Three Pots, Two Seasons

Bright plants and containers gleam in the garden.

If you're short on time and space, containers are definitely the way to go. Flowers and foliage can be changed out to create different looks, giving your landscape color from spring through summer.

Selecting Pots

Planters are available in all shapes and sizes and come in many different materials. Make sure the ones you choose fit the scale and style of your home. Tiny planters on a large front porch will go unnoticed, so select pots that are in proportion with their surroundings. The color of a planter matters too; a terra-cotta container might clash with a redbrick house.

Many gardeners opt for light-weight planters composed of plastic or fiberglass. Easy to work with, some of them even look like terra-cotta or concrete. Regular terra-cotta pots are widely available and relatively inexpensive. Concrete containers are durable but extremely heavy and hard to move around. Lighter ceramic ones come in a wide variety of colors. I chose three blue ceramic pots. They provide color even when flowers and foliage are sparse.

Make sure containers have unobstructed drain holes. Always fill your planters with quality potting soil. Premium mixes cost more, but many contain controlled-release fertilizers and water-retaining polymers.

Spring Planting

First, I put in a low-growing shrub called 'Limemound' bumalda spirea (Spiraea x bumalda 'Monhub') in the top of the tall strawberry jar planter. Shrubs work well in containers, and once they've outgrown their space, they can be set out in the landscape. I then put a few pansies in all three pots. The yellow blooms look striking with the blue containers. Red Swiss chard was tucked into the two smaller planters. It has blackish-red foliage with pinkish-red stems and veins.

Greater periwinkle (Vinca major) in the fronts of the two small pots softens the edges of the planters and provides splashes of color with its cream-and-green splotched foliage. The yellow-and-green striped leaves of Ogon' golden Japanese sweet flag (Acorus gramineus Ogon') in the lower cups on the strawberry pot add interesting form.

This spring mix was easy to maintain. I just watered occasionally and plucked off spent blooms. It lasted until the end of May; then it was time to remove some plants and prepare for heat.

Warm-Weather Planting

For the summer, I left the Japanese sweet flag and variegated greater periwinkle in the containers and added New Guinea Hybrid impatiens to all three pots. The plants soon filled out, making bouquets of orange blooms.

The key to keeping planters looking good in the summer is moisture. I watered my containers once or twice a week, depending on the amount of rain. Late in the season, as the impatiens became root bound, I had to water them more. With that care, my flowers looked great from June until fall's first frost.

If you need a splash of color or want to create an instant focal point, fill some pots with bright blooms and foliage to add your own special touch to the garden. CHARLIE THIGPEN

Copyright Southern Progress Corporation Feb 2004
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