Top 10 Container Plants

Container gardening is one of the easiest ways to enjoy the growing season. That's because containers are relatively low-maintenance...there's no limit to the fun plant combinations you can dream up...and they brighten even the smallest space with their instant beauty. Whether you're new to container gardening or a seasoned pro, these goof-proof container plants deserve a prominent place in your pretty pots this year!

Photo: Park Seed; www.parkseed.com

Sweet potato vine

If it's delectable foliage you're craving, look no further than sweet potato vine. Its chartreuse leaves will cascade from containers and look spectacular as a foreground to darker foliage. In fact, other varieties of sweet potato vine, such as Blackie and Margarita offer a rich contrast when paired.

• Common Names: Sweet potato vine.
• Botanical Name:Ipomoea batatas.
• Hardiness: Annual.
• Bloom Time: Grown for foliage.
• Size: 6 inches high, 24 to 26 inches wide.
• Foliage: Lobed or heart-shaped leaves of mostly yellow-green, but sometimes maroon and multicolored margins.
• Light Needs: Full sun to partial shade.
• Growing Advice: Plants transplanted into shaded areas perform well, but the foliage color may be less intense.
• Prize Picks: Blackie has dark purple, almost black, foliage. Tricolor has cream, green and pink leaves and is less aggressive.

Photo: Park Seed; www.parkseed.com

Geraniums

Some have said geraniums are known and loved by more people than any other flower in the world. And it may be true. Their vivid colors and long-lasting flowers make them a favorite for backyards. They thrive in containers, windowboxes and make colorful borders for walks, walls and garden beds.

New plants can be started from cuttings or the whole plant can be brought indoors for the winter and grown like a houseplant. Others have had success digging up the plants and storing them in a cool dark location for winter months.

• Common Names: Geranium.
• Botanical Name: Pelargonium x hortorum.
• Hardiness: Zone 10. Grown as annual in most areas.
• Bloom Time: Summer until frost.
• Size: 12 to 20 inches high and wide.
• Flower: White, pink, red or purple individual flowers that appear in large round clusters.
• Light needs: Full sun.
• Growing Advice: Most home gardeners buy geraniums as budding or flowering pot-grown plants. They are easily propagated from cuttings and can be grown from seed.
• Prize Picks: Black Magic Rose has unique black with green edged foliage and bright rose-colored flowers with a small white center. The Orbit series is an early and large flowering type that comes in white, pink, orange or red.

Photo: Park Seed; www.parkseed.com

Licorice Vine

Drape texture from mixed planting containers with velvety gray licorice vine. The fuzzy, silvery foliage can grow long enough to trail and will readily weave itself throughout surrounding plants. Along with silvery-gray colors, other varieties produce shades of greens and variegations.

This vine is drought tolerant and is known to attract swallowtail butterflies.

• Common Names: Licorice vine, licorice plant.
• Botanical Name: Helichrysum petiolare.
• Hardiness: Annual in most zones.
• Bloom Time: Grown for foliage.
• Size: 6 to 18 inches high, 1 to 6 feet wide.
• Foliage: Fuzzy gray, light green or variegated, depending on variety.
• Light Needs: Partial shade to full sun.
• Growing Advice: Where grown as a perennial, protect from excessive moisture and cold, drying winds. To avoid rotting roots, plant in well-draining soil.
• Prize Picks: Limelight offers lime-green foliage that is well suited to cool, shady areas. Variegatum has variegated gray and white leaves.

Photo: Pearl Shear

Pansy

It's hard not to smile when there's a patch of pansies in your backyard. These colorful flowers are best known for the "whiskered faces" that mark many of the blooms. The pattern makes it appear as if the flowers are grinning.

Pansies are part of the large flower family that includes violets and Johnny-jump-ups. They emerged in the early 1800s as the result of crossbreeding four different viola varieties to create the trademark "face."

The plants produce a wide variety of brightly colored flowers surrounded by bushy leaves. Most are annuals, although some are biennials or short-lived perennials.

• Common Names: Pansy.
• Botanical Name: Viola x wittrockiana.
• Hardiness: Zones 4 to 8.
• Bloom Time: Varies by cultivar. Most types perform best in the cooler weather of spring or autumn. In warmer climates, some varieties can be used as winter annuals.
• Size: 6 to 9 inches high and 9 to 12 inches wide.
• Flowers: Purple, white, yellow, orange and red. Bicolored flowers with a face-like pattern are the most common; shape is five overlapping petals, some with ruffled edges.
• Light needs: Full sun to partial shade.
• Growing Advice: Plant transplants in early spring. To grow from seed, plant indoors in January or February in northern climates. In warmer areas, plant in late summer for blooms the following spring.
• Prize Picks: Imperial, Maxim, Springtime and Universal are heat-tolerant choices, while Icicle and Second Season tolerate cold.

