Glenna Partridge Garden Design Hi Kathy,

That's a good question! I typically put a lot of plant material in my containers so they look good right from the start. As long as the root ball fits it's going into to my container! Sometimes I even knock some soil off the plant to squeeze it in. Try to find a container that's at least 18"- 20" across.

When you do pack in a lot of plants you need to make sure that you fertilize the container every week to 10 days with a water soluble fertilizer with the numbers 15 - 30 - 15 ( Miracle grow or any other brand that has those numbers on the label will be fine). Also all those plants are going to be competing for water so you might have to water a little more.

I've attached examples of some of the containers I planted at the beginning of the season (May '11 planting) and you can see how happy they are in August with a regular "feed". I hope this helps!

Koreman Landscape Company Feritilzer and water are very important. When you choose plant material be sure to place "competeing" plants together. Certain annuals will take over others. Do not be afraid to give your annuals a good hair cut around the 4th of July. Ipomea grows very quickly and responds well to frequent haircuts so it does not overpower the other plants. Good luck, container gardening can be a wonderful experiment! Enjoy.

lexie crcork, I should of told you where each is located.the little pink flowers on the left is impatients,the lime is sweet potato,the pink and green is calidyum(sp) .the bright green with red flowers is begonia, the purple is the purple heart..I can not see the second pot well enough. It is beautiful. Lexie

lexie crcork, if you go on line and enter red flowers for containers or white or purple you will find lots of plants to work with. Lexie