Woolly Pockets

If you’ve taken a trip to Brookgreen’s restaurant, you’ve likely passed the woolly pockets. Situated between the restrooms is a sweet shade planting and three rows of woolly pockets attached to the wall. These pockets are home to a number of shade loving plants that are grown in a bit of an uncommon way.

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While most plants grow in the ground or in a container on the ground, you can see the woolly pockets are more of a green wall. The pockets act as a container and are a neat way to showcase plants. Jamie Williams, one of our horticulturists who maintains this area, recently was updating her plantings. When I stopped by to see her progress, I was lucky enough to find her in the midst of the job.

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Jamie had cleared out old plantings and cut back dead materials on existing plants, like the holly ferns. Due to its protected location, begonias that had been planted last year, which are typically treated as annuals in our area, were also alive. We get to enjoy them for another year! While I could give you the details, I think it comes best from Jamie herself. Check out the video below to learn more about the woolly pockets and the work Jamie has been doing!

Let’s take a closer look at the plants she’s putting in! The Alternanthera ‘Partytime’ dons beautiful green foliage with streaks of pink throughout. This is a shade plant that will definitely add a lot of interest in the pockets.

Alternanthera Partytime.jpg

The bromeliads are really quirky! The texture of the leaves, the overall shape of the plant, not to mention the color - they will make a great addition to the woolly pockets planting.

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Strobilanthes dyerianus or Persian shield is another great shade plant. As with many of these plants, the foliage is a real attention grabber! The dark purple leaves practically shine.

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Although Jamie was still working on her planting in the video, I was able to catch up with her after and see how the planting went. As you can see below, she finished. Now we wait to watch these plants fill in and enjoy another great year of plantings!

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By the way - these are actually called "Wally Pockets" and you can order them here. Somehow we started calling them woolly pockets and it caught on. ::smile::