Container planting? Go nuts!

 

Don't get me started on containers. I think it's the most exciting thing in gardening. Why? Because there are no rules. That's right! No rules!

So if you're not having the gardening time of your life planting a container, then you're probably feeling constrained by believing that only certain types of plants belong in containers.

Who says? Who says you can't plant corn or a potato in a hanging basket? Who says you can't mix houseplants and strawberry plants and peas and herbs and miniature glads and dwarf lilies and little shrubs and perennials in a window box with whatever else you can imagine!

Did you ever feel so free? And if you don't like what you've created, or some plant is on the wane and should be replaced by another plant, you can simply rip out the old and plunge in the new!

And if you don't like the container everything is in, knock off the old and wedge everything into your favorite new one!

Wander through a garden centre looking for oddities. Grab a plant and poke it into a collection of other plants, thinking about the neat combination it might make. Take your time. Browse through the bulbs, thinking about the display they'll create when they poke their way through the crowd of other plants in your container.

You'll see possibilities where none existed before.

I can still remember when I found a purple pansy with a vivid yellow eye that was truly a knockout when planted with cascading rose lobelia. Also, I love fennel as a ferny standout in containers as a substitute for the ubiquitous "spikes" (dracaena).

Now I'm thinking about the best combination of plants for a half-barrel planted with cream-striped canna (pretoria). I've settled on a classy combination of rich purple salvia, heliotrope (with the delicious vanilla-scented blue flowers), a vivid yellowish-orange everlasting and cream-colored perennial creeping-jenny (lysimachia) to flow over the sides.

What is there left to say? Let your imagination be your guide! If you're a little shy, go to a greenhouse with a friend, have your friend blindfold you and spin you around, then feel your way around, picking up 15 unseen plants and bulbs!

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