Planning for Next Spring

Half of the fun of being a Midwest gardener is planning. It has to be! With such a short season, the rest of the year is best spent dreaming about how great our gardens will be NEXT spring. Whether this dream actually comes to fruition is another matter entirely, however, when the ground is frozen there is nothing better than pouring over catalogs and websites to plan for next year. 

With the exception of a few small surprises, I was relatively disappointed in my garden this year. The late start didn't help. The bulk of my tomatoes ripened while I was on vacation in mid-October and promptly froze during that same time period. Weather in Minnesota! The late start in addition to our overly wet weather pretty much did in my garden. At least in my eyes. It was good enough to get my garden selected for the Soroptimist Garden tour next summer however. Add all these things together, late start, bad weather, disappointing turnout AND garden tour yard, you know I've already begun to plan for next year. 

I was hoping to get more done this fall than I actually did but seriously, that whole idea was a complete fallacy because my allergies had something to say about that. Needless to say, I got nothing done. Not really. The weeds are taunting me even now. That's all right, snow's coming...

My first step for next year's garden was to stop at Renee's Garden Seeds for some flower seeds to cover the seemingly acres of bare ground I have in my flower beds. New introductions for 2011 are already available. Some of the seeds I got will go directly into the ground, others I will start indoors earlier to have them blooming by spring. 

In addition to my favorites of narturtiums, Sweet William and cornflowers, I've fallen in love with Zinnias. Yes, Zinnias. I admit, I was not AT ALL in on the Zinnia love fest prior to this summer. My neighbor down the street, however, had them all along the side of her house. Pulling onto my street, the side of her house is the first thing you see. And the zinnias! They were gorgeous! All summer long! I must have them. More exciting is that Renee's Garden has special mixes of zinnias. I chose one called Cool Crayon Colors which is a gorgeous mix of pinks, purples and white. I also plan to throw in some Green Envy Zinnias. Should be beautiful. 

After the garden tour last summer, I fell in love with poppies. The best part about poppies? They are frost hardy and bloom best when planted as early as possible in the spring. Anything I can direct seed and have blooming in June is a plant I want to have. 

Other plants I'm trying for the first time in my garden include Larkspur (my son's birth month flower), Painted Salpiglossis and miniature roses. I've also got seeds for Persian Violet (nigella damascena), White Nigella and Pride of Gilbraltar (cerinthe). The last three I had never heard of before and I'm excited to see what they look like. I'm also aware that many of these reseed although from what I've read, none of them are invasive. Reseeding I love, invasive I don't (you know I'm talking about you Veronica!). I'll see how it goes. 

Besides the seeds, I'm planning to have more ornamental kale, more petunias and better containers. The massive amounts of rain we had did my poor containers no good. I have a multi-tiered container I'm going to turn into a  hardy succulent container because I've given up trying to grow other things in it.  

This is more than I've planned in the past by this time and I'm sure I'll just have more as the winter goes on since I'll have people checking out my yard this spring. 

Have you starting planning for next spring yet? What changes are you making in your garden? What are you planting more of?

Container Garden Idea: Creating Height

Container Trellis
Full Sun
1 Marguerite sweet potato vine
2 lavender trailing verbena
1 white bacopa*

*The picture shows two bacopa but on subsequent plantings I used just one to give all plants maximum growth space for the season.

I love the colors in this combination! And it is a combination that looks great from planting through fall. Each of the plants is a vigorous grower so does very well together. It’s also a good example of how to use an accessory in a container.

As you can see, I had a rock wall to contend with. I didn’t want the wall covered but any container I put in that area seemed too short for the space. I needed height for a good proportion. Small trellises seemed like a good solution.

But what to grow up the trellis? I tried morning glory and moon flower originally and found they didn’t do well because of the heat and sun exposure in this location. It’s on the west side on a concrete sidewalk against a rock wall, a less than ideal growing condition. I couldn’t keep those plants watered well enough to get them established. Ipomoea vines generally don’t like to be transplanted. Other vigorous vines were the just the wrong color and I am picky about color.

