Creative Container Planting – In this video we talk through the container plants that we are using this season. We start with small plants, so we don’t have to water so much all season.
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we’ve done a lot of planting over the last uh two or three weeks uh we’ve gotten all of our annuals in we had tons of shrubs we had a few things die over the last couple of years that we’ve replaced uh we’ve gotten a pretty good start on the native garden over there and we have quite a few more plants that need to go in and we did a few containers uh this past week as well which have settled in nicely these were done about a week ago and uh uh sometimes things transition a little funny into you know from one pot in into another there are a few shrubs in here uh but what we’ve done in the past is almost entirely shrubs and then a few annuals planted around them maybe a couple perennials and then we put the shrubs either into the vegetable garden in the winter time or we’ve had to baby them in some way to to get them through the winter we’ve done a few more tropical or semi-ropical things uh in these containers and we can just decide whether we want to let them go at the end of the season or try to bring them in the house you know and and keep them through the winter time that will be up to us with a couple of things that could make it through a mild winter you know possibly by abandoning them but then hoping that they survive the winter that’s always a possibility as well most of the containers we have are from Michael Carr Designs most garden centers in the country have his stuff if you go on his website because I know I’m gonna get the question about where the containers come from the um if you go on his website he has a retail locator on the Michael Carr Designs website um that’ll find a place near you that sells his uh sells his containers uh this is a Platinum Beauty Landra and we’ve shown this plant a bunch of times on the channel this one we actually had this make it through a couple of winters in a container outside because we had very mild winters a couple years in a row and then we finally went one winter too long and let it stay frozen uh you know a couple extra days and that got it but I felt like it was pretty good for 3 years to have this thing in a container without having to uh having to think about it this is uh it’s a plant that definitely if you’re in a milder area this plant can just go in the ground as long as it has well- drained um well- drained soil uh really really easy plant love the color on this thing it’s a really super super tough plant that you know one of the things about uh you know even using something as an annual it’s kind of nice if it’s forgiving uh if you’re you know this is a plant in this container if I water it well and I leave for a week to go to the beach uh a lot of these other things are going to be problematic if I don’t have somebody come and water them but the lamandra I’m confident that this plant can go a few days basically bone dry without having to uh having to having to worry about it so if you see this plant on the table somewhere uh this one’s definitely worth having as an as an annual or in more southern areas as a per you know as a in ground perennial which you know in mass this thing is super super showy or trying to bring it in and out from a garage if you want to do that there’s another lamandra that’s new to us called miner’s gold uh in the smaller container down below also very very showy you see that chartreuse foliage which is kind of a kind of a thing we do here in Raleigh in our garden is a lot of variegated foliage a lot of u u a lot of chartreuse foliage a great looking little plant um I I would think I I think that one’s a little more cold hearty we’re going to find we’re going to find out because I’m going to probably leave it outside over the winter and and see what happens see what happens with that one again well drained soil these are not ones that are going to need to be babyed you put them in a container put them in the ground wherever water them in and then just kind of let them dry out uh intentionally well I’m in charge of telling you about a couple of planters right here uh first I’m going to start with this large planter uh it’s featured plant is Delta Fusion crepe myrtle i guess you would say it is the thriller of it and it is a thriller it’s got this gorgeous dark foliage it’ll have uh the pinkish magenta blooms that are so beautiful a couple of caretaking things we’re going to do we need to clean it up a bit it’s it’s got the world of uh oaks catkins all over it so we’ll have to do a little culling of the the catkins so to speak uh we’re also going to do a little light pruning the aim is to have the blooms pop out about this point but we uh it will grow before then so we’re going to take it back maybe 8 10 in clean it up some and it’ll fatten up as well so it’s going to be beautiful in this container to offset this gorgeous foliage color we chose silvers and some more purples and an accent of pink there is uh dark purple um opal basil the opal basil right here there’s a couple of those we did from seed so they are thrifty as well which I absolutely adore uh a pink polka