June 23, 2008

what’s cooking in your pots?

Filed Under annuals & perennials, hot p(l)ants, tools & techniques

I AM DOING SOME SLIGHTLY LATE POT-PLANTING, piecing together plants gathered from here and there this spring into some impromptu designs I think I’ll like once they grow in. You? How about a show-and-tell?

The Acalypha ‘Giant Leaf,’ splashed with pinky-peaches, gold and green, and my beloved Calibrachoa ‘Terra Cotta’ that I’ve grown flats of each year since it was introduced not long ago, seemed an obvious pairing. The Acalypha, a tropical shrub in its native haunts, will get 2 or 3 feet tall by summer’s end. You probably know what the million bells will do, much like a tiny petunia. I love how it, too, has a mosaic of color…two chameleons in a single big pot.

The barrel below, beside by barn, is barely getting started. But in it is a canna called ‘Grande’ with red edges and giant green leaves (I remove the flowers if they ever form), a couple of gold leaf Helichrysum and two of my favorite Pelargonium, ‘Vancouver Centennial,’ with chartreuse and red leaves and the hottest of orange-red flowers. I tucked a ‘Terra Cotta’ million bells in for good measure. Stay tuned.

I’m going to post some more photos of combinations I’m trying in our Urgent Garden Question Forums, where you have photo-uploading privileges, too, in the hopes you’ll share some design concepts of your own with all of us. Then we can watch our pots together this summer and see what we’ve all cooked up.

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Comments

30 Responses to “what’s cooking in your pots?”

Andrew Ritchie on June 23rd, 2008 8:23 am

In my biggest container, I’ve got Pieris japonica ‘Red Head’ which is shrub-like and so lovely. Around its base I’ve planted my favourite English ivy that hangs over the edges. I’ll have to give it to someone with actual land eventually, since they get pretty big. In the small containers I have cyclamen and African violets. I also have a really fan-like maidenhair fern in one of them, which I just recently transplanted from my parents’ cottage. I’m always concerned about transplants, so we’ll see how this ‘operation’ goes.

-Andrew
Keith Alexander on June 23rd, 2008 10:25 am

I’ve got lots of Japanese Rohdea cultivars and Amorphophallus in pots this year. The Amorphs don’t get the love from me that they used to - though I do still love them. The passion that used to be theirs now belongs to the Rohdea.
margaret on June 23rd, 2008 10:51 am

Ah! The fickle heart of a gardener…sounds like you have some real treasures, so no wonder it’s hard to decide which one to love most of all.
Peg in South Carolina on June 23rd, 2008 12:45 pm

I just found your blog via the article in the NYTimes. It is wonderful! I garden in very different country from you (SC) but you still have much to say to me. As for pots, that is the only way many people in the south (not me, but I’m from Wisconsin anyway)garden. They don’t like to mess in the dirt. So I have just started learning about pots, but so far only one plant to a pot. This piece has inspired me to begin thinking about more than one plant in a pot.
margaret on June 23rd, 2008 2:13 pm

Welcome, Peg, to A Way to Garden. Glad that you are going to try multiples. I do a lot of single-plant pots as well, and like both ways. And I like multiples of a single kind of plant in one big pot…so many possibilities!
Jim on June 23rd, 2008 4:28 pm

Margaret, what’s been your experience with potted Bay Laurel standards. I have two I’m living with here zone 6. They stay outside most of the year except when the temperature dips below 26 degrees. Do I have to do some root pruning eventually? If so, what time of year? The older one seems very happy in its 20″ plastic pot.
margaret on June 23rd, 2008 6:26 pm

My issue w/bay laurels was always insects, especially scale. Yuck. I would root prune every third year when I repotted just as active growth was about to begin in earliest spring.
Ted on June 23rd, 2008 6:31 pm

This year we’ve been jiving on magenta and deep flowers with burgundy and brownish foliage, plus a few pops of silver.

Some plants are eyelash salvia, brownies heuchera, zwarttop (sp?) aeonium, silver senicio plus some verbena, bedding dahlia and calibrachoa. For me the best thing about containers is starting with a whole new concept every spring. I think Acalypha is on my list for next year. Keep us up to date on its progress.
Mary Collier on June 23rd, 2008 7:44 pm

Hi, Margaret. I, too, am one of the lucky ones who read about your blog in the NYTimes. I garden here in the foothills of the California Sierra Mountains at about 2,800 ft. I share many, many plants with the deer, jackrabbits, moles and other fauna that pass through. Beginning in early March, my place is also the host to tree frogs that hang out everywhere, including in the steam shower in the pool house!

