TOO FUNNY. I was just going to start a similar thread!!! Great minds must think alike luckygal ;-)

I used to think doing up pots was kind of 'frou-frou'. But now I am starting to get into it and enjoy experimenting with planters etc, especially since there is only so much you can play around with in a small-ish garden.

I re-use soil from the pots for either winter sowing projects or add it as a 'starter' in my compost in fall. So I don't add any non-soil fillers. I did fill the pots half way with cheaper soil and peat moss and then the top half got the better potting soil.

Last year I did mostly veggies and herbs in my terra cotta pots (have a small collection), but decided this year to have fun with annuals, a few perennials, and even a couple "house plants". What I did this year was start out with one focal-point plant (coleus for the most part) of the pot and picked out pot mates according to what would look good with it. Annuals seem to be pretty forgiving about light/soil requirements, so I pretty much just planted what I liked together. When it came to height I stuck with planting the thing that would get tallest in the back with smaller/trailing things in front OR tallest thing in the middle with smaller/trailing things all around it.

Here are some pics of the pots I did this year. Hope you don't mind that there are a lot???

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CMK

This is the first year I planted containers, but I think I may have a few tips for you that I've picked up from somewhere.

1. To reduce the amount of soil used in large containers, I took old plastic containers that new plants come in, turned them upside-down and placed them in the bottom of the large containers and put the soil on tip. It reduces the amount of soil you have to use and makes it easier to move the containers around because they aren't so heavy.

2. When it comes to combining plants for your containers, remember THRILLER, SPILLER, FILLER. A thriller is something tall and eye-catching (I used a tall, ornamental grass). A spiller is something vine-like that will spill out of the container and trail down (ie, sweet potato vine, creeping jenny, etc.). A filler is basically anything you like that you can stick in the remaining spaces.

Christin, your pots sure look good.

I do the same thing as stephf and use the nursery pots turned upside down to fill in space. The roots just grow all around them. I tend to like coleus as a main feature in the pots because there are so many dramatic colors. Then I fill in with some other random annuals I might stumble upon. I generally use potato vine every year too.

This past winter I went through a whole mess of garden magazines and took pictures of so many things and sorted into picasa albums. Here's the album I put together for container gardening with a handful of pictures. Maybe something will strike your fancy.

Here is a link that might be useful: containers

Thanks for the tips! Coleus seems to be a winner and I've always liked them so will certainly look for some - so many choices of colors too.

CMK - Great Minds - yes! :-D I seldom did pots before we retired as we traveled in the summer but am now enjoying having some extra potted plant decor in several places. Love the purple coleus in your 2nd pic and the variegated red/green in pic #4. Is that a geranium Vancouver Centennial in pic #3? I've had that plant a couple of times and really like it for the interesting foliage. Thanks so much for posting pics - IMO there can never be too many!

Steph - I'll definitely use the upended pot idea, in the past I've partially filled the pots with sawdust but they'll be lighter with the empty pots.

Thyme2dig - thanks for the photo album link - I love that idea of making pot feet, never seen those before. Have you made those?

If you don't have extra pots to spare for the bottoms of your containers, tie up a plastic shopping bag full of styrofoam packing peanuts and set it upside down in the bottom to take up space and make the containers lighter. Rolled up recycled bubble wrap works too.

My all-time favorite shade favorites for containers are annuals--begonias, coleus, New Guinea impatiens, caladiums, lobelia--the vivid, neon colors really pop in shady nooks & corners all season long. For sun I prefer million bells/calibrachoa after having them bloom non-stop right up until Thanksgiving the first year I grew them. I have red, purple & white in a container this year with a dusty pink ageratum and a bit of variegated vinca vine which I'm guessing satisfies the thriller/spiller/filler criteria. Evidently I've been using that to plant my containers for 20+ years without even knowing it!!!

I really like having pots of plants on my deck and porch. I mostly use pots in the 8 to 14 inch range and I prefer to plant one type of plant per container although sometimes I'll put a trailing plant in with an upright. Then I group the containers for pleasing flower color and foliage combos. I often move them around several times during the summer just to get a different look.

I don't think you can go too far wrong with container plantings as long as you keep the conditions each plant likes in mind when combining them.

Thanks luckygal ;-) The dark purple coleus is 'Theater Velvet' and the red and green is 'Twist and Twirl' I think. Actually, that geranium is 'Indian Dunes'. I overwintered it inside over the winter!
CMK

I use a lot of big pots since I have such a shady yard so I can move them when I need to. I have three huge pots with blue hydrangeas in them. One plant per pot, but I have some cobalt blue glass bottles stuck on bamboo stakes in one and a wrought stake with a blue glass ball finial in another one. For filler in the bottom of the big pots, I use empty Pepsi cans and put the potting soil on top. In my mixed pots I like to use asparagus ferns, money plant, short cannas. I like red-leafed coleus with red geraniums. Another one plant per pot plant I LOVE is blue plumbago! I have two blue glazed pots of it. It doesn't overwinter here, so I buy it every year. I need a greenhouse!

Check out finegardening.com for ideas. Mix silvery licourice, purple coleus, some blue flowers, etc. in containers. look for tall plants to be mixed in with low cascading plants and then rounded plants. Don't be afraid to mix perennials and annuals together. For example lavenders do well as container plants. Why not ornamental grasses with coleus?

Ianna

Thanks for all the ideas! Interesting to hear what others do and I've now even more ideas so I'll see if I can stick to my list at the garden center! LOL

I live in the city, so almost my entire garden is in containers and I'm very happy with it. I had read a NYCgarden designer's book and she also suggested planting one type of plant in each container, so youcould meet that plant's specific needs and then group different containers together for nice effects. Perennials that look great for me in containers and overwinter well (I just tip pot sideways so freeze thaw of collected snow won't rot roots) are coreopsis, Veronica Fairy tale and Royal Candles blue, and thalictrum. In pots that hadn't filled in yet, I tossed cosmos in all shades of white, pin k, and magenta. Really pretty!