dot plant just to as a little accent it’s the only pink in the container we’ve got this uh silver licorice plant here it’ll somewhat go over the side it’s just a beautiful um texture and color and and it actually has sort of a fuzzy leaf it’s it’s an awesome uh addition to this container we’ve got a few lizanths these liz lizanths have a story uh a viewer sent some seeds to us and uh we went ahead and and grew them and put these in our container so if you’re watching these are your seeds um another couple of things we have we’ve got armia gives that silver look and fine fine textured foliage we’ve gotricolor sage you might not be able to see it but it’s it’ll have some pinks and purples grays and creams to it just a beautiful plant and then we have dicondra dicondra uh silver falls for something for that um spiller so we’ve got some fillers a thriller and some spillers right here it’ll be very lush and full before you know it we’re going to treat it with a little bit of of uh fertilizer to to give it a a a pop and then it’ll really get going uh just a beautiful container um that we did partially from seed and partially we purchased so just a gorgeous um combination then over here we have one that we did previously we did this about oh maybe 3/4 of a year ago um we put this dusty miller in there we’re going to take this back really quite far we don’t ever want um the plants to be right up on the pl on the the um thriller of of the the planter and this is just way too close and too full on it so we’ll take it back pretty far or that dusty miller so it doesn’t hurt our gorgeous uh thriller skylight better boxwood so it’s in the center here around it it’s got some simple colors i wanted uh it to um play off of the the classic look of the skylight better boxwood so we just picked white polka dot plant to have the greens and whites that’s that’s mainly and the silver back here what we’re aiming for not a ton of different colors and illumination vinka it’ll come spilling it’ll be your spiller so we’ve got fillers thrillers and some spillers right here with illumination vinka oh you’re on okay um we did our window boxes on the shed like we normally do went a little bit more with simplicity this year uh it’s m mainly just angel wing beonas that is an area I have to be honest that we often those particular um containers get a little uh forgotten about occasionally uh they are under an overhang so they’re not going to get the natural water quite so much as well so the beonas will be quite forgiving in that um aspect so they’re going to be beautiful they’ll be nice and big we’ll try to remember them as much as we can and they will grow like like the wind so it’s they’re going to be beautiful um few other containers we got here charlie boy uh we This has shown up in several videos recently and questions have been “What is that reddishcoled thing next to you when Jim’s been filming?” It is Charlie Boy cordaline what a gorgeous gorgeous plant so bright and cheery and just a breath of summer uh to go with it uh we’re going to have billowing out uh Sriracha rose kufia love Kufia love Kufia for the pollinators to come hummingbirds uh butterflies kufia is great for that and quite honestly this year I don’t have enough kufia didn’t plant enough kufia didn’t see enough kufia anywhere so and I tried to do it from seed these are actually from seed so we did have some se success with it as well just beautiful combination and when these uh magentaish pink blooms come with that green foliage against this it’s going to be beautiful we’ve got Dionella here in this um planter it’s called Clarity Blue it’s a great silver green foliage just absolutely love it we’ve had some success planting it in the ground so um maybe we will pick pick um a protected area and try to over winter it as well outside of uh the container planted with it some of the um Silver Falls dicondra to spill over and then Zahara double raspberry ripple i think that’s one of Jim’s absolute favorite plants uh in the annual realm uh so it’s planted all around it and it’ll hopefully continue to bloom those gorgeous sunny blooms beautiful container and then our third one is this Japanese uh maple macawa and it is great form it’s a dwarf one uh we got it it’s kind of small so we’ve decided to keep it in a container for now great form great flowers i mean excuse me great foliage just a beautiful plant again went with some simplicity um we’ve got just the uh red polka dot plants and these are actually ones that we did from seed as well beautiful bright color to offset this gorgeous green there’s one other plant in the container and it is um lmakia uh midnight sun it’ll have bright yellow blooms in it it I almost want to take that out it it came with it um some of you who watch know that we put some of our container plants in the vegetable garden for safekeeping over the winter and that went with it and then it came back so um and it’s a gorgeous gorgeous plant i just had the the idea that I wanted it all to be sort of the red and the green so um but for now it’s a beautiful plant and it’s in there to spill over as well so those are my three containers to tell you about couple of small containers back at the steps um all of these containers are going to