I wanted to share one of my pot combos with others. I combined a hot pink verbena that trails over the side of a terra cotta pot with a smallish, creamy pink carnation and filled in the pot with lamium which now has a nice pale pink blossom. It’s a combo of greens, grays and pinks. Nice. This combo sits on a brick patio that gets morning sun and is next to a pot filled with creamy pale yellow gerberas (I know, gerberas are everywhere, but until 3 nites ago they also were a flower that no creature seemed tempted by.)

I will look forward to your daily blog as a reward and inspiration after a hard day’s work in the yard. Thanks for your sharing your green thumb and your life’s work. Awesome!!
margaret on June 23rd, 2008 9:09 pm

Did Ted say JIVE as in HAND JIVE? Uh-oh. Cannot control myself if that is in the air…

And Miss Mary, give your frog boys a kiss for me! Welcome.
Brian G. on June 23rd, 2008 9:54 pm

Hand Jive! You are too funny. Good night to Johnny Otis, Willie and little Margaret.
margaret on June 23rd, 2008 10:03 pm

@Brian: Can’t sleep quite yet, too busy jivin’! ;-)
Wendy Erickson on June 24th, 2008 7:46 am

What a lovely site- I found it through a friend who read the NY Times article. This spring I planted an unusual grouping in a decorative oblong concrete planter almost 3ft long- Some eucalyptus (from a garden center, rounded leaves) in the middle, some love-lies-bleeding that I started from seed, a little splash of blue with some lobelia, a little lemongrass plant which looks feathery (plus I can cook with it!) with a few hens and chicks in the front. It’s in full sun in my NJ garden, so I’m hoping it will soon be an interesting crowded mix of textures and green/blue colors with a little pop of fushia from the love lies bleeding. What fun!
-Wendy
Dan Gates on June 24th, 2008 8:12 am

Living in Zone 3 as I do combined with a somewhat unhealthy facination with agaves,phormiums bamboos and amorphophallus makes pot gardening a must. Almost 200 and counting. Our last frost date was only 10 days ago and I have spent the past week placing the pots throughout the garden where I feel they look the best. Now I walk through the garden with flats of various annuals I have started from seed along with pots of tender perenials ( at least for us! ) such as origanum ( Kent Beauty my new favorite ) tricolor sages, mondo grass etc. I look at each pot and its surrounding and then decide what will look best. And then just as a safty net tuck a few trailing nasturtium seeds here and there.
Its funny what seems like perfectly natural behavior seems a tad obsessive when I write it here! LOL
Carol McConnell on June 24th, 2008 9:20 am

Hi Margaret…I will join the crowd who found you by way of NYT..I live in East Tennessee and love to be outside..so much good advice and information on your blog..so I will settle in with a cup of tea and read away..I would love information for a good climbing rose…have a great day…

Carol
margaret on June 24th, 2008 9:42 am

Welcome Wendy and Carol.
Wendy, it sounds as if you are an adventurer, with an unusual mix under way in that pot. Hope you’ll upload a photo tothe Forums when things grow in…
Carol, in East Tennessee you have so many choices for climbers (compared to up this way)–is there a color you are hankering for?
And Dan, all I can say is “Uh-oh.” I think you are in deep. (Pot, tee hee, calling kettle…)
Carol McConnell on June 24th, 2008 12:51 pm

Margaret…probably a light color..and maybe repeat bloomer for the season..would have to be easy care..so is there one rose for me ?

Thanks and I’m having so much fun on your site..

Carol
Jim on June 24th, 2008 4:35 pm

Carol,
How about ‘New Dawn’? Vigorous, pale pink rebloomer. Disease resistant.
Sandra Iden on June 24th, 2008 5:25 pm

Dear Margaret: Planters are the knicknacks of the garden. They don’t have to be dusted but love to move around and grace a dull spot. I tuck nasturtiums into many of the pots that have already been established. The planters are like a good stew using what is around and then follow the simple steps of something tall, medium and droopy.
diana on June 24th, 2008 9:52 pm

My nephew left his red converse all*stars (which he outgrew :)) here so I filled them with hens and chicks and portulacas.

