Meet Swansons' Container Design Team!

Editor’s Note: While Swansons no longer offers custom container design and installation, we would be thrilled to help you select plants to create your own container. Visit us or reach out through email for help and suggestions.

Bring luxury to your home, inside and out, with the help of container gardens. Swansons offers upscale containers planted with lush foliage and flowers, expertly designed to fit your style.

Our designers offer a breadth of expertise to help make your living space an oasis. Whether you are just beginning to build a sanctuary or you’re searching for the finishing touch, our design team creates customized container gardens to reflect your lifestyle. Swansons’ container designers are always working on a project; if it’s not a personalized container garden tailored for your unique aesthetic, then it’s an arrangement of their own inspiration.

We are proud our container design team offers much more than the standard ready-to-take-home arrangement. Instead, they create artisan containers spanning a broad repertoire of design styles from contemporary to cottage garden, architectural to floriferous, minimal to grandiose. All the while, the personality of each designer shines through in every display.

Get to know the designers behind the containers! Read more about each of our container designers below.

Mollie Tarte, Indoor Plant & Pottery Buyer

“I enjoy planting with structure and color – especially succulents. Inspired by mid-century modern architecture and design, I like a clean design to highlight strong singular plant features, without too many things to look at.”

  • Been with Swansons since March 2013

  • Favorite season: Summer

  • Favorite flower: Lady Slipper Orchid, Paphiopedilum

  • Favorite Swansons Nursery moment: Coming into work on summer mornings just as the fog is lifting and dissipating, you can smell the salty air coming in off the Sound. It is a relaxing and comforting place to be; it’s a tranquil way to start the day.

 

Inger abdo, Container Designer

“My design style is defined by simplicity and monochromatic color palettes. I love white flowers with assorted green and chartreuse foliage and textures. My designs are simple and clean, very soothing and restful.”

  • Been with Swansons since 1974

  • Favorite season: Spring

  • Favorite flower: Peonies, lilies, hydrangeas. This goes back to my floral arranging days.

  • Favorite thing about Swansons’ container designs: “The fact that I can have the opportunity to be as creative as I wish for both indoors and outdoors. Swansons has a wide range of options in containers and plant choices – that allows me to make combinations that will flourish in unique locations and conditions that my customer would like.”

 

Steve keene, Container Designer

“I just love color and texture. I’m influenced by my Ikebana training, which involves natural elements (the primary ones being Heaven, Man, and Earth). I tend toward that real organic emerging feeling.”

  • Been with Swansons since 2002

  • Favorite season: Spring

  • Favorite flower: Ranunculus

  • Favorite thing about Swansons: “The employees and customers are here because they want to be, with the objective of making their personal or collective space more beautiful with plants and flowers."

 

Charlo wang, In-Home Installations Manager & Container Designer

“My design style is very multi-dimensional; I tend to like less structure with repetition that isn’t linear. I pay attention to the details of the customer’s home and bring those colors into the design. It’s really important to me to allow the colors to inspire one another.

  • Been with Swansons since March 2013

  • Favorite season: Spring. I love early spring, before it gets really hot and it is still fresh and cool, while everything is blooming and there are baby birds. There is renewal everywhere and I love it. New growth is everywhere.

  • Favorite flower: The spring flowers – I love daffodils because I like the way they smell. This time of year, I love the smell of Ligustrum. I planted a Ligustrum vulgare and it just fills the air. I like them all, but those are my nostalgic favorites.

  • Where do you draw inspiration? “Lots of places! I’m always looking and my brain is always absorbing. I’m definitely inspired by nature. It isn’t always what someone may call a beautiful design because it’s kind of random, but when I see a beautiful layout growing naturally, I notice how it happened, then I try to integrate that into my designs because I design for longevity - designs that will take customers through the seasons. If I feel like something’s going to work when I see it successful somewhere else, then I note how I can adopt that into my own designs.”

 

Swansons’ designers can help you as much as you would like: Choose a unique and original design created by one of our designers; create an elegant “concierge container” with the help of a designer alongside you assisting with selections to create a cohesive container garden; or, allow our designers to do the work for you, and take advantage of comprehensive design services for an in-home installation. Whichever route you opt for, these designs come to life thanks to our talented, expert container design team.

Stay tuned for follow-up blog posts about Swansons’ Container Design team. Each expert has their own talents, specialties, and areas of expertise. We are excited to highlight and share more of each designer’s unique work.