When to Repot Your Container Plants

You will definitely see signs when your plants in your pots and containers need to be repotted. The leaves on your plants may turn yellow; have brown tips or just start to fall off. The soil in the planter becomes very solid and hard to penetrate. When the roots begin to come through the bottom of your garden planters, you will need to think about dividing and/or using a larger garden container.

Color in our Garden Pots and Containers

Every year we want to expand the look of our planters and containers – be flexible. Rearrange the plants in your containers with the seasons. Enjoy your early Spring violets and narcissus and then of course petunias and dusty miller in the Summer and end off the season with coleus – the superstar of the Fall planters.

A Light Backdrop with Containers

Do you have an area that is very plain, ie. side of a shed or ordinary fence/wall in the background? A simple solution for providing more interest is to create a complex arrangement of forms and colors using different sized planters and pots. The uninteresting wall will set off the interesting plantings of foliage, flowers and trailers.

Create Interest in your Garden with Containers

There always seem to be some places in your garden that you would like to brighten up a bit – there is a way – just nestle garden planters or garden urns with bright annuals and place among your duller plants in the bed. Just keep watering your containers during the season and pinch off as required. Use slow release fertilizer that lasts all Season.

Why Add a Focal Point to Your Garden

Whether you are designing your garden, deck, patio or balcony, the purpose of a focal point is to attract attention to a specific area. This is where the planter, container or garden pot will do the trick. They can be planted and replanted with colorful, attractive plants and easily moved to the area you would like to highlight.

Shade Tolerant Window Box Displays

You can easily brighten up a dark corner by filling your window box container with textural trailing plants that mix greens with wonderful jolts of color. Perhaps you have a garage or shed that could use some brightening up over the summer months. How about filling with Angel Wings (Caladium bicolor), then some single pink impatiens with a double red impatiens accent, finished off with variegated English ivy. Looks great!

Save Money Again with Container Gardening

One more way to save money when using your garden planters and containers is to take cuttings from your chrysanthemum plants as they grow in the Spring . Cut 3” tips from the stems with a sharp knife and place them into your potting mix with sand in a small pot. Replant into larger planters in the Fall and then of course, into the garden for next season.

Money Saving Idea for Containers

One great way to fill all those garden planters and containers is with perennials that you have decided to split in the Spring. Perhaps your garden is overgrown and many of your plants would be most suitable for pots and containers. When the season is over in the Fall, just replant back into the garden.

Money Saving Container Ideas

Just take a packet of seeds, they can be marigolds, petunias or sweet alyssum all the same color or mixed variety and plant in your 12” decorative pot or garden container. You will have blooms all summer long for just a few pennies – what could be better than that!

Maximum Color with Big Containers

If you’re looking for instant color and interest in your garden, plant some big, colorful flowers in some big, colorful garden containers. These days, planters come in many shapes, hues, and textures. You can dress up a drab corner in your garden or patio overnight with bright and cheerful containers. This is a great and easy way to get the job done.

Make Beautiful with Containers

Any annual can be planted in a pot or container rather than in the ground. Even vines such a Morning Glories and Sweet Peas will do very well in your garden planters provided you give them a trellis or tepee of bamboo poles to climb.

Gardening with Containers – Instant Beauty

A good rule of thumb is to select and group your plants in their containers according to the amount of sunlight they will receive. Keep your shade loving and sun loving plants separate in their planters and garden urns. Begin with compact, spreading plants at the edge of the container so that they can drape down over the edges of the pot like a curtain. Choose a tall dramatic plant for the central focal point and use a filler plant in between. There you have it!

Get Started Now with Spring Bulbs and Seeds

Many flowers can be started from seed or tubers indoors and transplanted outdoors later in the season when the weather warms up. Have your plants ready when the weather turns warm. It is now a good time to start those Begonia bulbs and dahlias tubers. Start thinking about what plants would look great in your planters and containers on the deck and patio this summer.

Container Garden – How to Keep it Looking Fresh

It seems that water retention is the main problem many gardeners find with their container plants. The plants tend to dry out in summer and become waterlogged in winter. During those hot summer days, water your pots and containers twice a day if necessary depending on the size of your plant and the size of the pot Your plants do transpire naturally, however, they lose moisture when there is less soil to hold it.

Sophisticated Container Planting Groups

The trend this year is to have lots of repetition of color and texture in your garden planter groupings. Start with the simple lines of modern pots and limit the number of plants. One possible combination begins with the feathery yew, the bold coleus and of course the fine Japanese ornamental grass each in its own container. The gold theme in the needles and blades of grass compliment each other. What could be simpler and very sophisticated.

Garden Pot – Great Planting Idea

We are planning our container garden and wondering what would look best in our pots and garden planters. Here is an idea. Place three Intensia Lavender Glow Phlox plants in your 14” container (one in the middle and two on the sides) and alternate with two Coral Bells (Heuchera) in Blackcurrent Dolce. This arrangement looks terrific - the larger the container the greater the effect.

Patio Border Using Planters & Containers

If you don’t have a built in rail or edge to your deck or patio, you can always create the same effect using containers. Line an entire row of matched garden planters, pots and containers, simulating built-ins, or clusters or different sizes and shapes. Just fill with a variety of plant material. Your have created a border and a garden at the same time.

Bring Spring into Your Home

Are you impatient for winter to end? One way that you can enjoy a little bit of Spring while there is still snow on the ground is to force flowers indoors. Just go out and cut the branches. When you bring your pussy willows, forsythia and dogwood home, place them in water right away and with sharp pruning shears cut the ends off under water. Fill your floral container with warm water. After several hours, change the water and add floral preservative and once again re-cut the stems under water. They are beautiful.

Color Trend Decor for your Containers

Every year there seems to be something new and exciting – this year when you group your large planters and containers on the deck or patio, think about keeping the plant variations into warm and hot categories – not the random, funky combinations of the past.

Garden Planters – The Best Soil Conditions

Enough cannot be said for having great soil for your garden planters and containers. We have found over the years that peat-based mixes containing peat and vermiculite are excellent and easily found at your garden centre. They are relatively sterile and pH adjusted. This soil does not compact down and allows the plants to get enough air and water. Mixing in one part compost to two parts planting mix will improve fertility as well.