Last fall at nursery blowout sale I got a huge pot filled with various perennials and annuals for 75% off and it flourished for two months or so. This spring only the lovely large coral bell came back so I added some lantana with shades of yellow and orange and a kent’s beauty oragano, it looks really great.

I recently bought a teensy pot filled with about 10 different succulents which I’m gonna split apart and intersperse with some orange and apricot portulacas in a couple of broken pots set overlapping each other.

Oh, and in the shade I have a blue pot with pink impatiens, periwinkle blue lobelia and chartreuse sweet potato vine. Can you tell I love pots? diana
Carol McConnell on June 24th, 2008 10:37 pm

Thanks Margaret for the suggestion..looked up pictures and love it…will be off to my local garden center tomorrow to see if I can find one.. will check back often..

Carol
margaret on June 25th, 2008 6:05 am

Jim, thanks for suggesting ‘New Dawn’ (a real beauty) to Carol…I think you made a sale! I love the books by old friend and top rosarian Stephen Scanniello, and here’s an article from a few years back about his own garden mentioning some of the roses in it. I have all his books…even though I grow hardly any roses!
robert on June 25th, 2008 6:27 am

So glad to see your photo of that acalypha… it’s my favorite plant of the season (so far) even though I say I don’t like tropicals and I say I don’t like splashed variegation… such is the seductive charm of plants! I put mine solo in a nice Guy Wolff pot and may train it as a standard. Right now it looks terrific in a big group of mixed succulents in pots that are summering outdoors…really picks up some of their subtle pink and coral undertones.
Carol McConnell on June 25th, 2008 8:36 am

Jim missed that you sent the suggestion..so thank you also…will let you know how my search goes today…

Carol
romy on June 25th, 2008 1:00 pm

Hi, old friend. I planted blue salvia and white cleome and one other plant (name escapes me, I’ll find it and re-post my comment) all in one pot. The mystery one is doing great but the salvia are wilting. My guess is they are a) crowded and b) baking in too much sun. Should I take something out? Advice?
margaret on June 25th, 2008 2:06 pm

Welcome, Romy…nice to “see” you again. How big is said pot? How many total plants spaced how far apart? And what kind of potting mix? Questions, questions.
romy on June 25th, 2008 6:06 pm

OK, don’t laugh but here goes… about a 14″ pot, probably 7 total plants (not exactly sure how far apart but this may be the problem) and regular old Miracle Gro potting mix (is that bad? Novice, here.) And it’s not the salvia that are wilting; it was the Angelonia. But today they looked perky. I’ll post a photo. Don’t worry about indulging me if this is a silly waste of time — I really just wanted to say hello and let you know that we are gardening here and loving every second of it. Our vegetables are doing fabulously already. It’s nice to be in touch with you…
margaret on June 25th, 2008 6:37 pm

I am not laughing. The one time I laughed was when my best friend forced paperwhites and called me eventually to say “Why do mine have white spaghetti instead of flowers?” because she had planted the bulbs upside-down.
I pre-wet my potting mix in the bag or in a wheelbarrow or bucket, as it can sometimes be hard to water otherwise, it’s so dusty-dry.
Seven plants might be a lot in that pot, esp if one is a cleome (which gets big/tall), but sometimes things simply wilt when transplanted to kind of express their shock at the situation, and then eventually stand up again when they feel able. Stress does it to the best of us…and we’d LOVE to see the pix on the forums, yes.
margaret on June 25th, 2008 9:16 pm

UPDATE: A few brave souls have in fact accepted my invite and shared pix of their pots on the Forums, so maybe you want to have a look (and even add to the portfolio)?
Mary Anne Davis on June 27th, 2008 5:26 pm

Ah, here we are, the containers… I have almost all pansies, yellow, still going strong in about 6 containers. You raise the bar for me with this post. I will have to drag myself away from the kiln and go plant up a couple of containers! thanks for the reminder…

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Who's Gardening Here?

from martha to just margaret
I was so blessed to visit and document many of the nation’s finest homemade gardens for 15 years for ‘Martha Stewart Living,’ first as its garden editor and then as editorial director for the company. The list of places we were proud to publish included my own upstate New York home a few years back. Take a tour of how it looked then. Want to know more about me? Or read what Anne Raver said in June in The New York Times, calling A Way to Garden “the best (garden blog) I’d ever seen.”
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One of the most popular questions at A Way to Garden: Why do you garden? A bunch of us answered in a stream of comments, but there's great newer stuff on the Forums. Just in case you'd like to tell us why, too (or have a good read about what makes the rest of us tick).
August Garden Chores

All based on my Zone 5B Berkshire/Hudson Valley location; adjust accordingly.