find a home somewhere we always bring them together in one spot we have a um we have a cart that we can use to bring them to one spot and then plant them all out at the same time maybe move a few things around maybe you have an idea for something and then something doesn’t match and you move it around uh somewhat as you can tell we try to save some money on you know doing some some of these things from seed uh and then there’s some bigger you know pieces in them that would obviously you know cost a little more some people are going to want to protect some of these subtropical things through the winter time and some people are going to just let them go and put something new or unique or something different in them next year we kind of figure out about fighting that battle when it comes you know it just depends some some years it’s you know put them in the ground and see what happens and then other years it’s like yeah let’s take them in and out and you know and make make sure we’re keeping that yeartoear you know all those all those decisions happen uh on a year-to-year basis we have both the uh the two alows from the Southern Living Plant Collection which we really love in small containers typically they’ll be under an overhang on the back porch back here or even on the back porch because they don’t really like a whole lot of water it’s really easy to rot the aloe over the course if you’re watering that aloe exactly the same as you’re watering this crepe myrtle or this Japanese maple or whatever you’re going to overwater the aloe the other thing with the aloe is those bloom heavily in the fall but they need to get some cold on them in order to flower in the fall so um what we do is we leave them out here till the last possible minute we don’t want them in 25° weather for sure but we also need to get 40° nights on them yeah in order for them to flower and then once they start to bud up to flower we bring them in the house and they just come into absolute full flower uh there’s an angel wings um uh senio that we actually brought back from California uh on a trip out there one that’s in that’s in the sunset uh plant collection really great plant we’ve over watered it a bit since we got home that’s a plant that just needs very very little water uh sios are are most of them are very low water usage plants one of the things with a few of these containers we can we could put the landra a little further out if we want to and we can skip watering it occasionally colicacia here this is wiki ki it’s just unfolding a lot of new leaves sometimes when you plant I’ve really have noticed that when you plant some of these colicacious sometimes when you do some root damage on them and you transition them into the container into the ground you’ll lose a few leaves just don’t panic when that happens what will h you know just cut back the ones that you’ve damaged or have taken an impact by the roots being damaged because almost immediately they’ll start unfoiling uh new leaves again these leaves will be gigantic by midsummer this one uh you it uncoils like this with the green and the yellow and then you see that little pink spot right there that’ll slowly but surely spread down through the entire mid rib of that leaf as that leaf matures these are small leaves compared to what it’ll have once it reestablish itself in this container gets a little more get some new roots on it the leaves will be twice four times as big in surface area and much more colorful uh over the course of the summertime this is a great one to have we can put this in the ground through the winter and have it come back most likely i’ve been working on uh creating this interesting trunk on this Dragon Master Japanese maple there’s a series of video you know it’s been in a couple videos now uh working on it and I’ve put a second bend in it this spring i I did this bend last year and then did this bend this year uh next year we’ll bend it back one more time and we can compress these bends a bit by bending this down so I’ll show that in time and I think what I’m going to do is make this one slightly more interesting so it’s not just a straight S but has a little bit of a a circ you know a circular pattern as it goes up and bends we’ll we’ll do that over the next couple of years uh as I continue to work on it then there’s some pink polka dot plants down below uh the uh Dragon Master Japanese maple and uh one last container that is super simple now um has these globe amarants that we did we did these from seed right yeah we did these from seed this variety can get four or five feet tall so where you’re looking at something that seems super small right now and it is uh they’ve already grown an inch or so in the week since they’ve been in in there these have like a kind of a weeping habit where the flowers just kind of weep off the top of them and uh in time this will be a fairly dramatic container again looks so simple right now uh but we put an annual in there that would get you know this tall and so it will have you know have some impact uh over the course of the season i think that’s that pretty much uh wraps up what we’ve done we’ve got a couple got a couple containers with some mint in them if you’re growing mint uh I would not recommend