Containers may limit how much room you have, but they don’t limit what you can plant in them. The following sections look at the various categories of plants and give you the information that you need to grow them in containers.

Announcing Annuals

You may want to grow annuals (Click here for more on annuals) in containers for a variety of reasons:

• Annuals are fun to grow. They have the brightest, most appealing flowers, which attract butterflies and almost anyone who wanders past.
• Annuals are movers. They grow fast, bloom when young, and give you the longest season of abundant bloom of any plants.
• Annuals are relatively inexpensive — especially if you buy small plants — and responsive. Provide them with good care and you see the results — lush leaves, lots of flowers, and a long bloom season.

Remember that annuals like to set a fast pace with no pit stops: Running out of water or food can set them back for weeks or abruptly end their seasons. Watering is much more critical with annuals grown in the confined spaces of containers. Never let the soil dry out. Feeding container-grown annuals is also more critical than nourishing the same plants grown in the ground. Start feeding a few weeks after planting. One proven method is to use liquid fertilizer at half the recommended rate and twice the frequency (every two weeks instead of monthly, for example).

Pinching and deadheading are important chores that keep new flowers coming for as long a season as possible. Start pinching back tip growth to encourage bushy growth as soon as you plant, or even right before.

Potting Perennials

Here are some of the reasons gardeners love perennials in containers:

• Time, money, and labor: Many gardeners prefer to fill their pots with perennials simply because the plants can last a long time.
• Size counts: Perennial plants tend to grow larger than annuals and bulbs, so they can fill large spaces if that’s what you want.
• Custom environments: If your garden beds are too sunny for hostas or your soil too cold and wet for lavender, try growing them in containers.

Always consider the plant’s size now and its size at maturity. A perennial in a pot may not get quite as big as a ground-grown plant, but it’ll come close. Put that little plant into a 6-inch (or 10-inch) pot and repot it to larger size pots as it grows or put it in a pot that can accommodate its ultimate size, and add annuals to fill the empty space for now. Make sure that the pot you decide to use is large enough to accommodate the ongoing root growth while remaining topple-free as the plant matures.

If you buy perennials by mail order, they’re likely to arrive as bare-root plants. The roots are exposed and devoid of any potting soil — a handy, lightweight way to ship perennials and a healthy way to start new plants. Here are the basic planting steps in that case:

• Remove the plastic wrapping.
• Gently extricate the plant roots from the paper or wood shavings.
  
  Alternatively, if the material is biodegradable, you can just leave it on the roots and plant it with your plant. The wrap protects the roots from any unnecessary disturbance.
• Soak the plant in tap water for an hour or so before you’re ready to plant it.  ....read more