Cold-Weather Container

With a simple combination of no-fuss trees, shrubs, and ground covers, you can bring a planter to life.

Don't put away your pots just because winter's freeze has turned your ferns and annuals to mush. Refuse to give in to the weather; keep on planting. Although flowers are sparse now, you can still fill your containers with colorful plants that will stand out in the landscape.

It's really not hard to create nicelooking pots for cold weather; you just have to change your mind-set. In the spring and summer, everyone wants annuals and perennials that produce bright blooms; but in the cold months, you need to use hardy trees, shrubs, and ground covers. This arrangement instantly gives the container a full, established look.

Ingredients for a Planter

One large 19-inch-diameter pot filled with Ogon' sweet flag (Acorus gmmineus Ogon'), 'Plum Passion' nandina (Nandina domestica 'Plum Passion'), 'Mr. Goldstrike' Japanese aucuba (Aucubajaponica 'Mr. Goldstrike'), and a coral bark maple (Acer palmatum 'Sango Kaku') sparkles in the winter sun. These plants are tightly spaced because they won't grow much during the cooler weather.

First, a coral bark maple is set in the center of the pot. This 5-foot-tall ornamental tree with a crimson trunk and branches adds height and graceful lines. Ogon' sweet flag is a tough, grasslike ground cover with flat, shiny, variegated chartreuse foliage that grows in neat fanlike clumps. Two 1-quart containers planted in the front of the pot let the arching leaves bend over the edge. A 1-gallon pot of 'Plum Passion' nandina is also planted in the front of the container. Its burgundy leaflets give the plant a warm glow. In summer, this shrub is green, and in winter it turns reddish purple. Two 3-gallon Japanese aucubas planted in the back of the pot, behind the maple, create a nice backdrop. Their thick, green, waxy leaves are speckled with golden flecks.

The sweet flag, nandina, maple, and aucuba will outgrow the container in a season or two, but then they can be pulled out and planted in the garden. It's a great way to grow out plants so you can use them in the yard later when they're more mature.

Little Maintenance

Winter pots are easy to maintain. Because most of the plants aren't actively growing, you don't have to water or fertilize frequently. But you should water plants before a hard freeze to help insulate them. Mulch pots with pine bark or pine straw to protect the roots. CHARLIE THIGPEN

All of these plants are part of the Southern Living Plant Collection from Monrovia. To find a nursery near you that carries the collection, call 1-888-752-6848.

Copyright Southern Progress Corporation Jan 2004
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