My original design started with the lavender verbena and the Marguerite sweet potato vine. I love chartreuse and purple shades together. I couldn’t find a vine to fit in with my scheme when someone suggested growing the sweet potato vine up the trellis rather than using it as my trailing element. Perfect solution. Marguerite is the most vigorous of the sweet potato vines and while it’s not a traditional trellis plant, it will grow upwards easily enough with just a few garden ties.

Choosing a replacement trailing plant proved much easier than finding a vine for the focal point. White bacopa is another vigorous grower that holds its own with both the verbena and the sweet potato vine. The color scheme is fairly simple with just lavender and white flowers and chartreuse foliage but I think the effect is quite stunning.

Because these three plants are such vigorous growers, they will need a larger container in order to grow well. I recommend 18" or larger. This combination also held up quite well in the extreme heat and sun conditions. In case of drought (common in my gardening style), all of these plants rebounded very well. The verbena will bloom profusely throughout the summer if deadheaded occasionally. I always took the opportunity to pinch off a few spent blooms while watering and was rewarded handsomely for this minimal effort.

Using Accessories in Container Gardens

Container gardens don’t need to be limited to being just a pot with flowers in it. You can use the same accessories in containers that you use in a traditional garden. These include trellises, tuteurs or obelisks, stakes and art. Use these sort of accessories to add height, interest, texture or color to your container garden.

Trellises, tuteurs and obelisks all serve the same function in supporting vining plants. The difference in these structures is in the shape and in what circumstances you would use each of them.

Trellises are flat, vertical structures for vining plants to grow on. The can be as simple as wood lattice or more elaborate decorative designs made from a variety of metals. Trellises are best used in containers that are along a wall or fence. The trellis provides a vertical element as well as adds more interest to a container combination.

Tuteurs and obelisks are essentially a 3-D trellis. They can be round, square or pyramidal and made from wood, bamboo or more decorative metal pieces. Many have finials or other decorative embellishments at the top which adds another element of interest to a container. The advantage to tuteurs and obelisks is that plants can either grow on the outside of the structure or grow from the inside. Whether to grow from the outside or inside will depend on the plant you are using and the look you are going for.

The most important thing when using accessories in container gardens is proportion. The container and the accessory need to be of corresponding size. Obviously, large trellises aren’t going to fit in small containers but neither should you put too small a trellis in a large container.

Also consider the weight of the structure you are using with the container. Using a heavy metal tuteur in a plastic container is not going to hold up to wind. Generally speaking, metal structures will do better in metal, concrete or ceramic containers. They have enough weight to counterbalance the structure. Wood or bamboo structures can go in lighter weight containers such as plastic or fiber mache.

Using these structures will enable you to use plants such as sweet pea, morning glory, cypress vine and black-eyed Susan vine in your container garden designs. In using tuteurs and obelisks you can get plants that traditionally grow down such as sweet potato vine to grow up with very little effort.

You can also use decorative stakes or smaller pieces of art to add whimsy and interest to your container flower gardens. Don’t limit yourself by your garden’s size. If it works in a traditional garden, you can make it work in a container garden as well.

Container Garden Idea: Multi-container designs

Colorful Camouflage
Full/Part Sun
2 Cherry Blossom Begonias
2 Spellbound White trailing impatiens
1 ‘Purple Majesty” Ornamental Millet
2 King Tut grass

If you're using containers to solve garden problems and have a large area you wish to fill, using several containers which work together to create one large combination is an inexpensive and easy solution. Not only can you create virtually any size or shape that you need, but you can vary the size and heights of the pots to add interest and structure.

In my previous post, I mentioned that I had a problem area in the back of my house. The electrical/phone/cable boxes all converge in one area. Because of the buried wires in that area, I’ve decided to use a multi-container design as camouflage. I started with 3 large containers placed in a triangle shape in front of the eyesore electrical boxes. ‘Purple Majesty’ ornamental millet is the focal point at the point of the triangle. Once again, I stretch this plant out of its comfort zone. It’s a full sun plant but does well on the east side of my house where it gets 6 to 7 hours of morning sun. Ornamental millet is a fast growing annual that reaches up to 5 feet tall. It also has broad deep purple leaves which brings much drama and substance to the design.

