Container Gardening Complete

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

700309 - ContainerGardens_001-272_FINAL.indd 72 6/5/17 2:35 PM
Job:06-700309 Title: CPS - Container Gardening Complete
Job:06-700309 Title: CPS - Container Gardening Complete

700309 - ContainerGardens_001-272_FINAL.indd 73 5/24/17 11:05 AM

72 chapter 2

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Designing and Planting Your Containers 73

CHOOSING PLANTS

FOR YOUR CONTAINERS

There are few things more enjoyable than walking

up and down the aisles of your favorite local

nurseries, shopping for plants every spring. I

purchase plants for my container garden from five

or six different garden centers every year because

each one carries different varieties. Although I’m

often armed with a list of must-have varieties

based on research I’ve done over winter, I also

make a lot of impulse buys, which has lead to

some pretty eclectic containers over the years—a

habit you may or may not want to copy.

Understandably, some people plant the

same things in their containers every year, to

save themselves time and because it’s easy and

familiar. Others buy premade plant combinations

and plant them into containers for an instant

container garden. Those are great options, but

don’t be afraid to develop your creative side by

mixing and matching new plants.

To give you a little guidance to aid your efforts,

I’ve separated the plants you’re likely to find at

the garden center into eight distinct categories:

• Annuals for flowers and foliage


• Perennials


• Bulbs and tubers


• Tropical plants


• Small trees and shrubs


• Herbs


• Vegetables


• Backyard fruits

There are dozens of succulent plants that make

wonderful container plantings.

For each of these categories (except backyard

fruits) you’ll find a brief introduction followed

by a chart of some of the best plants for that

particular group. Each chart shares information

on the best growing conditions for the plant,

along with growth specs and other items worth

noting, followed by a gallery of images, including

more favorite varieties. Because the backyard fruit

category is quite complex, this section will be

presented in narrative form rather than in a chart.

There is one group of plants, however, that

did not get its own category: the succulents. For

recommendations on succulents, refer to the

Cement Bin Succulent Planter project in Chapter 1.

You’ll notice that the sections on backyard

fruits and vegetables for containers are much

longer than the others—that’s because when it

comes to growing edible plants in containers,

variety selection matters a whole lot more than

it does for ornamental plants. In the chart in the

vegetable section, I also include a list of varieties

bred specifically for container culture.

Annuals for Flowers and Foliage

Technically, an annual plant is one that completes

its entire life cycle in a single year. It germinates,

grows, flowers, sets seed, and then dies in a single

growing season. Annuals are popular garden

plants because most of them remain in bloom for

months in an attempt to disperse as many seeds

as possible before dying at season’s end. But many

of the plants we grow as annuals are actually

frost-sensitive perennials. For example, fuchsias

and coleus are not true annuals, but perennials

that do not survive freezing temperatures and

are therefore usually planted again each year,

as though they were annuals. For the purposes

of this book, the term annual refers both to true

annuals and also to any perennials that are killed

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