Cottage Garden: Favorite Container Combinations

What are your favorite container combinations? I have found a few that really make a nice display in the garden. This is one of my favorites: Coleus, Hypoestes, and Impatients. I grew all these from seed.

In the spring I love Baby's Breath with its lacy quality, but when it heats up, I have to replace it with another plant. Stock is on the right here, and it will also have to be pulled out and replaced for the summer.

I really like anything with a lacy texture, like Dianthus and Yarrow. They are pictured here with a Coral Punch Impatient.

 

I have to  plant and remember that the container will fill out, and plants like Coleus will get very big.

That same planter when bloomed out. Here I have Coleus, Dianthus, Hypoestes, and a single Dreamland Zinnia. It looks like there is a parsley plant on the left, but that was in another container.

This is a full-grown Dreamland Zinnia. (Picture taken the first of September.) This is one plant. They are glorious! They don't get as tall, and they bush out when you don't pinch them, and the blooms stay colorful for a long time. They take up a lot of space. You could easily just put one per container. The same can be said for Dahlias, but in the planter above, I put one in the container with the Coleus, and it never got that big. 

I love bright colors! There are no rules here; just keep to all the bright colors and not the pale ones. 

One of the most classic containers ever is a single Geranium in a clay pot.

Now, in the elevated beds I take into consideration that I want trailing flowers. It could be nasturtium or any plant with a trailing habit. Here I plant a Wave Petunia and some sort of Salvia. This Blue Victory Salvia gets very tall by fall, but the bees absolutely love it! 

Here is the full-grown Blue Victory Salvia. It easily gets 20 inches high.

The whole look in late summer.

Now layer it all and put the brightly colored containers in front of or beside the elevated beds. This is the view when you come out of my back door.

Then when anything gets ugly, like the short Zinnias getting shaggy in fall, pull them out and replace them with a fall mum.

The Petunias also get shaggy by fall, so I have some Marigolds already started and growing, and I pull out the Petunias and replace them with the Marigolds.

Then, the more I garden, I see many volunteers that are happy surprises. Here are two Coleus that have self-seeded into a potted fern.

I planted this container with pansies I started from seed, and they are completely dwarfed by some Indian Summer Rudabeckia that had self-sown in this container. I didn't even know they were there when I planted the pansies. The pansies lasted into summer in the shade of the Rudabeckia, and they seem to like it there.

What are your favorite container combinations? 

I am still a beginning gardener. I have started my flowers from seed for the last three or four years. 

The whole garden is now around four years old. Each year I have hits and misses, and I just keep gardening on.

In Victory,

Sherry