King Tut grass goes in the two containers behind the millet. King Tut grass is a real work horse plant that does well in a variety of conditions. It’s a full sun plant that does well in partial sun and it’s a water plant that does extremely well in drought conditions. One caution is this plant grows fast and gets huge. It will take over a container so either make sure you have a large enough container that it won’t crowd out your other plants (a successful container combo with this plant was in an old bathtub!) or plant it alone and combine that planter with other containers. I plant it in an 18” square container and the root ball takes up the entire container by the end of summer.

In this case, both the millet and the King Tut are the perfect plants. They are fast growing, tall plants that cover up what I would rather not look at while still enabling easy access to those boxes. The millet offers a strong vertical element with dramatic foliage as the King Tut fills in behind also adding height and texture. Because these plants grow so large and I have a great deal of ground to cover, my fillers and spillers go in their own separate pots as well. I use 4 medium sized containers around the base of the larger three.

In the two side containers, I planted Cherry Blossom Begonias. I love this plant! It is a fibrous begonia that grows quite large and is covered with delicate pink and white double blossoms. For me these blossoms changed from the bi-color in the spring to dark pink later in the season. Whether that was due to sunlight or maturity, I don’t know. At any rate, the result was stunning against the dark purple of the millet.

The last two pots contained Spellbound white trailing impatiens. These took the heat and sun much better than the Fanfare variety I’ve used in the past and were also more drought tolerant and faster growing. In a word, gorgeous!

While I consider his combination a success, I will move the Cherry Blossom Begonias front and center next year for two reasons. One, they are gorgeous alone and against the millet and two, putting the impatiens on the side will cover even more space horizontally which is better for the space. I also experimented with 2 millet in one container which I won't do again. I lost the vertical element without adding significant screening. By the end of the summer it just looked crowded.

Using several containers to create a plant combination can add height, drama and texture to your landscape. Use them as focal points, camouflage or to cover large areas.

Growing Art: Container Garden Design of the Week

Purple Passion

Plants: 1 purple osteospermum, 2 Aztec Plum Magic trailing verbena, 4 Regatta lobelia in shades of blue, white and lavender (Part-sun)

This combination is perfect for an eastern exposure. Each plant actually has different sun requirements but can and does work together in the right location. I have a tendency to stretch plants out of their comfort zone a little bit to get the combinations that I want. More often than not, I am rewarded.

In this case, the osteospermum is a true part sun plant. It doesn’t like it too hot but still needs enough sun to flower well. The trailing verbena is a full sun plant and the lobelia likes to be in the shade. The eastern exposure gives all three of these plants enough of what it needs so the combination works. Morning sun is cooler so the lobelia will do fine and it’s still enough sun for the verbena. The osteo is in its element.

My 4 year old son chose this combination (with just a little help from mom) and thusly the heavy purple palate because that’s what he likes. I had just purchased these great lime pots so the result was quite fantastic.

First he chose the purple osteos which for containers is a great focal plant. It does have a great mounding habit in the garden but has enough height that it works as an upright plant in containers. Next he chose the trailing verbena in Aztec Plum Magic which coordinated nicely with the lighter purple of the osteos. This plant has a semi-trailing habit so is a perfect contrast with the fullness of the osteo. Last, we chose Regatta lobelia in shades of blue, white and lavender. This is also a semi-trailing plant which tends to trail more if it has nowhere else to go. In this case, between the osteo and the verbena it doesn’t so it trails down the container.

The result was quite stunning with the purple flowers against the lime green of the container. This combination is a good example of how your container choice can influence and enhance your flower choice.

Growing Art: Container Garden Design of the Week

Prairie Beauty

Plants: Gaura (1), fiber optic grass (2), trailing verbena (2)

This is a great design for those windy spots in your yard. Guara looks like a delicate plant but don’t let its appearance fool you. This is a Texas native that also stands up to heat, drought and humidity. In windy areas, rather than get beat down or shredded, the delicate pink flowers dance in the wind, enhancing the beauty of the plant and adding interest in the garden.

