Container Review

 I've had some hits and misses this summer with containers. In some cases the plants have wildly outgrown their container, smothering the companion plants. But in other cases I've ended up with a nice combination.

First off, I have to remember NOT to buy lobelia. It needs sun to bloom well but hates the heat, and that just doesn't work in any places I have pots. It all looked beautiful for about a month, and then left holes in my pots.

In the pot off the mudroom porch I used two of the same plants as last summer: one blue salvia (one of the Rockin' series), and several white alyssum. Last year I had a small "optical" grass which just didn't do anything, but the alyssum did well and spilled out over the pot. This year I added some dichondra silver falls. I don't actually like it much, and it out-competed the alyssum. 

The biggest problem, though, is how brittle the salvia is --I've never had this issue with the salvia before, but heavy rain was enough to break off multiple branches, leaving the plant looking pretty bad. I like this plant because it brings the hummingbirds close to where we sit, so next year I'll have to grow it up through some support so it won't break so easily.

The large pot on the south side of the driveway is one where the "thriller" totally smothered the other plants. I chose one of the newer cleome, and it just became a monster :-) I pruned off side branches to try to give the other plants some light, and then a strong wind sent the cleome into a lean it never recovered from.

My favorite plant in the pot is the Blue My Mind evolvulus, but I kept having to rescue it from the cleome. Next year I'm going to plant that in a smaller pot by itself.

The big pot on the north side of the driveway is also not well balanced, but it's not as bad. As usual, the pot looked too empty when I first planted it up, so I put in more red salvia than I should have. I tip-pruned the flowers, and then it sat there for weeks, growing into a shrub before it finally budded and flowered again. Now it's huge. But it's pretty, with the white Diamond Frost euphorbia. A pretty coral red calibrochoa in the front was smothered, and just isn't very floriferous. I also have a blue angelonia, which has survived but isn't very noticeable. I shouldn't have bothered with it. This is what it looked like at the end of June:

And here's what it looks like in the middle of September:

This next pot is in full sun, and has a jasminoides that I found at one of the nurseries. I put a small trellis in the pot for it to climb, and added blue lobelia around it. It was so very happy that it quickly outgrew the trellis. I starting taking the ends and winding it around itself. Then the lobelia was taken out by the heat. Later I added in some creeping jenny from where I have it growing in a flower bed to fill in the hole. 

Once Rob got this pergola set up, I moved the pot into a corner of it. Unfortunately, it can't seem to grab on to the larger support legs, so I've had to clip it up. If I can find this again, I'll grow it up the pergola, putting string up if I need to. It has a very pretty white flower, and it's very vigorous. The bumblebees seem to like the flowers. 

In growing this next year, I might put a petunia in the pot, to get some color contrast. The original dark blue lobelia was gorgeous with it, but the creeping jenny is basically the same color as the jasmine, so you can't really see it.  

There are some additional smaller pots that have done well. This one, close to the maple tree trunk, is in quite deep shade. The impatiens are not blooming much, but both the coleus and the caladium have done really well.

I have a pot that gets a few hours of morning sun, and then is in shade by about 11 am, and this year I tried begonias and a coleus. I stuck an extra sunflower I'd grown in the back. Then at some point after a heavy rain, I realized the pot was not draining --it had about an inch of standing water on top of the soil! I tilted it to drain the water, and then managed to unstop the drainage hole in the bottom somewhat. It stayed really wet, though, for a long time. The sunflower died quickly from drowning, and the coleus has never looked quite right. The begonias seemed to thrive with the excess water, though. 
 

One more that has been fantastic because of one plant is another full sun pot. It's dominated by the cuphia, which is such a hummingbird magnet! I'll definitely be looking for this plant again. This photo isn't the best because of the bright sun, but those little orange flowers seem to have an infinite amount of nectar. (There is another small bowl shaped pot next to it with a pelargonium and petunia, which has also been very pretty.)

So, for next year I need to remember to check the pot that has drainage issues, and stop overcrowding my bigger pots :-) I also need to buy four more square pots that will go in each corner of the pergola. I'm hoping I can find some January sales.