. Apart from the overall container, any accessories, props, ornaments or structures are optional, and may be judiciously used to complement, support, accent or enhance the whole display. Examples include artificial models, figurines, toys, crafts, tassels or fabrics; inorganic matters such as sands, gravels, pebbles, stones or rocks; organic matters such as barks, stems, twigs, roots, pods, seeds, driftwoods, seashells, corals, feathers, fungi, lichens or mosses, but exclude flowers, leaves and fruits, which should be actually growing on plant(s) displayed. Prop(s) and/or platform(s) may be simple or elaborate, such as podium, sculpture, stool, tower or any novelty object(s).

A “Potted Garden” grown in a shallow brown saucer elevated by a black pot and a white barrel.

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