Hi Syreeta,

One perennial I have in a half barrel that has survived my zone 1B on the deck for three years now has been clematis macropetala 'Blue Bird'. It's right in the middle of the barrel and climbs a metal lattice trellis.

Last summer I also tried using hemerocallis 'Stella D'Oro' with mixed results as half of them made it and half of them didn't. The half which made it were right in the middle of the barrel and had alot of snow cover, while the other half were against a shed and filled the barrel but had early spring snowmelt coming off the shed and into the barrel which probably did them in... probably not the best for barrels.

Hope that helped alittle,
Rob

Syreeta, try to convince them to use annuals. I have 4 half barrels and I've tried just about everything and nothing has lasted more than two years as far as perennials. Last year I decided to put in a Petunia Tidal Wave Silver in each container and you should have seen the display, wow!

If you can move the barrels inside a shed or garage and cover them in straw they might survive.

I have not had any luck with perennials in my barrels and have reverted to annuals.