Container gardens are a great way to celebrate the changing seasons, because it takes little time or effort to switch plants to seasonal favourites. For beautiful year-round container gardens, follow these guidelines.
Guide to a spectacular seasonal container garden
Extend your growing season
- Containers can be kept in protected places so you can often push the growing season a little bit
- If you pot up pansies as soon as they are available in late winter and keep them on a deck, sheltered from wind, they'll bloom before the last snow has passed
- Ornamental cabbage and kale will provide rich colour through the short days of autumn and become even more colourful in winter
- Some traditional container plants, such as spring hyacinths and summer impatiens, fade quickly after they bloom heavily for several weeks. Rather than lamenting their passing, relegate the faded plants to the compost heap and replace them with plants suited for the coming season
Choose annuals that thrive in containers
- Ageratum
- Begonia
- Browallia
- Chrysanthemum
- Coleus
- Cosmos
- Dusty miller
- Fan flower
- Flowering tobacco
- Fuchsia
- Geranium
- Globe amaranth
- Impatiens
- Lantana
- Licorice plant
- Lobeli
- Nasturtium
- Ornamental grasses
- Pansy
- Periwinkle
- Petunia
- Portulaca
- Salvia
- Snapdragon
- Stock
- Swan River daisy
- Sweet alyssum
- Sweet potato vine
- Verbena
Choose perennials that thrive in containers
- Artemisia
- Astilbe
- Balloon flower
- Bergenia
- Bugleweed
- Candytuft
- Coreopsis
- Daylily
- Deadnettle
- Dianthus
- Euphorbia
- Ferns
- Hen and chicks
- Heuchera
- Hosta
- Lady's mantle
- Lamb's ears
- Lavender
- Lily
- Lungwort
- Ornamental grasses
- Phormium
- Primrose
- Rose campion
- Stonecrop
- Sun rose
- Thyme
Choose vines that grow in roomy containers
- Clematis
- Scarlet runner bean
- Sweet pea
- Wisteria
Choose bulbs that make good seasonal container plants
- Caladium
- Calla lily
- Canna
- Crocus
- Daffodil
- Hyacinth
- Tulip
Choose shrubs that are compact enouth to thrive in containers
- Azalea
- Bluebeard
- Boxwood
- Camellia
- Hydrangea
- Juniper
- Mugo pine
- Rose
- Viburnum
Choose trees that can be grown in half barrels or large pots
- Flowering cherry
- Japanese maple
- Snowbell
Choose suitable ground covers for cascading container plants
- Ivy
- Liriope
- Vinca
Choose self-cleaning plants
Flowers that shed their old, faded blossoms cleanly, without needing to be pinched constantly, are invaluable in the container garden.
These flowers will bloom for many weeks with only occasional trimming:
- Fan flower
- Impatiens
- Petunia
- Portulaca
- Single-flowered zonal geraniums
- Swan River daisy
- Wax begonia
By switching up your container gardens to reflect the changing seasons, you can keep your garden current and beautiful all year long.
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