I SOMETIMES THINK THAT AUGUST, not April, is the cruelest month (though T.S. Eliot thought otherwise). Hazy, hot and humid…and plum tuckered out. But give up we must not. Every weed pulled now is a hundred you don’t have to deal with later (well, who knows the precise math of mama weed to baby weed, but you get the idea: prevention!). Don’t let them go to seed.

WATERING IS another major focus; don’t waste water on lawns, which will bounce back from brown in time when cooler, moister days return.

MAKE A PASS through each bed each week, since weeds are not just unsightly but steal moisture, nutrients and light from desired plants. Top up mulch in all garden beds if washed or worn away to help in the plight.

TREES & SHRUBS

STOP FEEDING woody plants. Promoting more soft growth in high summer isn’t good; time for them to start moving toward the hardening-off phase of their cycle. No more eats till earliest spring.

TREES ARE especially vulnerable to drought, particularly the oldest and the youngest (those planted in the last few years). Water deeply, as with a Tree-Gator. Ugly…but better than not watering the kids!

ALWAYS BE on the lookout for dead, damaged, diseased wood in trees and shrubs and prune them out as discovered. Ditto with suckers and water sprouts.

VEGETABLE, FRUIT & HERBS

AS AREAS COME EMPTY from harvest, build vegetable-garden soil by sowing cover crops: medium red clover now, or perhaps winter rye if you don’t do some areas till mid-fall. These “green manures” will be turned under to improve soil tilth and fertility.

SOW ANOTHER CROP OF PEAS right now for fall harvest (and perhaps freezing for offseason use!). Shelled peas from the freezer really make risotto in January taste like summer.

STRAWBERRY BEDS may appreciate rejuvenation now, if you didn’t get it done last month.

KEEP ASPARAGUS well weeded. Let asparagus ferns grow till frost to feed the underlying crowns.

DID YOU HARVEST GARLIC? Save the best heads for replanting this fall, the ones with the biggest cloves (or order more for fall delivery).

ANOTHER SOWING of chard, radishes, arugula, spinach, turnips, beets and lettuce means succulent fall crops. With salad greens, sow small amounts now and again in 10 days. Direct-sow one more row of bush beans if you don’t have pole beans to rely on for harvest now through fall, but do it fast.

DID YOU START MORE BASIL from seed? Young, fresh plants sown immediately will be better than woody old ones for combining with those fall tomatoes. Is there enough fresh dill coming for late pickles? For peak flavor, basil, sage, marjoram and oreganos, mint, tarragon are best harvested just before bloom. Harvest lavender, rosemary and chamomile as they flower, blossoms and all.

FLOWER GARDEN

DAYLILIES can be dug and divided as they complete their bloom cycle, right into fall, if needed.

PEONIES are best divided and transplanted in late August through September, if they need it. Remember with these fussy guys that “eyes” must not be buried more than an inch or two beneath the soil surface. Want more peonies? Now’s the time to order from places like Klehm’s (see Sources list).

MANY POPULAR ANNUALS can be overwintered as young plants if you take and root cuttings now rather than try to nurse along leggy older specimens. Geraniums, coleus, wax begonias, even impatiens (to name just a few common ones), if grown in good light indoors and kept pinched and bushy, will yield another generation of cuttings for next spring’s transplants. Probably best to expend this effort and space on things you really treasure—an unusual form of something, not the garden variety.

MANY PERENNIALS and biennials can still be started from seed if you hurry, then set out in the fall into nursery beds.

DEADHEAD FADED PERENNIALS and summer bulbs unless they have showy seedheads, or you want to collect seed later (non-hybrids only).

ORDER BULBS to get varieties you want (see Sources). Remember our “early, middle, late” mantra when doing so.

PREPARE NEW beds for fall planting by smothering grass or weeds with layers of recycled corrugated cardboard or thick layers of newspaper, then put mulch on top.

RE-EDGE BEDS to make a clean line and define them, and keep edges clean with regular fine-tuning with grass shears. A clean edge makes a big difference.

GENERAL

IF YOU ARE IN JAPANESE BEETLE territory, handpick (as with other obvious pests like tomato hornworms) in early morning and drown in a can of water to reduce infestation. Plan to try to reduce grub population with nematodes.

