Easy and charming planter designs ideas you will like

Hi Everyone

By early to mid-April it is safe to plant warm season annuals. Here are a few suggestions for annual color in your garden or in containers. Any suggestions where the name is in quotes (i.e. ‘Profusion’), planting these specific cultivars will yield the best results.

As mentioned in my Container Crazy! post, when planting containers, remember you want…

a “thriller” (tall plants),

a “filler” (plants to fill in the middle),

and a “spiller” (plants that trail over the edge).

By far the best container book I’ve ever had is called Easy Container Gardens by Pamela Crawford. She gives great plant combination ideas, and they all work for our Zone 7/8 climate!

A suggestion from the April 2011 Southern Living magazine is to first find a foliage plant that you love. Then choose a second foliage plant with complementary hues and contrasting textures. And finally, add a bloom that pulls it all together.

Some great annuals for summer SUN:

Thrillers: Purple Fountaingrass

Ti Plant or Cordyline (a.m. sun/p.m. shade)

Esperanza (Tecoma Stans)

Variegated Tapioca (Manihot esculenta)

Copperplant

Perilla Magilla and Perilla Vanilla

Canna

Fillers: ‘Profusion’ or ‘Zahara’ zinnia or zinnia linearis (Star zinnia)

Periwinkles/Vinca ‘Cora’ (plant periwinkles late May, early June)

Pentas – ‘Graffiti’ or ‘Kaleidoscope’ or ‘Butterfly’ varieties

Angelonia ‘Serena’ series

Crossandra ‘Orange Marmalade’

Begonia: ‘Cocktail’ or ‘Whopper’ series (bronze leaf) (a.m. sun)

Dipladenia

Melampodium

Gomphrena

Cosmos

‘Intensia’ Phlox

‘Dakota Gold’ Helenium

Euphorbia ‘Diamond Frost’ (pairs great with pentas)

Ornamental peppers

Coleus (sun varieties)

Croton

‘Dragon’s Breath’ Celosia

Asparagus Fern (filler/spiller)

Spillers: Lantana

‘Cora Cascade’ Periwinkles/Vinca (plant late May)

‘Wedding Train’ Coleus (a.m. sun/p.m. shade)

Mecardonia

Moss Rose (portulaca) or Spanish Moss Rose or ‘Samba’ Portulaca

Purselane

Sweet Potato Vine (Margarita, Blackie, Ace of Spades, Bewitched,

Emerald Lace & Midnight Lace, Medusa)

Blue Daze

Verbena tapien or ‘Homestead’ Verbena

Creeping Jenny

Dichondra ‘Silver Falls’

Sedum ‘Lemon Ball,’ ‘Reflexum,’ ‘Potosinum,’ ‘Sarmentosum’, etc.

Purple Heart

Scaevola – Fan Flower

Thyme

Annuals for SHADE:

Thrillers: Iresine

Persian Shield

Variegated Ginger

Lemon Lollipop or Golden Shrimp Plant (Pachystachys lutea)

Spike

Mona Lavender

Ti Plant/Cordyline

Caladiums (do not plant until soil temps are about 70 degrees)

Fillers: Dragonwing or Whopper Begonias

Waxleaf Begonias (green leaf)

Alternanthera (sun or shade)

Coleus (sun or shade varieties)

Hostas

Oxalis

‘Everillo’ Carex/Sedge (filler/spiller)

Spider Plant (filler/spiller)

Spillers: ‘Wedding Train’ Coleus

Summer Wave Torenia or ‘Bouquet’ series

Sweet Potato Vine (see above for varieties)

Creeping Jenny

Purple Heart

Hemigraphis

Asparagus Fern (filler/spiller)

Swedish Ivy

English Ivy (Hedera helix ‘Needlepoint,’ Glacier,’ etc.)

Note: You will not see petunias, geraniums, marigolds on my list because they just can’t take the summer heat! They are fine for planting an early spring container, if you’d like, but plan to replace with more heat tolerant plantings once the temps start to rise. I no longer recommend impatiens because they are susceptible to downy mildew. Don’t be wooed by flowering snapdragons and alyssum; they are cool season annuals that should be planted in the fall.

Watering: I know this is contrary to my usual watering recommendations for your garden, but I have found that watering my container plants in the evening helps the plants to perform much better through the summer.