Homegrown: Planning for planters

Linn County Master Gardener, Lisa Slattery, offers the following advice, and these great photos, for container plantings:

You know it when you see it...an outstanding combination of flowers in a container.  When a container has just the right mixture of plants it stops passersby in their tracks and it draws the gardener out in all of us - we feel the need to stop, touch and enjoy the symmetry and design.  Then there are the containers that are almost a hit - perhaps one or two items that seem out of place....or not.  Most of the time plant combinations are a personal  preference.  I've probably put together thousands of containers in the past decade of gardening and I always know when I get one, or several, right.

When you plan containers think outside the box.  Geraniums, spike and Vinca vine are a classic trio but there are some really spectacular new varieties of flowers and foliage plants that combine beautifully.  If you love Red Geraniums, pair them with some bright Coleus varieties like "Sky Fire" or "Olympic Torch," throw in some deep purple verbena and add chartreuse Sedum or lime green Lysimachia.  Yellow petunias more your style?  Mix with bright blue salvia, hot pink (or better yet pink & yellow stripped)  Calibrachoa, and pinkish-purple Echinacea or Coneflower.  What?  Plant a perennial in a container with annuals?  You bet.  Or try some tropicals like Cannas or Banana Plants, or  Elephant Ear "Colocasia" as well for drama.  Don't be afraid to add something unexpected too - like Swiss Chard "Bright Lights" or flowering Chives, purple leaf Basil or variegated Sage.

Take photos of plant combinations that you like at gardens and public parks or just think about what colors you like together.  Think similar colors, opposite colors, and several shades of one color.  Also consider plant form and growing habit.  Mix tall spiky plants with rounded soft-edged plants and of course, put in trailers to grow over pot edges and give you a full, flowing design. Tall and spiky Verbena Buenos Aires is beautiful with deep pink, large leaved Acalypha (another foliage plant favorite of mine.)  Annual and perennial grasses add grace and structure to showy Pentas and petunias.

No matter what combinations you select they will behave differently each year depending on temperature and moisture levels.  This summer was a test for heat tolerance and flowers that like heat such as Vinca and Zinnias are gorgeous this year.  However, with containers comes the task of watering and the smaller the container the more often you will be watering.

Follow a few container basics like providing drainage in a container, using good potting soil (not ground soil) and using mulch...yes mulch in containers...and you will give you plants a good start.  Containers also require regular fertilization. Soluble fertilizers can be applied weekly at ¼ the recommended monthly rate or you can opt for slow release fertilizers which release a small amount of fertilizer every time the plant is watered. Always check labels for application rates.

So next year, think out of the box and experiment with plants or new combinations that you have never tried before.