you ever put it in the ground in your garden make sure you contain it in some sort of container so we have a couple some you know containers like that where sometimes we’re just housing something that would take over the garden otherwise so that’s it we got to get them distributed out into the landscape a few of them will stay here around the patio and if you’re coming for the open garden you’ll get to see how these have performed in the containers over that time we fertilize based on observation okay so if something’s like that globe amaranth I can see it’s grown an inch since we put it in the ground probably not going to uh you know necessarily feel like I need to be fertilizing that a lot we’ll we’ll put we have not fertilized these containers yet we did the entire garden so we’re going to put some organic fertilizer in each of these containers a fairly hefty amount i mean you can almost cover the soil uh with the organic fertilizer and then and I’ll just use plant tone i’m not going to think about flower tone or any of the other things i’m just going to use some plant tone on it and then we’ll just observe what’s happening with them the rest of the season if we feel like we’re getting all we need out of them then I don’t really feel the need to come out here and just keep hammering them with fertilizer so again that’s how we’re going to that’s how we’ll fertilize our vegetable garden our annuals that are in the ground our perennials that bloom all summer and the containers just by observation seems like they’re growing a little slow I’ll fertilize them again seems like they’re off color I’ll fertilize them again seems like they’re doing okay I’m walking away okay and I’d rather save the time and energy and money and not fertilize them if I don’t have to so there you go uh thank you guys for following along stuff um always does a good job with something that’s interesting and again we don’t start I’m not cra I’m not trying to cram $180 into one of these containers you know right off the bat you know we would like to start a lot of this from seed and we do some of the dicondra and some of the other things some of the you know spillers that we have in here we fish we have them planted in other containers carry them through the winter and and put them in here and carry them year over year to try to try to save you know on the expense of it thanks for watching [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]
50 Comments
How do you water your containers during the summer? Do you have drip irrigation? watering containers is my challenge. zone 8a, north of Atlanta.
Would love a video on pencil shaped evergreens. When you have a space that needs something that narrow, really nothing else will work. Things like Italian cypress and the various sky pencil hollies.
I have frost tender cactus and succulents and I have noticed that they are all more cold hardy than advertised. Pushing plants through the winter is fun..
What's the difference between lemondra and carex? (Besides that their different plants 😂)
Dusty miller. Crazy hardiness. I have a shrub of about 6 individual specimens. It has formed a 3 foot tall shrub.bulletproof in the extreme heat. Great plant
What a privilege to have such wonderful content, wonderfully diverse plants and outstanding presenters
Thanks yall!!
Would love a cast iron video. Maybe a trip out to plants delights to go through some of the many they have.
My garden has a lot of shade. I think I have most of the common plants for shade but I would like to try other things. A video for shady garden would be great particularly perennials. I do very little annuals because they are too pricey now. I still love the very hard working begonias that I plant in May and last until November. Thank you Jim and Stephanie for your hard work.❤❤❤
I saw Charlie Boy Cordyline in the Southern Living Magazine recommended by the Grumpy Gardener (Steve Bender). Stunning! I looked everywhere locally for it, no luck so far.
I think I’d remove the dusty miller from the boxwood pot! Too large for the combo , I think !
Beautiful pots 🪴
Hi Jim and Stephanie 👋 Last year I ordered a Wikiki and it came as a plug. It never grew well, it would get 1 leaf then the first would die, that went on for a bit till it died. Don't know what I did wrong? I started Love Lies Bleeding from seed last year and the stems never thickened up and it never grew more than a foot tall, but, it did grow it's red dreads, just not super long. IDK then to pinch back. (1st time starting seeds) I have done them again and I did pinch them back, but, they are still lanky and thin, maybe 7" tall right now.🤔 I would really appreciate some advice please? 😊 I definitely will be getting that Cordyline. (And the Platinum Grass.) I have a Red Sister Hawaiian Ti that is 6' now, I call her beauty 😊 I love all your containers. Thank you for sharing. 💜🪴 Jen Z9b Texas Gulf Coast
Hi Jim! Beautiful, beautiful garden!! Your content is invaluable to us!
Help! We are losing our weeping redbud. 💔😖
It's Verticillium wilt!
Is there anything we can do to treat that bed and get rid of the Verticillium for future plantings? I'm so worried that this is going to spread through my garden. I'm VERY worried! HELP!! Thank you so much!!
Alright Stephany!