Trailing verbena is a spreading plant rather than a true trailer and fills in the base of the guara nicely. I like to use purple as a strong contrast to the pink flowers. Lavender or pink trailing verbena would work well also depending on your color preferences.

In the corners, use fiber optic grass. This plant does double duty as filler and a trailing plant. I do recommend splitting this plant (2 plants for 4 corners) as it is a vigorous grower. In the picture you’ll notice the fiber optic grass is taking over. In fact the trailing verbena gets lost in all that grass and this picture is really a cautionary tale. This is what you don’t want. It will fill in quickly even if it looks sparse at first.



These plants can all take full sun and would do well in either a south or west exposure. I have had it on the east side of my house and it has done very well there as well.

Truly the best part of this arrangement is how well it stands up to wind. As long as the plants get at least 6 hours of sun, put this container in any windy spot in your yard where other plants get windblown. You’ll be amazed at the beauty of this container.

Growing Art: Container Garden Design of the Week

Updated Geraniums

Plants: 3 William Langguth zonal geraniums, 3 medium pink zonal geraniums, 3 white (or light pink or white bi-color) zonal geraniums, 6 heliotrope (trailing variety)

I stole this idea from a gardening book. Something about it just grabbed me. Perhaps the color combination or just that it took what I considered a uninspiring plant and made it look fresh. This is a good design for a plant grouping. If you are using smaller pots (10-14 inches), I would put one color of geranium in each pot and group the pots fairly close together.

I used to use this in a 6 pot arrangement and it worked much better. Currently, I use this combination in 3 large pots that are spaced fairly far apart. I'm still trying to work the kinks out and get the look I had with the 6 pot grouping. This is last year's model. I used one of each geranium in each pot (thus breaking the rule of grouping colors together and remembering why this is a rule in the first place!) and two heliotrope. Obviously, the white took over. It was a seed geranium which is better suited to the garden than a container. This year I will use all zonals and try two of one and one of another in each pot to see if I can better emulate the 6 pot grouping I used to have.

This planting will take a lot of heat and is drought tolerant. I currently have this on the south side of my house, on the concrete, in front of stone siding in a black metal pot. It doesn't get much hotter than that! And you can see from the picture, it flourished. I also love the contrast the variegated foliage of the William Langguth adds to the container. Much more exciting that a regular red geranium! And geraniums of any other color than red always seems fresher to me.

Some varieties of heliotrope take more sun than others. Also, choose a variety that is trailing or semi-trailing. The upright varieties I've used not only didn't look right in the planting but they didn't seem to take the heat very well either. The heliotrope spilling down the sides of the container is a nice contrast to the compact nature of the geraniums and is what really makes this container work.

Growing Art: Container Garden Design of the Week

Welcome!
Recipe: 3 ivy geranium, 3 Marguerite sweet potato vine, 1 sun coleus (24-36 inches tall)



I’ve worked on this pot for several years. It originally started in a whiskey barrel at my old house and went through several incarnations before I came up with something I was happy with. It’s my contention that it takes at least three years to come up with a combination that I really like and actually works together. Sometimes things that look good together don’t grow well together. They might have different sun requirements, water needs or fertilizer needs. One might grow faster, overshadowing another or it might just be simple user error. I put in too much of one plant and not enough of another. I just keep tweaking until I get something that works and appeals to me.

That’s what happened when I stumbled on to this mix. I had the sweet potato vine and the ivy geraniums for years. I just wasn’t getting the third plant right. I tried snapdragons, petunias and regular geraniums. It wasn’t until the larger sun coleus showed up at my garden center that I got this combination to work.

What I like about this combination is that it looks good almost immediately (this picture taken about a month after planting) and just keeps getting better and better throughout the summer. The sweet potato vine grows down to cover the pot, the coleus gets up to 3 feet tall (make sure you choose the tallest variety you can find) and the ivy geraniums bloom all summer.

The beauty of this design is in the variety of the ivy geraniums and coleus. I started with the ivy geranium because I fell in love with the Global Merlot (a beautiful burgundy flower) but you could also start with the coleus. Putting a pot together is not unlike putting an outfit together. Each plant plays off the other. Since I started with the Global Merlot, I looked for a coleus that meshed with the burgundy and also had some lime green in the leaves. This way the coleus, in addition to being the focal point of the container, ties together the geranium and the Marguerite sweet potato vine.

