Planning Containers for this summer

I'd love to see your ideas - let me know how much watering and feeding they took and how much sun/shade they were getting. My challenge is keeping the sun containers looking lush throughout the season.

This is a great thread Katie - I want to do more containers this year and I will be interested to read what others have found to be successful.

We redid our deck last year and created a definite space for containers. I put a Harry Lauder in one large planter and am hoping it will stay small enough to stay there for quite awhile. It is a nice year-round accent. In another, I put a smallish fountain grass, which is also very nice, and year-round. Two others, which were less than impressive were a scented geranium with petunias (OK) and gerbera daisy with bacopa (disappointing). The latter two were replaced with mums and pansies in the early fall, which carried them through about November. I'll be looking for some changes this season in my two 'annual' pots and hope for some good ideas on this thread.

I like this idea for a thread as well, but will have to find time to go over my pictures from the last couple of years to participate. Most of my containers did very poorly last year, and I attribute it a bit to the rotten wet spring we had. I will say that I used hetchura in a couple of my containers for the first time last year, and both the one that came into the greenhouse and the one that lived outside over the winter look great. Much better than some in the garden as a matter of fact....

I have been so abysmally unsuccessful with container planting, I will be eagerly awaiting advice for how to plant a good one on this thread. I tried to get 2 large containers going for my mom, one on the sunny side and one on the shady side of her house. The sunny one had libertia, agapanthus, and helianthemum. The helianthemum died in the Summer, and the others didn't make it through the Winter. The shady one had pink snowberry (Symphoricarpos "Hancock") because she was interested in attracting birds, and geranium sanguineum. They both became leggy and unattractive. So there you go. I have decided I have little sense of container composition.

I would love to make a large container for in front of the greenshed. Sometimes they work out for me, mostly not.

Here's what I've learned

Last year I used Physocarpus 'Coppertina' as the centerpiece in one pot, Sumac 'Tiger Eyes' in another, and a baby Phormium in another.

The Physocarpus was fine in its first year. In the second year it pretty much owned the pot and it was hard for other things to survive. Same with the Sumac. The Phormium didn't do well this winter. We'll see if it survives.

This year I think I'll try some grasses to get heigth. I guess I could also add a small pole and one of the shorter patio clematis.

I like to have a theme of color combinations: burgundy and chartreuse or yellow, chartreuse and blue, orange and dark green. I'm not much into pinks as anything but tertiary colors.

I also like to have a variety of leaves - soft and silvery like salvia argentea or any of the senecios, leaves with blades like grasses or carex, rounded waxy leaves like bergenia or ginger. And then I like to have blossoms like Euphorbia or Geum, which I think is a very much underappreciated plant.

For a late summer pick me up, you can replace the Geum with Rudbeckia or Tanacetum (I like to leave many of these around the yard as fillers).

I'm using ferns and Ophiopogon with Bergenia and Heuchera in my shadier pots this year - those look nice all year long.

And I'm looking forward to seeing Hydrangea 'Little Honey' in a pot with my Begonias this year. Last year that combination looked awesome in the fall.

Good trailers around the edges are clovers or agelina sedum.

One thing I don't do well is pots with a profusion of annuals: petunias, lobelia, nemesia, alyssum, verbena. I have a secret desire to have a couple of these, but I just have to much to do to keep them looking perfect all year long. They always look pretty tired on me before midsummer even hits.

I think I could move my bronze carex into a large pot. It is medium high. Then put some heuchera on the sides. What else? Maybe coleus instead of heuchera for sun. Something danglely in the front. Could put in some short sunflowers?

How much sun/shade does it get?

'Facing SSW

I would think you'd have better luck with Heuchera than with coleus if your pot's in sun. How about some sedum as a trailer or that red clover that I used in my picture above. It kills me but every year I buy a few of those potato vines to use in my boxes. Or you could add a trailing rosemary.

For flowers - Euphorbia, Daisies, Geum . . .

I'm not very good at getting plants that have the same requirments into the same pot. So I tend to not get fancy.
Here are some simple greenery pots

Some color

Hanging baskets are fun too.

Wow. That's a lot of watering. Do you use mostly annuals? Do you overwinter them?

I tend to use perennials, rather than annuals. As pretty as annuals are, I hate that they're gone after the end of the summer . . .

If I could just get my lobelia to look like that.

I have perineals in the ground and in some of the big barrol tubs. A lot of the greenery pots are perineals. I just bunch them together and leave them outside to the elements and they come back year after year. Lots of clematis. I have fuchsias that I winter over.and the baskets are mostly annuals.
It's about a half hour everyday to water in the summer. But I don't mind. It keeps me sane and from slapping a few co-workers.
This is when I first got into gardening. Notice all the lawn. It has since become raised flower beds. I still keep a small patch to humor my husband.