GARDENS NEED an inch of water a week from you or the heavens. Check your rain gauge to make sure they get it, and remember: soak deeply in the root zone, don’t spritz things with a sprayer now and again like you’re washing the car. That’s a garden no-no. Pots need extra attention, especially smallish ones in sun, and they also need regular feeding. Be alert!

HOUSEPLANTS

IF HOUSEPLANTS NEED repotting, do it now, while’s they’re still outside (less messy than in the house!). Don’t step up more than an inch (on small pots) or a couple (on large ones). Most plants don’t like to swim in their containers.

LAWNS

MID-AUGUST TO MID-SEPTEMBER is prime lawn-renovation and planting time in the North.

DON’T BAG OR RAKE clippings; let them lie on the lawn to return Nitrogen to the soil.

COMPOST HEAP

DON’T LET the heap dry out completely, or it will not “cook.” Turning it to aerate will also hasten decomposition, but things will rot eventually even if not turned.
Brief but Juicy

ultimate garden no-no’s
WHEN SOMEONE ASKED in a comment about my point of view on using landscape fabric, the fuse was quickly lit: NO! I said. NO! I’ve rounded up some no-no’s we’ve posted collectively so far, but I bet by now there are a few more things to bitch about. Grab a lawn chair and a cold drink, and we can fester together. Sure beats weeding (which ought to be a garden no-no).

lose anything lately?
THE SAYING GOES THAT a thing of beauty is a joy forever. I guess “forever” in this case is in the mind’s eye. My darling, oldest bottlebrush buckeye (Aesculus parviflora) went down for the count in July, or at least half of it did, and I had already seen the death knell for a couple of my 10 crabapples. Jeez.

true love, really
LOOK, I HAVE A THING for frogs. Call it my little fetish. An issue. Whatever. My general obsession notwithstanding, I’ve finally met THE ONE FOR ME.

hail the stewartia
I LIKE PLANTS THAT EARN THEIR KEEP. By that I mean they do more than a week or two of showing off; they look good in more than a single moment, or season. The small-ish to medium trees in the genus Stewartia are a good bet if that’s the kind of multi-season interest you are looking for. Sound good?

more, more, more clematis
WHEN I SEE ‘POLISH SPIRIT’ CLAMBERING up and through the golden Chamaecyparis in late spring-into-summer, I realize I have a serious Clematis shortage around here. Not in the Chamaecyparis, specifically, but in lots of other places where things look a little dull. I’ve got a penchant for growing vines up and over otherwise-dull shrubbery, you see.

can-do pruning
REPEAT AFTER ME: I can prune. I can prune. If you follow this simple method for starters, your woody plants will thank you.

the ‘other’ peonies
JUNE WAS PEONY TIME, the big raucous kind of peony time, but just before that another kind of peony you might want to consider adopting did its subtler, wonderful thing.

which lilac to plant?
SO MANY LILACS, so little space. Browse a glossary of some of my favorites before you shop—maybe you’ll like them, too.

non-blooming peonies?
Did your peonies not cooperate—was there not a good crop of flower buds, and you don’t know why? This came up on the Forums, and here’s the dish.

twist-off ticks
I AM COMING IN everyday with at least a tick or two on me; not embedded, thankfully, so far, but it's only a matter of time. But I am prepared. Are you?

anything but forsythia
I guess I have a thing against forsythia…even though I have several specimens of it along the fringes of my property. But there are better choices for spring color among shrubs.

surprise (avian) visitors
If you make a garden for birds, or even plant a crabapple or two (or ten), you never know who’ll show up.

magnolias to love
THEY’RE MEMORIES NOW but I couldn't garden without magnolias. Want to know more about the queen of the spring-blooming trees?

order in the garden
I AM LABELING my plants, I am. As memory fades, out comes the label machine, just in the nick. Saved by the Dymo. You can be, too.
Buried Treasure

I NOTICE THAT BLOGGING results in some rich but buried treasure: great stuff in a comment thread you may not see; interesting topics on the forums that perhaps you haven't visited.

Subjects ranging from feeding and pruning Hydrangeas and pruning clematis, to entertaining (read: ranting) lists and lists of garden no-no’s (not just mine!).

Pick a click, and enjoy. Better yet, CHIME IN yourself. Up in the nav bar…that's right, GO FOR IT: our Q&A FORUMS.