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Container gardening has been all the rage in recent years with homeowners increasingly seeing their backyards as extensions of their homes.
Beautifully designed decks, patios and other outdoor living spaces have created demand for decor and colourful planters to complete them.
In practical terms, container gardening gives us the enjoyment of growing plants and flowers with a little less time and effort. Plants in pots require no digging and little or no weeding. And containers are easily rearranged as you redecorate.
Before you plant your container, there are a few musts:
* Choose a container with drainage: Heavy rain or overwatering will leave plants wet far too long in an undrained pot, resulting in root rot or other disease. Give thought to what the pot is made of. Ceramic or concrete pots, for example, are not only tasteful decor additions, but also stay cooler in full sun than thin-walled plastic pots, which can benefit plant roots.
* Choose potting soil carefully: Fresh, quality potting soil will drain well if oversaturated. It also will be weed-free, so your carefully chosen plants won't face unwanted, persistent competition. Many upgraded soils contain slow-release fertilizers, so you won't want to feed plants as often. Other soils include moisture-retaining crystals or coconut fibre, to reduce the frequency of waterings, or you can add products such as Soil Moist or Soil Sponge. These are especially beneficial for pots in hot, full-sun areas around the pool, for example.
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* Fertilize to keep plants healthy and vigorous. Healthy plants are less vulnerable to disease or insects. Planting a container, like planning a flowerbed, is a chance to be creative. Carefully chosen combinations of plants can become works of art.
If it's colour and lots of flowers you're after, put taller blooms at the "centre" of your pot, and complement them with cascading blooms.
We say "centre" because the plant that's the focal point of your pot will be most effective if it's not dead centre. Slightly off-centre is more desirable from a design perspective.
Some plants to consider as a focal point are: dwarf canna, geranium, and osteospermum or African daisy. Even cosmos and salvias, usually used as bedding plants, work well in containers by adding nice height.
Many garden centres carry a wonderful selection of flowering trailers, vigorous bloomers to cascade down your planter.
Among the best are verbenas, calibrachoa (Million Bells), bidens, and scaevola. All are sun tolerant and offer great colour.
An exciting trend in container gardening is use of foliage plants, such as coleus. You can use them as accents among flowering plants, or better yet, experiment with a container of just mixed foliage plants, which offer a wide array of colours and textures.
Besides potato vines (ipomea) in many shades and leaf shapes, lime-coloured and variegated forms of helichrysum (Licorice plant) work well with other foliage.
A favourite is lime-coloured Creeping Jenny (lysiamachia), which cascades beautifully down a pot. It is set off very effectively when combined with a dark-leafed potato vine.
You might try Silver Falls dichondra or Lotus vine, whose delicate, silver foliage will add lightness to your container.
And don't hesitate to use hostas, heucheras or ornamental grasses to bring height and bold leaf shapes to your planter.
These perennials can be transplanted into your garden at the end of the season, to be enjoyed for years to come.
The container gardening possibilities are endless: you can grow herbs for summer salads; add small or sculpted shrubs; or plant vanilla-scented heliotrope to lend gentle fragrance to your patio.
Now's the time to browse your neighbourhood garden centre and start creating.
Q I followed your advice on rejuvenation pruning (Growing Concerns, March 21) in early spring and pruned my two-year-old butterfly bush, which has grown and flowered in the past, but has never been pruned.
Unfortunately, it now appears to be dead, with no new growth at all. Surely by now it should be showing signs of new growth? The cut ends went black, so last week I cut the blackened ends off, but fear it is lost. I am now wondering if I should have left it alone. -- TERI
Dear Teri: The past winter was hard and long for many plants. Many butterfly bushes I have seen lately are just beginning to show signs of life at the very bottom of the stems, close to the ground. It is possible that your plant did not endure the winter. The stems that turned black will be dead and most likely died over the winter. However, many times the roots will survive and new shoots will come up. It may be worth waiting another week or two for any signs of life. Jennifer Dobinson.
PRUNE CLEMATIS AFTER IT BLOOMS
Q I cannot find any information regarding my clematis. Once the flowers have bloomed and others are starting to bloom, can I cut the flowers off to keep the plant looking fresh? The flowers are spent and I wish to keep the plant growing well. Is this a safe practice? -- ANITA
Dear Anita: You have an early-blooming clematis, which means that it blooms on growth from the previous year. The best time to prune it is after it blooms. It will get a flush of new growth, which will produce flowers again next spring.