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Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Container Gardening

Choosing Plants for Your Container Garden

Container gardens offer the advantage of changing your garden with every season. The choice of plant material is limited only by your climate and your imagination. If you have a tropical or temperate climate, you may not need to change your container gardens at all, but you still might choose to.

When choosing plants for container gardens, keep in mind the scale of the container and how aggressively the plant grows. While you want your container garden to look full, fast growers will quickly outgrow their pots.

The following choices should get you thinking.

Spring

Bulbs (Pre-chilled or planted the prior fall)
Early Flowering Shrubs: Rhododendron, Azalea and Lilac (won’t grow to full height)
Spring Bloomers: Primrose, Fritillaries, Ferns, Kalanchoe, Pansies
Cool Season Vegetables: Lettuce and Greens

Summer

Annuals: Abutilon, Bacopa, Callibrachoa-Million Bells, Coleus, Convolvulus, Dahlia, Fuchsia, Geranium, Herbs, Impatiens, Larkspur, Lobelia, Marigolds, Nasturtiums, Oxalis, Petunias, Scabiosa, Wave Petunias
Ornamental grasses, Herbs, Miniature Roses
Warm Season Vegetables: Tomatoes, Squash, Edible Flowers
Or try a water garden

Fall

Summer Annuals in Rebloom: Begonias, Fuchsias, Impatiens
Fall Bloomers: Asters, Cyclamen, Gentian, Heather, Heuchera, Marguerite Daisies, Mums, Osteospermum
Berries: Cotoneasters, Pyracanthas,

Winter

Evergreens: Boxwood, Privet, Juniper, Wintergreen

To Add Height

Canna, Colocasia (Elephant Ear), Brugmansia (Angels Trumpet), Phormium, Salvia, Pennisetum setaceum ‘Rubrum’ (Fountain grass)

Fillers

Artemisia, Creeping Jenny, Helichrysum, Houttuynia, Ivy, Moss, Plectranthus, Sedum, Spider Plants, Sweet Potato Vines, Transcantia, Wandering Jew

Use Ground Covers as Mulch


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