Container Gardening - Choosing The Plants

Wiese Acres Container Gardens

I'm having a bit of trouble getting motivated to write about gardening this morning.  As I look out the window, I see nothing but white.  Oh, wait, there is a tiny slice of brown just off the edge of the driveway - I think it's the ski rack on top of the van.  After a foot and a half of snow, blown into six and seven foot piles yesterday, it will be a while before I get to spring's work in the garden.

So, I might as well do some more planning for container gardens.  What to put in those containers is always a challenge.  I want something that looks good, lasts well, and doesn't require continuous grooming and maintenance.

First of all, looking good.  A container is really a living floral arrangement.  Conventional wisdom says that your containers should contain a "thriller, filler, and spiller".  The thriller is the tall, centerpiece of your container; the filler is what will provide the bulk of the color; and the spiller will drape over the edge of the container.  That said, if you want a container that only has one plant in it, that's just fine.  If you want a jungle of plants in your container, that's ok, too.

If you opt for the jungle, there are some rules you need to follow.  You need to select plants that like the same soil, light, and water conditions and that will thrive in the size container in which you want them to grow.  Those are the "must follow" rules.  Once you've followed those rules, though, the texture, proportion, and color is entirely flexible.

Choosing the right plants for your soil, light, and water conditions is very similar to what you look for in your garden beds.  A soil mix that contains more peat is best for moisture loving plants and one with a small amount of sand might be better for succulents. 

A plant that requires full sun needs to be placed in a spot that receives at least six to eight hours of bright, direct sun each day.  Plants that require part sun / part shade require four to six hours of direct, morning or late afternoon sun, or dappled sun all day.  Full shade plants want to be placed in a location where they are never touched by direct sunlight.

Water loving plants need to be kept continuously moist and may need watering two or three times a day during hot, windy spells, so shouldn't be selected for locations that are a long ways from your water source.  More drought tolerant plants may only need watering once a day or even every other day, depending on the size of the container.

The size of your container needs to allow room for the roots of all the plants.  It is best not to combine aggressive growers with more fragile plants, as the more fragile ones will probably suffer.  One year, I decided that rather than purchasing spikes for my "thriller", I was going to dig up small pieces of an ornamental grass and use that in my pots.  It was beautiful - until the grass roots hogged all the soil, space and water, while everything else started to fizzle out.  And, getting those grass roots out of the pot required emptying the entire container and starting over.  That's a mistake I won't make again!

For appearance's sake, it's best to have at least some tall plants in tall containers.  Short plants look nice in large, wide containers but they may look lost in the tall pots.   Ideally, there should be at least one plant in your container that is one to one and a half times as tall as the container is deep.  That will give you the proportions most pleasing the human eye.

I also like to combine textures in my containers, with some fine, feathery foliage and some spikey, more substantial blades.  Certain textures can look very nice all by themselves, but a combination creates a great deal of interest in your pots, and will draw the eye to them.

I also want to make sure that the colors I use in the flowers do not clash with the container in which it is growing.  I use many neutral color planters, because I really want the focal point to be the plants, not what they are planted in.  However, there are some of those brightly colored, cheerful looking containers that I just can't resist.  If I have a bright orange container, I'm probably going to stay away from the red tones and use more greens, yellows, or even purples.  Or, if I have a lime green container, I might opt for fewer greens and use more brightly colored flowers.

If you have pots that you aren't sure of the best color combinations to make the most of your container and your plantings, if it is a small enough container, you can take it with you to the garden center and place the various plants in the container to see how they look.  If the container is too large to carry with you, go to the paint aisle in the local home center and find a paint chip that either has the same color as the container or at least the same color tones, and take that to the garden center with you.  That will give you an idea of what will work versus what will clash.

Tomorrow, I'll talk about some plants that I've had good luck with in my containers.