Container gardens are “in” and have been for several years.  Planting in a container allows you to grow plants where you can’t otherwise.  Containers allow apartment dwellers to grow tomatoes, but they also brighten the deck or patio of any home.  Combination planters achieve the look of a “bouquet with roots” providing color all season long.  Even where there is ample room for a garden, well-placed containers provide seasonal accents.

Choose a container that fits your décor or style.  Containers can be amusing, valuable, clever, loud, quiet, classy, creative, solid, sophisticated, stylish, primitive, homespun, friendly, understated, matched or anything you want them to be.  But, they MUST have a drainage hole.

Soils for containers must be well aerated and well drained while still being able to retain enough moisture for plant growth.  Don’t use garden soil in your containers, it is too heavy and won’t drain properly.  Purchase a soilless mix designed for use in containers.  For succulents, herbs and perennials, select a coarse soilless mix with more bark, perlite or sand because these plants need good drainage and you don’t want the mix to retain moisture over long periods of time.  For tropical and foliage plants, choose a media with more peat and less coarse material as these plants tend to prefer moister growing conditions.  Moisten your media slightly before planting by filling a tub with media, adding water and mixing.

Think of your container garden as a living flower (and foliage) arrangement.  Include a tall plant in the center or back of the container.  Select filler plants to provide interest and use cascading plants to soften the edges.  Consider plant requirements when planning combination containers.  Use all shade plants for shady locations and sun-loving plants on a sunny patio.  If you use a combination of sun-loving and shade-loving plants in a single container, there will be no appropriate exposure for the container.  Also, think about moisture requirements.  Don’t combine plants that like it moist with plants that require good drainage.  You can combine shrubs, perennials and annuals, but the annuals will need to be replaced the following year.  Depending on the size of the container and exposure, the shrubs and perennials may overwinter in the container.  Tropicals are fun to add in a combination container, but they will need to be brought indoors to survive the winter.  If you combine a shrub and a tropical, you will have a conundrum—bring it in and the shrub will suffer; leave it outdoors and the tropical will die.

Once you have selected your container, growing media and plants, fill the container (almost full) with media.  Arrange the plants on the surface and play with the design until you are happy with the combination.  Remove each plant from its plastic pot and loosen the roots, especially if they are circling within the container in which it was grown.  Add a bit more media and water thoroughly.  Watering after planting settles the media and eliminates air pockets.  You may need to water several times to insure the media is thoroughly moist.  Make sure water drains out of the hole in the bottom of the pot.  A waterlogged container will not thrive unless you are growing water plants.  Remember to water container plants frequently throughout the summer.  Soilless media dries out more quickly than garden soil.  Fertilize containers a few times during the summer.  Annuals and tropical will need more frequent fertilization than shrubs and perennials.

Evergreen and deciduous shrubs are combined with perennials and annuals in this sumptuous planter combination at Longwood Gardens.

Striking architectural container set by the pool at Chanticleer.

If you want inspiration for designing container plantings, visit a local public garden.  Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA and Chanticleer in Wayne, PA have spectacular planted containers throughout the gardens.  You can also buy combination containers already planted and ready to place on your deck or patio from most local garden centers.

Pears on the roadside – Beauty or Beast?

Sue Barton

Roland Roth, retired Entomology and Wildlife professor from the University of Delaware, wrote a short piece in the New Journal on Friday highlighting the invasive callery pear that is so prominently blooming on Delaware’s roadsides this April.  He said while they may seem pretty, they are crowding out native plants that once existed on natural land in Delaware.  He went on to suggest that everyone do their part to cut down invasive plants (especially pears, but also burning bush, barberry and butterfly bush) on their properties and replant with native plants that support native wildlife.

A few days later another article appeared in the News Journal.  It seems Patricia Dougherty took a ride downstate and never enjoyed it so much.  “The white trees that were blooming on both sides of the road were beautiful.  Some even looked like white Christmas trees.  I do not know what kind of trees they are.  I would love to know.”  Those trees are callery pears

Pears along Delaware’s roadside in April.

In fact, callery pear is spreading like wildfire on Delaware roadsides.  Once we just planted the cultivar ‘Bradford.’  This tree has a nice conical habit, white flowers in the spring and attractive maroon fall color.  What is not to like?  Well, Bradford pears have a nasty habit of branch splitting when the trees reach about 15 years of age.  Large limbs can break out of trees and fall on cars, even pedestrians.  This became such a problem that about 10 years ago, Newark removed all the Bradford pears on Main Street and replaced them with other tree species.  The nursery industry responded to the problem of weak branches by breeding other callery pear cultivars that have better branch structure.  Some examples include ‘Aristocrat’, ‘Chanticleer’ and ‘Redspire’.  While Bradford alone produced a small amount of fruit, the fruit production of callery pears skyrocketed with all these new cultivars for cross pollination.  That is when callery pears started escaping into disturbed areas along our roadways and crowding out native species.  At one time, not too long ago, when you drove past a wooded stretch in Delaware and saw a white tree blooming at the edge of the woods, you could be pretty sure it was a serviceberry (Amelanchier canadensis), a beautiful native trees sometimes also called shad bush; and you knew the shad would be running on the Susquehanna. Now, there are few serviceberries remaining and LOTS of callery pears.