Container Gardens

At Gardening Gone Wild Steve Silk has written a post for the monthly focus which is Container Plantings. I sort of cringed when I saw the subject of this month. Containers are not something that I excell in. I don't know what it is but when I put them together I rather like what I have done then when the season progresses I quickly fall out of like with them. It might be my method of caring for them. The only thing I can possibly add to what Steve has posted already is that I have found that the type of planting medium is of great importance. I find when I pay a little more to get the medium that the local nursery uses for their potting my plants do a whole lot better. Now I can't tell you what it is exactly. I can tell you I use 3 big bags every year.

I have a small collection of blue pots that house tender tropicals that I use for house plants. They summer outside under the apple tree.

This blue strawberry pot is the first pot of this type that I have been able to succeed in growing something. I just love the looks of strawberry pots but in the past have had nothing but failures in them. Even the tried and supposedly indestructable hens-n-chicks were a failure for me in this type pot. However I got some succulents that have to be brought in every winter and they have done just fine for the most part. The living rocks succumb to nature but the rest of them have survived.

Last year the staghorn fern summered atop the old soil in this pot.
This pot gets planted different every year. It has been in full shade but this year things will be different due to the pines coming down this winter.

I have one of those big styrofoam pots that looks like it is moulded clay.
It sits in front of the barn with bamboo in it. I got the bamboo start from my sister last year. I put a few annuals in it to make it look fuller.

I use all sorts of items for containers. I have posted about my log planter before. You investigate this further if you want to here.

I found these ferns and fern-like plants as plugs last summer. They have wintered inside ok this year.

I will have to find a nice shady corner for them this summer. I also have some big palms that will have to be tucked into a shaded spot. Gee it seems odd to be thinking shade when I would be most thrilled at this moment with a few rays of sunshine.

I do like containers that look like heads. I looked and looked for one that I liked well enough to bring home and when I was on a little jaunt a couple of spings ago I found this lovely lady. She has moved from place to place but continues to be one of my favorites.

I have quite a collection of different types of pots. The designer in me sometimes goes 'eeewww' but the collector in me says 'yipee I found another one'. Of course I think you can see that I don't have an abundance of them. I guess if I was any good at putting them together and keeping them watered/fertilized properly I would have more.

I got this big concrete basket for my birthday one year. It has gone through many metamorphosis. I had annuals in it the first spring I had it.

Then the next summer I got a collection of minature hostas that now make their living in this pot.

Oh mercy, you don't want to get me going on my window box again. I can't tell you how many combinations I have tried in this little box. I always have such visions here and rarely do they turn out. I have had to use shade plants in the past but maybe this year with more light in this area I can try something different.





The picture with the caladiums in it is one of the more successful combinations. I love the way the large leaves look like stained glass when looking at them from the inside through the kitchen window.

All I know is that this spring my mantra will be Thrillers, Fillers and Spillers as I think Steve's advice is the best I have read.

Happy container gardening everyone.