Yup.....you're hooked! :) Sounds like you also zoomed in on the greatest thing about container gardening. Containers not only let you feature a great plant or a breathtaking arrangement of plants...they also let you have a completely evolving, ever changing garden (also in a place you could never have plants before!). Now you don't have to be sad when a plant stops blooming in your flowerbed and things start looking a little lopsided or bare...and you don't have to wish you had planted that one plant in a different spot for a better balance. Now you can have a different look constantly just by re-arranging or replacing pots!

I'm so glad you are having fun! Afterall isn't that the purpose of plants...to bring joy? Now you just need to get a camera so we can all see. :)

I'm waiting for one of my pots of lilies to hurry up and get finished so I can plant my newly purchased flower carpet rose in the pot! That pot started with snowdrops, tulips, daffodils, lilies, and now it's ready for something else. I've got two more pots of Oriental lilies that will take another three weeks to a month to finish, then I'll put something else in the pots. I've got nicotiana waiting to be planted in a pot that had something else in it earlier this spring.

I've been hooked for 20 years! And it just gets more fun every year, and I never stop learning things. I've gotten lots of inspiration from this and other gardening sites. People lots more creative than I am who can point the way.

Judith

I think I qualify as "hopeless". I now have 5 categories of pots:

1) spring-flowering pots, which I fill with tulips, crocuses, daffodils and hyacinths, interplanted with pansies, Icelandic Poppies and Anemone coronaria.

2) Warm-season pots, which get begonias, coleus, cannas, ornamental grasses, fuchsias (triphylla hybrids, mostly) and other tropical plants

3) Fall pots, which have chrysanthemums and get pansies/violas interplanted

4) Black swap-out pots to tuck in flower beds. Right now most of them have Dahlias in them, to bloom in late summer and early fall

5) The front all-season pots, which receive bulbs in fall and warm-weather plants as the bulbs fade (These are the only ones I don't swap out because they are just too big do drag around)

The first four groups of pots get swapped out and/or dumped or put in my "nursery" to grow along until they are at their prime. When I dump the container soil, I throw it in my compost heap or directly out into the flower beds depending on the season.

I love container gardening too! It has opened up a whole new realm of possiblities for me. I enjoy being able to completely change to look of my patio, by just switching trees/shrubs around. Not so easy if they are in the ground(G).

Using containers allows me to grow plants that do not do well in native soil such as Miracle fruit, and those that need special care such as Pomegranates.

We harvested luscious peaches, apples and nectarines off container trees this spring and will only have to step outside the front door this fall for fresh citrus.

I like learning about soil mixtures and how to keep the plants happy.

I like the fact that when hurricanes threaten I can move my facorite plants to safety.

And the fact that a healthy tropical plant in a decorative pot is *beautiful* is icing on the cake.

Lisa

I'll soon be in your spot, ljrmiller. It's so clear that containers are the solution to the battle with maple roots that next year I plan to have twice as many. Hah, take that, street tree! I have had so much fun moving them around, too. If a color combination isn't working, you just swap things around. My husband is on notice to finish the dang wine cellar project that's been filling up the basement for years now, so that I can overwinter my pots.

I love containers too. I am in the process of completely redoing our yard. When we moved in, the yard was a mess. I have been able to keep several containers going while the rest of the backyard was bare. At least I had color on my little patio!! The other day, I finished an area in the front yard. I had placed some containers here and there in the flowerbed. My husband later asked why I had placed pots on perfectly good dirt! I told him they added heighth and interest, but I would move them and buy more plants to achieve the look I if he wanted me to. He said the pots would be just fine LOL.
Sher

I am still having so much fun with my first year container garden that I am already in the process of expanding for next year.Collecting all kinds of containers too.I found an old tin breadbox,an old egg gathering basket that I will line with something,an old stool to hold a pot that I will put trailing plants in to hide the legs.I am always on the lookout and it is amazing what I am finding and cheap too.
I am so impressed with my glads.The foliage is still great,they all have very long flower stems and they are blooming now.This year was just experimental,just one color(Spic and Span)coral with a bit of yellow,think I paid $2.50 for 12,but what a show.
I only started all this because of this forum, with all the great ideas,but now I am seeing what the buzz is all about.

I admit that I probably neglect my flower beds because I'm having too much fun playing in the containers. I know my neighbors probably think I'm crazy, because I am constantly rearranging containers to get the maximum effect.