<p>I’m headed to the nursery to pick up annuals for my outdoor pots. I’d like to plant something just a little different this year. What interesting plant combinations do you use in your containers?</p>
<p>We are just back from a few days in DC and I noticed that many of the larger (but not huge) containers around buildings were planted with an evergreen (maybe a dwarf conifer) with a few annuals around the perimeter. I am going to look into that and wonder if a planting like that could overwinter. (Better head over to GardenWeb.)</p>
<p>That explains where DH got the idea. Not that he’s not terribly creative on his own… ;)</p>
<p>I don’t plant annuals but each year I add a couple more perennials to the outside of my house. This year I added about five or six Shasta Daisy’s.</p>
<p>My flowerpots have tomatoes, green onions, herbs, eggplant, leaf lettuce, chard and pole beans.</p>
<p>My flower pots: lots of geraniums, alyssum and lobelia. Lots of pink, purple, white and sometimes a little yellow. </p>
<p>I also do small herb pots but will do one bigger herb pot this year with a few different herbs in it. Don’t forget the basil pot! It needs to be bigger.</p>
<p>Always do one pot with gerber daisies - my youngest daughter loves them and I think they are a “fun” flower. </p>
<p>A great large pot is to either take a hanging basket you love and just replant it into the pot - instant wonderful! Or buy a few favorite “Proven Winners” and they do very well.</p>
<p>There is a cute grass called fiber optic grass that is not very tall–and looks like, guess what, fiber optics. I also use a flowering vine, and I have no idea of its name, but it has small white, five-petal flowers. I also like angel-wing begonias if your spot is not super sunny. They come with different colored leaves as well as different colored flowers.</p>
<p>I’ll bet the evergreens will winter over just fine. The small cedars I planted in pots by my front door are still alive. I had left them in the plastic containers and set them in the pots, and now they are sitting on the ground without a home. I could actually use them again and plant annuals around them…good thought.</p>
<p>I have a couple of herb garden planters - one of those large whiskey barrels planted with sage, basil, thyme and savory at the back corner of my yard. It looks pretty and so useful for cooking.</p>
<p>I love pinks, yellows, purples, and whites all mixed together - very provencal!</p>
<p>Shasta daisies are such a important part of any garden. I just bought a flat of African daisies for my beds - I was attracted to the interesting variegated color.</p>
<p>My local garden center had sections labeled Thrillers, Fillers and Spillers specifically for putting in pots. You put something dramatic, possibly tall, in the middle or the back (Thriller) surround it with Fillers and have some Spillers flowing over the edge of the pot. Easy peasy. Unfortunately I don’t remember the actual names of any of the plants except one Thriller, King Tut Papyrus.</p>
<p>If I had to pick one “favorite” for putting in pots it would have to be lobelia - love it, love it, love it - comes in white or varying shades of purple/blue - one of the most “blue” flowers out there. It’s vibrant and graceful!</p>
<p>I always do a pot with hot pink impatiens and kong coleus by my front door. I love the look–it really “pops.”</p>
<p>I have a couple " strawberry pots" one with herbs & one with strawberries.
I have mostly conifers in my pots.
A contorted hemlock by the front door & various slow growing spruce, pinus in pots around the patio.
On either side of the front steps I have two giant pots of redtwig dogwood ( aurea), white flowering heather, & ferns, at their base I have blue pacific juniper in several pots.
( my fred meyer is having pots on sale, so I recently repotted many of my plants that had been in red clay pots- I have been having fun! but it is a two person job for some of them)</p>
<p>I also have Phyllostachy Nigra in three huge pots ( the safest place for it, IMO), 
and two dwarf pear trees.</p>
<p>Abasket, I also like lobelia- & blue flowers- blue/purple is my favorite color for flowers along with white although I do have some azaleas that are fuschia, red & coral & roses that are pink ( including native roses)</p>
<p>I also have two Rhododendron indicum that I don’t know if I want to do the work of making them bonsai, or just plant them somewhere, but I will probably have them in pots until I decide.
[Satsuki</a> Azalea Bonsai Tree - Rhododendron indicum](<a href=“http://www.chinesebonsaigarden.com/satsuki-azalea-bonsai-tree/]Satsuki”>Satsuki Azalea Bonsai Tree – Chinese Bonsai Garden)</p>
<p>I find the “container recipes” section on the Proven Winners website very helpful, and their selections are sold everywhere.</p>
<p>My self watering pots have herbs; thyme, parsley, epazote, chives right now.</p>
<p>my not-gardening dh loves the thrillers,fillers and spillers recipe - that is the only gardening rule he likes.</p>
<p>I bought a large mother in law’s tongue several years ago and used it with coleus and some fluffy spiller…in the fall I pull the mother-in-law tongue out and re-pot and bring in - its done ok now for several years…</p>
<p>I adore purple-blue fuchsia in hanging baskets.</p>
<p>I don’t buy many annuals except for occasional " fill in", I am a big fan of growing things in containers that in the ground would go * crazy*, like mints & bamboo & grasses. ( or things that grow slowly like dwarf conifers).</p>
<p>The tag usually gives a clue, if it says " suited for containers", it doesn’t just mean that they will look good there, it usually means otherwise it could be uncontrollable!</p>
<p>I always plant a container with jalapeno plants but surround them with impatiens ~ practical and pretty. I especially like the ‘mild’ version carried at Lowe’s (not as hot). </p>
<p>Also, I have to have “Wave” petunias in almost all my planters. Like impatiens, they just keep blooming and blooming all summer. The Double Wave (double bloom) has the most impact. [Ride</a> The Wave - The Wave Petunia Official Web Site](<a href=“http://www.wave-rave.com/]Ride”>http://www.wave-rave.com/)</p>
<p>I have one very large pot into which I place a 5’, square bottom trellis. In the center goes a climbing mandevilla vine (trial and error shows that the pink produces more blooms than the white, red or yellow) and surround with impatiens (short ~ pot filler) and Wave petunias (trailing). A real show stopper!</p>
<p>For those with deer problems, surround your plants (flowers or vegetables) with marigolds. I’ve found that the smaller the bloom, the shorter the plant will grow.</p>
<p>For less watering, I either add Soil Moist to the soil or use the reusable spikes.</p>
<p>Haven’t decided on the other annuals yet, but I will have tons of sweet potato vines in my pots. Had them the year before last, loved their bright lime green colour and cascading effect and they seemed to go with everything I planted with them. Couldn’t get any last year and really missed them.</p>
<p>Herbs will go in pots outside my kitchen door: mint, thyme, tons of basil, parsley, chives, rosemary and maybe bay. I’ve never had fresh bay, maybe I’m not in the proper planting zone for it. I have a suspicion that they are hot weather plants. Anybody grow fresh bay?</p>
<p>So far sweet million tomatoes, green peppers (will they make it in this climate? we’ll see), strawberries, and quite a few pansies which are having their faces nibbled at by mini critters of some kind. :eek: I’d like to add sungold tomatoes, sugar peas, and more flowers. I also like growing carrots, but last year the tops kept getting devoured almost as soon as they sprouted.</p>