By Bodie V. Pennisi
University of
Georgia

The more urban we become, the more container gardens come to the
rescue. These small treasures offer a variety of pleasing
colors,
shapes and textures to brighten up our patios and balconies.

Because you’re working within a limited space, stick to some
basic design principles:

Focus: Draw the eye toward the
center of the garden and let the other plants complement and
“flow” around this center.

Form: Each plant in the design
has
a growth habit, or form. Some have strong upright habits. Others
are sprawling, while others grow as a mound.

Texture: Some plants have linear
leaves, like grasses, dracaena spike or cordyline. Others have
rounded leaves, like ornamental potatoes and geraniums. A good
design will use a variety of textures to make a feast for the
eye.

Proportion: For a balanced look,
don’t let the plants be more than two-thirds of the overall
height of the container garden.

For shallow or small containers, choose plants that won’t get
too
large or plants with small foliage, or both. For large or tall
containers, choose plants with medium to tall mature size or
those with large leaves, or both.

Mix plants with at least three foliage textures to make a
container garden interesting. Coleus cultivars come in many
foliage colors, shapes and sizes. They can help “echo” the color
of flowers.

Vary the shape of the flowers to add interest. For example, try
petunias and verbena. Use bicolor flowers, too.

Positions

For the best effect, be familiar with the various plant
positions
in the container garden.

The role of the center, for
instance, is to fill in the crown of the container. Use plants
with compact, upright growth such as salvia, grasses, Dracaena
spike, coleuses, Persian shield, Alocasia, Colocasia and some
perennials.

Plants in corners grow well over
containers’ edges, where they have the most elbow room. Good
corner plants include petunias, million bells (Calibrachoa),
torenias, scaevolas, plectranthus, helichrysums, fuchsias, ivy
geraniums and angel wing begonias.

Use plants on the edges to drape
over the side, softening the look of the container and filling
out the spaces between corners. Good plants for edges include
ivy, bacopas, verbenas, vinca vines, portulacas, ivy geraniums,
plectranthus and sweet potato vines.

Finally, filler plants have
compact, upright growth and round out the top of the container.
Good examples are argyranthemums, geraniums, coleuses, iresines,
cupheas, strawflowers (Bracteantha), Dusty Miller and
Heliotrope.

Tips

Soils for containers must be well-drained with good aeration and
able to hold enough water to keep plants growing well. If you
have plants that need a lot of water and use moss or coco fiber
baskets or any container that allows high evaporation, consider
adding a water-retaining agent to the soil mix.

It’s best to either use a soilless mix with slow-release
fertilizer already in it or apply a slow-release product at
planting. Don’t use granular fertilizer or weed-and-feed
products.

The basic rule for a successful container garden is that all
plants in one container should have similar water, light and
fertilizer requirements.

For places with 4 to 12 hours of sun a day, select plants for
full sun to partial shade. For those that get 2 to 4 hours of
sun
daily, select plants for partial or full shade.

For the best results, select plants that perform best in the
season ahead: cool-loving plants for spring and fall and
heat-loving plants for summer. Most Marguerite daisies, lobelias
and nemesias, for instance, look great in the spring but decline
in Georgia summers.

Don’t put your container garden in a windy site. Plants in
windy,
hot places may require watering every few hours just to survive,
especially if the plants are large or the container small.

Whether you’re a gardening expert or not, try planting a
container garden. You’ll be rewarded.

(Bodie Pennisi is a Cooperative Extension floriculture
specialist with the University of Georgia College of
Agricultural
and Environmental Sciences.)