Great job Stephany ! 🪻🌷💚🙃
MINT 😱 mine was in a container it creeped out the drainage hole and now I have it everywhere! It does keep the rabbits at bay but I pull most of it AND I’m sure I’ll be pulling it the rest of my life.🤗🪻🌷💚🙃
Thank you Jim and Stephany ! 🪻🌷💚🙃
Jim, what is the difference between Lomandra and Carex? They look very similar.
Great job Steph! You need to be in more of the videos.
Love seeing Steph in the videos!! 💗💗
I can not thank you enough for mentioning Big Bloomers. I had never been, but I went yesterday and was in absolute heaven. The 4 packs are fantastic and they have sooooo many! I could not believe the selection of literally everything and at realistic prices for a change! It was like stepping back in time to the garden centers of old, I loved it.
💚
How do you keep your pots cool during the summer heat? Just by tucking them btwn shrubs? Thank you for doing a pot video! Enjoyed the 'tag team' presentation with Steph. 🙂
Is that container in front of you a carex ?
Love your naturalness in presenting these sessions Stephanie!
Stephanie!! It was great seeing you on another video. Great creative plant containers that I would have never thought of putting in the same pot.
Great info Jim and Steph. Love the bird song during planting at the end.
Yay! Stephanie is back for this one!
Love cordylines, but that one is spectacular! Here in 8b, I had some that made it through a couple of winters out in pots, protected and covered in super cold. Finally lost them but now I want to try again!😁❤
Lovely to see Steph.the other part of a great team..
Great video as per usual!! It’s always good to see Steph in front of the camera!! Thanks for sharing!! ❤
I miss Holly. Where is Holly’s resting place?
Jim and Stephanie, what kind of soil do you use in your containers? I have read that since most potting mixes are soilless, there aren't the microbes needed in a container to break down organic fertilizer like Plant Tone so chemical fertilizers are recommended.
Happy gardening 😅
Those containers look huge and heavy. How do you move them?
Steph, do you guys ever fill a large pot with recycled plastic water bottles or something just to take up space because the roots/plants are so small that you place in the pots?
Beautiful planter plant combinations, and the patio looks awesome.
Great presentation with some great ideas. Having a hard time finding large containers (that can take a little frost) any leads on that?
I wish I had your back Jim. It must be tough as a boot. All that gardening you’ve done. I can’t stay bent at the waist for long stretches anymore. I tend to work like Steph with a pad to kneel on.
Those Delta Fusion dark foliage crape myrtles are STUNNING! Please show us how you trim/prune it to make it fuller?
Blue suede shoes. Woo Hoo! 🥸👌
Gosh I just LOVE LOVE LOVE love love these containers videos! You all have the best combinations and I love that you talk about reusing plants, propagating them, growing them from seed and your fertilizing method. It just makes sense to me and seems resourceful and not wasteful. These videos always inspire me to try out new container combinations. I’m just currently having problems with ants in my backyard, here in zone 10a. They love going in my containers :/ Thank you so much for this video guys! Really enjoyed it!
Sanders Nursery in Broken Arrow, Ok. Carries Michael Carrs designer containers. My favorite garden center in the Tulsa area.
So beautiful✨🍃
Y'all have given me so many container ideas, I love how each one is a little artwork. I enjoy adding a few pretty stones, small concrete statuette, or even a plastic animal. It's a fun focal point until the container grows up.
Great planter combos Steph! Very unique.
I love all these containers. Awesome plants. Love and blessings 💚💛💚
Ok I must ask, how many pairs of shoes do you have? It’s like you have a different one every other week. Hahahaha
Steph! So nice to see you!
What is the vine above your shed and does it require a lot of maintenance? Would this be something I could possibly use above my south facing garage in Raleigh?
I just completed a shade garden that gets about 4 hours of dappled morning sun and then full shade. I have deer issues too so I planted heurchera, penstemon husker red, columbines and astilbes. I have these plants elsewhere in a different garden on my property and they do great. In one of my other beds I have hellebore and they just thrive… the deer hate them…. In another bed that gets a bit more sun all day but is still relatively shady I have hydrangeas… they are the old fashioned (not a hybrid) hydrangeas and they are beautiful. I shake a mixture of cinnamon and Hungarian hot paprika on them…. No deer.