Photos courtesy of Tambi LaneThe shallow root vessel comes in, from left, citrine, frost and sky and sells for $389.

If you like a midcentury modern design aesthetic — think Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture — then you’re likely to appreciate the simple profiles of Shannon Lester’s planters, which she calls “midcentury modern with a twist.” Lester, founder of Steel Life, has created the High Desert Collection, a series of steel and wood planters, to fill a void she found as a designer in Central Oregon. The eye-catching modern designs have even been featured in nationally recognized home and garden magazines, including Sunset. Lester uses the planters in her work as a landscape designer. She also does garden consultation and living wall installation.

Before founding Steel Life, Lester and her husband owned a design and building company in Bend from 2001 to 2012. They noticed more and more clients requesting low-maintenance landscaping that included drought-tolerant plants, vertical gardens and smaller-scale gardens. So she answered the call.

“I was doing a lot of small-space gardening and I really couldn’t find the planters I was looking for. I was finding very plain, not modern, and what I wanted to do was bring a more design conscience, interesting look to the home gardener.”

The collection she created to fill that void is a series of brightly colored metal planters with clean lines and a sleek look.

“My original intent was to create planters that had a shallow bowl. A lot of the succulents don’t need a lot of soil, so what ends up happening is that if you filled a big planter with soil and then too much water rots the roots. So I designed these planters around the plant material I envisioned going in them.”

The planters have an optional drain hole in the base so, in addition to succulents, the planters can be filled with annuals, houseplants or a shrub. Lester said the planters are even sometimes used as a place to put beer in ice.

Lester describes the look of the collection as classic with clean lines.

“I designed it a little fresher so it doesn’t look like it’s from the ’60s.”

The planters range in shape from a design called matchstick, which is a shallow dish balanced on a three-legged white oak stand, available in heights of 20 and 26 inches to the Jack planter, which features a walnut base that resembles the six-pronged metal jack from the game Jacks and Ball. Positioned in between the prongs is a low-profile aluminum bowl.

Many of the planters are available in bright colors, including sky blue, bright orange and lime green. More subdued options are a white and a black finish.

“Our colors are bold and bright — trying to bring a pop of color into the home and garden,” said Lester.

How to plant a shallow root vessel

Lester fills many of the planters for her clients with succulents or annuals that offer lots of texture and color. Her suggestion for someone attempting to create a similar look in the shallow root vessel is to start with potting soil and a combination of plant heights, which she calls the thriller, filler and spiller.

“Thrillers are typically taller, upright plants that have colorful foliage, interesting structure or showy flowers. Fillers are more billowy plants that fill the voids between the thrillers. They can be colorful or textured. Spillers are plants that cascade over the container, anchoring and softening the edges of the planter.”

For a winter arrangement, Lester recommended using a dracena, a snake plant or a zeezee plant for the thriller. Then she recommends using five fillers that could be an aloe, a bromeliad or a jade. And then finishing with five spillers, which could be a philodendron or a pothos. This type of indoor arrangement would require four to six hours of filtered light.

To complete the look, Lester likes to add a layer of red cinder or crushed granite over the top of the soil. She finds crushed granite, gravel, stone and cinder at places like Home Depot or Empire Stone Company. The layer of rock adds a modern touch, but also keeps the dirt from splashing out when watering the planter.

For an ultramodern look, Lester sometimes finishes a planter with pink rock material that is decorative rock for fish tanks found at pet stores.

—Reporter: 541-383-0361, mgallagher@bendbulletin.com