Kathy, I have had good luck with coleus in my full sun pots (that are HOT...as long as I keep them well watered. I love Thunbergina as a winding vine in the pots, and also love the idea of doing a first year perennial of any variety in a pot until fall. I have a lartch in a pot that was wonderful last year and went perfectly thru the winter. Will probably plant it out this fall, but in the mean time, it was a wonderful filler.

I actually like a little lawn. It provides good contrast and something to cushion your feet. That looks very comfy. But only 1/2 hour to water? You clearly are more efficient than I.

Julie, that amazes me about the Coleus. I've never had luck with it. Maybe I need to try it in sun. I don't know . .

I love Thunbergia, as well - I just wish it came out earlier. Do you have the peach-colored one? I saw it for the first time last year.

I have the contorted Larch 'Diana' in a pot on my deck. It's kind of a joke now - that thing is 12' high. I have no idea how I'm going to get out of the pot and into the ground. I also have a contorted Corylus in a pot that needs to go into the ground somewhere. Last year lost Robinia 'Twisty Baby', which was in a pot. I am so tempted to replace it, but I need some assurances that I won't lose it again. I was so traumatized . . .

Okay, I think the peach Thunbergia is 'African Sunset'.

Last summer I did have 2 pots. One had geraniums with sweet that lime green sweet potato vine trailing down the side, and the other had nicotiana, which grew over 5 feet tall. I loved the nicotiana! The seeds came from Tillysrat. Where is Tilly, anyway?

This year I want more pots!

Great yard mstish. I have good luck with coleus in the sun also. Thanks for all the good ideas. Maybe I can get it in by April this year.

Somebody should start a list of good pot stuffer annuals.

Flax is good in pots. Can't always tell if it will be an annual.

The top of my list for good pot-stuffers is callibrachoa. Blooms its head off, and is borderline hardy here. If it makes it through, it looks just as good the next year, doesn't require deadheading, and comes in neat colors. Takes shearing and comes back just as well.

Things I wouldn't put on the list:
lobelia- (never makes it through until fall, looks raggy, gets leggy too easily)
bacopa (yawn)

mstish---Thanks for sharing your beautiful garden with us. I so enjoyed your pictures.

Thank you for all the nice words. I get thru winter by looking at pics of the summer - helps me decide what I want to try.
Here's what it looks like now.

Oh, what a difference! Looks somewhat like mine, but at least we don't have a couple of feet of snow piled on like back east.
Question---Do you replace all the soil in your pots or reuse some or all of it? They say replace, but that's too spendy for me. I usually replace the top 3-4 inches. My hardest part is keeping the pots watered well. I finally started using moisture beads and that has helped.

Isn't it amazing what a transformation the yard will go through the next few months?

I'm outside and feel so behind and then i realize that it's February and I'm outside. And that's a good thing!

I dump the annuals out into my raised garden once they have died off. I spread the dirt around. Then in spring, I rake it up, mix in some new dirt (about half and half) and fill the pots.

Last month....

susybell those containers are super pretty.

Nice garden mstish!

I think I might steal those combos, Sue.

Kathy, I think coleus is one of those "shade" myths in this area. Mine in the shade just sit there, but the ones in the sun, as long as I give them enough water, just thrive. I have come to the conclusion that heat rather than light is they key... they like it warm. I have not seen the peach thunbergia, but I can imagine that it would be lovely. I like the Superstar Orange, and I have already started mine in the greenhouse so that they will bloom earlier.

Susybell, I totally agree about callibrochia! And the pots that you posted are just to die for! I think that you may find that particular combo in several PNW yards this summer!

I like the sweet potato vines in pots, especially the purple (and fyi it is easy from cuttings....), love the cupheas, tuberous begonias, swan river daisy.... Will have to keep in mind what else does well for me.

It is fun to be dreaming of summer!

One of my favorite hanging baskets that I did was with just creeping phlox. I had a large basket full and it came back for years. Really nice.

this was a colour combination I liked. However, Petunias will eventually rule the pot.

an iron container planted with hot colour Callibrachoas. Instead of hanging it, I perched it on a wall - the Callies had grown every which way by the Fall.
Note: this container has a coir liner. In order to lessen the watering, i lined the coir with landscape fabric & it made a huge difference.

Pardon my ignorance about flowers, Katye, but I like those colors also and I am wondering what the plants are. Very pretty!

Whoops, cross posted. I was asking about the one with blue and white.

This message was edited Feb 24, 2010 6:45 PM

this was all peach-coral-blush. Hope the Diascia made it through Winter...

Holly - if you mean the first picture: Blue Scaevola, a yellow/white wave petunia, yellow & white callies, a sky blue sage, Helichrysum (2-tone, forgot name), one of the new blue Lobelias (very sun tolerant), Bacopa & ornamental Sweet Potato. Some of these are not visible in the picture - but it worked well. Except for the very exhuberant petunia...