Container Gardening Complete

Job:06-700309 Title: CPS - Container Gardening Complete

700309 - ContainerGardens_001-272_FINAL.indd 110 5/24/17 11:13 AM
Job:06-700309 Title: CPS - Container Gardening Complete
Job:06-700309 Title: CPS - Container Gardening Complete

700309 - ContainerGardens_001-272_FINAL.indd 111 6/5/17 3:00 PM

110 chapter 2

Fruiting Vines

Though there are some very unusual fruiting

vines, including Akebias and passionfruits, the

two most popular fruiting vines for container

gardening are grapes and hardy kiwis. Both are

surprisingly easy to grow in pots if you choose

the best varieties and care for them properly. I

also grow a hops vine (Humulus lupulus); however,

hops are very aggressive growers and climbers, so

restricting their roots in a container keeps them

from getting out of hand.

Grapes (Vitis vinifera,

Vitus labrusca)

Because most grape varieties can grow quite large,

growing them in containers can be a challenge,

unless you have a good trellis or fence to support

them. Grape vines can also be pruned into a

weeping tree form for container culture, but it

requires a lot of regular pruning maintenance. A

better bet is to plant dwarf grape varieties, such

as those in the ‘Pixie’® series. These little cuties

reach only 2 ft. in height but bear 4- to 6-in.-long

bunches of delicious grapes all season long.

Hardy Kiwis (Actinidia arguta)

For home container gardening, the best kiwis

are not the brown, fuzzy grocery store variety (A.

chinensis), but the hardy kiwi (A. arguta), which

is native to northern China and Russia and can

survive temperatures as low as -25°F. Hardy

kiwi fruits do not have to be peeled. The skin

is beautiful and smooth, and the fruits can go

straight into your mouth. Female vines produce

a lot of fruit starting at about 8 years of age.

Because individual kiwi plants are either male or

female, you’ll need one male plant for every eight

or nine female vines (the vines are already “sexed”

and labeled when you purchase them). The vines

grow very tall and very quickly, so plan to have a

good climbing structure for them.

Herbaceous Fruiting Plants

There is only one real entry in this category of

fruits suitable for container gardening, but it is an

important one.

Strawberries (Fragaria ananassa)

Probably the easiest of all the small fruits,

strawberries are ideal container garden plants.

Though there are many wild strawberry species,

cultivated types fit into two different categories:

June-bearing and ever-bearing. June-bearing

varieties produce berries that all ripen within a

period of a few weeks in early summer, while ever-

bearing types spread a more moderate harvest

Hardy kiwis are small, smooth, green, and delicious. from June through late September.

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Designing and Planting Your Containers 111

Both types of strawberries are great plants for

containers; they work well in hanging baskets,

vertical planters, and pots of every shape and

size. Because their growth needs are similar to

many vegetables, strawberries also do well when

grown in a mixed container of veggies. Two more

compact strawberry varieties ideal for containers

are ‘Loran’ and the pink-flowered ‘Tristan.’

Alpine strawberries

(Fragaria vesca)

These little guys are a slice of heaven unlike

anything else you can grow in your garden—

sweeter, and more fragrant and flavorful than

their large-fruited cousins. Though the fruits of

alpine strawberries are less than 1 in. long, their

flavor is unsurpassed. Tasting like a combination

of berries and pineapple with a floral twist, alpine

strawberries are surprisingly easy to grow. These

perennial, woodland berries have been bred and

selected from wild strains over many generations.

Unlike cultivated strawberries, most alpine

types do not send out runners. Instead, the size

of the mother plants increases, and you can divide

the crowns in spring to get more plants. This

means that alpine strawberries are extremely

well-behaved and do quite well in containers.

Plants should be divided every 3 or 4 years.

Even when planted from seed, alpine

strawberries quickly produce fruits, often the

same season the seeds are sown. Their tiny, sweet

fruits are produced continually all summer long,

providing you with a handful of berries every

day from just a dozen plants. In addition to the

popular red-fruited alpine strawberry varieties,

such as ‘Alexandria’ and ‘Mignonette’, there

are also several yellow-fruited types, including

‘Pineapple Crush’ and ‘Yellow Wonder.’

Alpine strawberries are sweeter and smaller than their

large-fruited cousins.

Strawberries are classic small fruits for container

gardens. These pink-flowering strawberries are growing

in a type of container known as a strawberry jar.

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