This container is a good example of basic container design. There is the focal point that goes up (coleus), the filler plant or spreading plant (ivy geranium), and the trailing plant (sweet potato vine). Or as I like to say, up, out, down. It doesn’t get much easier than that.

Container Gardening: Petunias

Take Another Look at Petunias!

I know that as flowers go, petunias don’t seem as exciting as say ornamental grasses or some of the other specialty plants that are popular right now. Petunias are a constant, everybody’s had them and they are everywhere. We’ve been there, done that! And yes, I’d say that’s all true but it’s true for very good reasons. Petunias, despite their ubiquity, are a showy plant. They bloom, they bloom and they bloom some more. And they smell good, too. Petunias come in a wide variety of colors and sizes and I would say for those reasons alone, these flowers are exciting. Every year, nurseries come up with new varieties of petunias. To try to name all the permutations of petunias available would be impossible which is a testament to just how exciting these flowers still are. I think rather than dismiss petunias as common, the idea is to think about using petunias in a different way.

One of my favorites is the Wave Series. There are now 5 different Wave series, the Wave, Tidal Wave, Shock Wave, Double Wave and Easy Wave. The three I am most familiar with are the Wave, Tidal Wave and Easy Wave. The difference in these three is in the height. The Wave is low growing (4-6”) while the Tidal Wave is a more upright variety (16-22”). The Easy Wave falls in the middle (6-10”). They all have a spreading habit which makes all of them ideal for containers. In the It’s a Grand Old Flag design, I have one of each which adds to the interest of the grouping.

Waves also make excellent groundcover. If you have a large area to cover Waves are the way to go. A few plants will cover a large area. After the first time planting Waves in a flower bed, I had to scale back plantings because the plants did so well. I had problems with them taking over. One of my favorite things to do with Waves is to plant upright plants of a contrasting color that poke through the spreading Waves. The effect is spectacular. I have used medium height snapdragons or upright petunias in conjunction with Waves with great success.

As for the hundreds of other petunia varieties which fall into categories based on flower-size, they also make excellent choices for container gardening. For myself I have noticed a shift away from making the petunia the center attraction in a container and giving it a supporting role. I have been very pleased with the results. One of my favorites is the milliflora varieties which are the smallest flowers. I like to plant it with other mounding type plants like this:

Petunias are also good as filler plants in more complex container designs and when using specialty foliage plants. Because of the variety of colors, sizes and heights, I can almost always find a petunia variety to complement my design.

In the coming weeks, I’ll be showing more designs that use petunias. They really are a beautiful and versatile annual. When you head out to the nurseries and garden centers this spring, give petunias another look. Think of how they can complement plants rather than taking front and center as they have in years gone by. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find that petunias really are new and exciting!

Growing Art: Container Garden Design of the Week

It’s a Grand Old Flag!

This is a really simple basic design. So simple in fact, it really shouldn’t be called a design. However, this is a good example of how grouping pots together creates a big impact.

I used three colors of wave petunias: red, blue and silver. The silver is a white flower with purple veins although the flowers sometimes will be lavender instead of white. I chose the silver instead of white because it gave the same effect as pure white without the harshness. Pure white flowers definitely have their place in the garden but just not with bright colors like red and purple, in my opinion.

In my earlier gardening days I would have put one of each color in each pot thinking that would yield the effect of the flag. In doing that, however, each color is actually diminished and mostly it just looks a mess. Putting all one color in a pot allows each color to shine on its own as well as collectively creating a patriotic impact. In general, single plants have less impact except in the instance of accent plants. Here, 3 to 4 petunias per pot provide a big wow factor. If you pinch the plants back within the first month, you will have really full beautiful flowering plants. I know it’s hard to pinch them back when they are just starting to take off, but try it. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

The stand I used here is one I picked up at the street fair some years ago. I love it. However, the same effect could be achieved by using pots of different sizes or by raising up pots with pavers or bricks. This is also an excellent grouping to use on steps.