I love and appreciate all of the feedback I received from yesterday’s post about using individual perennials in containers.
While I wrote it in somewhat of a “tongue in cheek” manner, I still really believe it can be useful in garden design. After reading your comments and thinking it through even more, I think there are a few factors in play in order to pull it off successfully:
- Water – As many of you pointed out, plants in containers can dry out very quickly so the need to water frequently can be a cumbersome task. If you live in a typically dry part of the country/world, this could be a nightmare. I’ve never used self-watering containers but maybe they are an option? Burying the pots in the soil could also lessen the need to water (Thanks Allan and Xan!). Maybe the best route is to use only a few perennials and place them in locations where they can be easily accessed for watering purposes. Watering is a tall task but I’m not ready to give up yet. There are too many perennials I cannot keep alive in my slow draining clay so I’m going to give this a shot.
- Overwintering – Another item I forgot to mention was overwintering these “contained” perennials. The rule of thumb is that a plant can overwinter successfully in a container if that plant can survive 2 zones colder than your region. For example, I live in zone 6 here in New Jersey, so plants that can survive the winter down to zone 4 will be OK. If the plant can survive the winter in it’s container, it becomes more appealing as the need to store in a garage or bury the container in the soil isn’t required.
- A better means to baby small perennials? – Nothing scientific here. I like to buy small sized perennials on-line because of the cost but have had trouble keeping these little guys alive over the winter. I’ve started to “raise” them in containers where I can ensure better drainage, hide the new growth from the rabbits and prevent winter heaving. Yes, watering is still an issue but I’ve had mad success to date with this process. As these babied plants start to grow, I can tuck them into the perennial beds and show them off a bit.
- No need to limit to perennials, can use shrubs and grasses – The same concepts apply but it may be a bit tougher to move some of the necessary large containers around. One advantage I’ve found though, is that shrubs/grasses that may be too large for your garden can still be used effectively because they will not grow as fast or as large as they would in the ground. In the photos below, you can see how I hid a large Miscanthus in the garden bed since it is small enough to fit in a tighter space:
I’ll continue to play with this concept and will show you the results, both good and bad.
One last thing, my new post is up at New Jersey Life Magazine and it is all about my love of foliage. You can check it out here.
John
Hey looking forward to your shares have you seen the HydroSpike great little gadget discovered at IGC might be just the product needed for keeping those container plants watered <|;-) of course you can fill them with my natural Soil nutrients too (shameless plug) but just had to add it in there!
So this year I went with some plants in pots that didn’t need lots of water: succulents and cacti. Now I’m faced with how to winter them over. Do I bring them in or not? I’m thinking I have to.
I used some self watering pots for the annuals to mixed success. The plastic ones with the built in reservoir worked better than the inserts into clay pots.
The subject will need further discussion when plants begin to outgrow their pots. Some plants can be transferred to larger containers. However, I suspect that heavier plants may become too cumbersome if allowed to grow to maturity. Most perennials can be divided but ornamental shrubs may require trimming of their roots. This last option will require the input of a gardener that has experience with this issue.
I grow lots of perennials in containes and they always do well. I keep them on my patio where they are easy to see, which reminds me to keep them watered. Pots are the only way for me to grow some types of penstemon and agastche that would die in my heavy clay soil. I also use them as a holding tank for seedlings that I don’t want to get rid of in the fall. I overwinter them and then use them to fill in the gaps come spring. Actually, NOT growing perenials in pots seems weird to me!