Cramming a ton of annuals into an overflowing container

Hello all,

I have an embarrassing newbie question so I hope you all can help. You know how you go to the garden center and they have all these gorgeous hanging baskets spilling over with blooms? Sure it looks pretty but it seems awful crowded to me! Last weekend I planted two beautiful windowbox-style planters. I picked out some violas from the garden center and added some moonflowers I grew from seed. Thinking of the crowded baskets, I was confused that the label on the violas said to plant them 8" apart. So I split the difference and planted them about 2"-4" apart. It looks a little sparse right now but I'm hoping they will fill out this summer. Am I doing the right thing or were the directions for putting the flowers in the ground?

TL

Technically speaking the spacing would be for wherever it gets planted, but in order to make containers look fuller people will usually space things closer than they normally ought to be planted. Otherwise it would take until the end of the season for your container to look really full. And since containers are usually a temporary thing that you redo every year, it doesn't matter as much if the plants are crammed closer than they should be, vs with more permanent plantings in the garden you need to be more careful about getting the spacing right.

This is an example of a planter that's WAY too crowded, but I just like the combination in the purple pot

Great combo, Irwells50

Tigerlily,
My son used to work in a nursery and alot of times these planters are made up that way to sell to people who don't do their own planters or for gifts. Or for a quick splash of color somewhere. Most of the time these plants do fine, but in my experience, sometimes they put in flowers that overtake the others. I've seen neighbors purchase the readymades, then separate them because they were cheaper to buy the pot than individual plants. The planting directions recommend spacing for ideal conditions when the plants are mature in a bed, but I've seen some plants that either never reach that size or exceed it, just depends on weather, soil, feeding, etc.
I have 14" wide planters on my steps and front porch by the door that I plant every year with spikes, ivy, coleus, petunias, potato vines, etc. that really fill out and spill over the top. Usually, I buy the 3" pots and multi-packs and just stick them in about 6-8 plants per pot until I get the look I want. I only had problem with a decorative grass that I used last year that got shaded out, but it all works out and looks really nice. The little tags that come with each plant usually tells about how wide the plant will fill out (like 4X4, or 12" mounding), so you can sort of visualize about how close you can cram them in the pot. Nice thing about annuals, you can always add more or take out if they get unruly. And it depends also on how fast you want the planters to look like they've been planted for awhile..
Don't mean to ramble, but I love container gardening concept and like to experiment with new types of plants. I get a couple gardening mags and Container Gardening books and leaf thru them regularly, trying to come up with new ideas. Like Irwells50 above, that is a great planter! Yes, it's full, but the colors and textures all blend together to make a really pretty picture....

Kathy

I watch people who plant containers in my greenhouse and say, What are you doing? These are annuals, cram them in there and make it beautiful.
I used to plant very sparsely, now I use more plants, geraniums, trailing vinca, bacopa, supertunias. They all seem to get along great together!