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Container Classics

Gardening by the Yard : Episode GBY-625 -- More Projects »
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Some ready-made combination containers are overplanted with fast-growing species. In a few weeks, the plants will have rapidly outgrown their container.
You can grow practically every type of plant in containers--from annuals and perennials to vegetables and herbs to trees and shrubs. Container gardening is so popular that nurseries now produce all kinds of potted gardens.

These ready-made container gardens offer a lot of variety and contrasting colors and textures, but there may be a downside. Sometimes the plantings are designed for their immediate effect without consideration for what they may look like a few weeks later. One plant may quickly overwhelm all the other plants in the container in a relatively short time. Plus, cultural requirements of the plants--including water, sunlight and fertilizer--may be dramatically different.

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Figure A

That's why it's best to match container plants as carefully as possible and group plants according to their specific needs. For example, containers full of cacti and succulents (figure A) will all grow at about the same rate and require essentially the same conditions--full sun, occasional watering and very little fertilizer.

It's all right to combine plants; however, resist the temptation to toss whatever looks good into a pot without regard to the individual needs of each plant. When designed properly, you can create some spectacular plant combinations.

Master gardener Paul James likes to give individual plants a chance to show their stuff, and some of his favorites include:

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Figure B
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Figure C
  • Coreopsis is a rugged plant that thrives in containers as well as in the garden. The new variegated forms also do well.
  • Salvias are extremely common, but they offer uncommon beauty.
  • Sedums are available in all sorts of shapes, sizes and colors (figure B).
  • Daylilies do great in containers, especially non-stop bloomers such as 'Happy Returns' (figure C).

    James also grows most of his culinary herbs in containers rather than the garden so that he can walk out onto the patio and snip what he needs. Among those he grows most often are parsley, sage, rosemary and mint.

    Planting in containers helps you determine whether a given plant is one you might want to later plant permanently in your garden. A dwarf goldenrod that James planted in a container is now destined for a sunny spot in his perennial garden, but he's decided that although he likes the look of gayfeather, he doesn't want to plant it in the garden. Too much staking is required.

    Hanging baskets are another form of container gardening. If you don't like the container the plant comes in, buy a more attractive planter.

    Whatever you like to grow, consider growing it in a container, and remember to water all your container-grown plants on a regular basis--perhaps as often as every day during the middle of summer--and fertilize every other week or so with a balanced fertilizer, one with an NPK ratio of 3:1:2.

    • Also in this Episode
    Gardening by the Yard : Episode GBY-625
    •Minigardens
    •Problem Areas
    •Container Classics
    •The New and the Odd
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