Growing Plants in Pots

Colorful pots of annuals, or window boxes filled with beautiful shrub roses or small perennials enhance the look of a deck or patio. Whether pots are arranged in a group for a massed effect or a smaller space is highlighted with a single specimen, containers are a delightful and simple way to create a garden.

Container gardening enables the gardener to easily vary the color scheme, and as each plant finishes flowering, it can be replaced with another. Whether color harmony or contrast is chosen, make sure there is also variety in the height of each plant. Think about the shape and texture of the leaves. Tall strap-like leaves will give a good vertical background to low-growing, wide-leaved plants. Choose plants with a long flowering season, or have others of a different type ready to replace them as they finish blooming.

Different Types of Containers to Use

Experiment with creative containers. An old porcelain bowl or copper urn is just as beautiful as many modern, purchased pots. If ready-made containers are used, terracotta pots look wonderful, but they tend to absorb water causing plants to dry out quickly, so paint the interior of these pots with a special sealer available from hardware stores.

Cheaper plastic pots can be used and decorated or painted on the outside with water-based paints for good effect. Don’t forget to buy matching saucers to catch the drips. This will save cement floors getting stained, or timber floors rotting. It also keeps worms from wriggling through the bottom holes.

What Kind of Medium to Use in Pots

Always use a good quality potting mix in your containers. This will ensure the best performance possible from your plants. Cheap potting mix has no fertilizer added and is often full of larger pieces of waste such as sticks. Good quality potting medium has added fertilizer, but needs still more added to it.

Plants grown in pots have restricted roots so need lots of fertilizer, but not enough to burn them. Soluble fertilizer that can be sprayed on the leaves is best. Soil should not be used as it will go hard, making it difficult to keep roots well-watered.

What Type of Plants are Suitable for Containers?

There are many kinds of plants that suit pots.

• Foliage plants such as coleus that have attractive leaves give good value because they look good year round.
• Annuals give a bright display of color and can be changed to suit the season so that they always look good.
• Climbers or ramblers can also look wonderful in pots. Ramblers are good for hanging pots or those set up high as they can overflow and cascade over the pot prettily. Just don’t choose plants that are too large and vigorous for the pot.
• Taller standards with a long bare stem and lots of growth at the top can look elegant in a pot – and annuals planted at the base will take away that bare look.

Where and How to Position Potted Plants

If you have steps leading up to your front or back door, an attractive pot plant on each one will delight your visitors. Indoors, pots of plants or flowers help to create a cozy, welcoming atmosphere. Many plants will grow well in the shelter of a porch or patio, or delight in the dappled shade of a spreading tree.

Decide ahead of time where you want your pots to be positioned, then buy plants that suit the situation. There is no point buying sun lovers for a shady position, for they will not do well. Some plants also have really large roots, so they are best kept for the open garden.

If you have plenty of space at your front door, a group of potted plants off to one side will be more visually appealing than two similar plants placed each side. Unless they are spectacular, they will look rather boring.

Group the pots in odd numbers rather than even, and vary the height and type. To tie the group together, add large rocks that are similar in appearance and just slightly different in size. Three or five pots of the same type and color, but in different sizes also look affective.

With a creative mind and some determination, you will soon have a container garden that will be the envy of friends and strangers alike.

Additions to Potted Plants

Whether potted plants are grouped or one stands alone, the addition of small stones or shells to the tops of the pots enhances the look, helps to keep moisture in the pot and discourages wind-blown weed seeds growing.

Larger rocks look fantastic scattered around a group. A mossy log or root could also be used to good effect, while ornaments such as gnomes or other statues can all be used. Even rusted toys such as a trike or pedal car can be used for a quaint look.

An old boot could be painted over with glossy black or left as is for a contrast to the beauty of the plant. Some people have even grown small plants in a boot and it looks quite lovely. Where pot plants are concerned, imagination is the only limit.