Photo: Park Seed; www.parkseed.com

Coleus

Although coleus makes a stunning accent, chances are you won't be able to stop at one. Mix the numerous varieties of colors and shapes to create the perfect container garden. Each brilliant foliage is more distinctive than the next. You might just give up on flowers altogether.

• Common Names: Coleus.
• Botanical Name: Soenostemon scutellarioides.
• Hardiness: Annual.
• Bloom Time: Grown for foliage, not flowers.
• Size: 6 to 36 inches high and wide.
• Foliage: Red, green, yellow, orange and purple.
• Light Needs: Shade to sun.
• Growing Advice: Start from seeds indoors 6 to 8 weeks before last frost. Move transplants into garden after danger of frost has passed.
• Prize Picks: Those grown from the Wizard Mix produce dazzling colors, especially Velvet Red. Alabama Sunset is more tolerant of sun and heat, also producing less unwanted blooms.

Photo: Wilson Brothers Nursery

Purple fountain grass

With full tufts of fuzzy toned flower spikes, this ethereal grass must be heaven-sent. Rosy purple foxtails will cascade from stems, making this ornamental grass a perfect pick for the center of a large container planting.

This showstopper keeps going through fall, adding contrast to the quintessential reds, bronzes and golds of the season.

• Common Names: Purple fountain grass.
• Botanical Name: Pennisetum setaceum 'Rubrum.'
• Hardiness: Grown as an annual.
• Bloom Time: Midsummer.
• Size: 2 to 3 feet, high and wide.
• Foliage: Purple.
• Light Needs: Full sun.
• Growing Advice: Grow in full sun. Cut back dead top growth by early spring.
• Prize Picks: Giant Burgundy fountain grass is big and bold. Dwarf Rubrum is slightly smmaler.

Photo: RDA GID

Trailing lobelia

Try to contain this beauty and you'll find it spilling over the edge. This compact annual trails over the edges of containers. Let its tubular blooms pour color from hanging baskets, window boxes and even rock walls.

• Common Names: Trailing lobelia, edging lobelia.
• Botanical Name: Lobelia erinus.
• Hardiness: Annual.
• Bloom Time: Midsummer to early autumn.
• Size: 4 to 9 inches high, 4 to 6 inches wide.
• Flowers: White, blue, purple, red and pink.
• Light Needs: Full sun to partial shade.
• Growing Advice: Keep well-watered and protect from extreme heat.
• Prize Picks: Sapphire bears an abundance of white-eyed, dark blue blooms. For a dense mound of soft blue, pick Regetta Marine or Crystal Palace.

Impatiens

Reliable impatiens are shade-garden favorites throughout North America, quickly growing to fill in bare areas with undulating mounds of color. These useful landscape plants work equally well in borders, foundation beds and containers.

Once planted, impatiens need very little care. They bloom from spring to first frost, and unlike some other annuals, they require no deadheading to keep the flowers coming.

• Common Names: Impatiens and busy Lizzie.
• Botanical Name: Impatiens.
• Hardiness: Annual in most zones.
• Bloom Time: Summer to first frost.
• Size: 6 inches to 2 feet high.
• Flowers: Pink, red, orange, yellow, purple, lavender-blue and white. Flowers may be solid-colored, striped or bicolor.
• Light needs: Partial to full shade.
Growing Advice: Start seeds indoors 12 weeks before last frost. Set out transplants or bedding plants after danger of frost has passed, since impatiens are highly sensitive to cold.
• Prize Picks: Tried-and-true Impatiens walleriana has a short, shrubby growth habit and flat flowers. New Guinea hybrids sport the largest, showiest flowers. They often are sold as "sun impatiens," but perform best in partial shade. For window boxes or hanging baskets, try one of the new trailing types, like Fanfare or Spellbound Pink.

Photo: Margie Casey

Petunia

It's no wonder petunias are one of the most popular garden flowers - they come in a dazzling array of colors, shapes and sizes, are easy to grow and tolerate all sorts of weather and soil conditions.

Intense hybridizing has led to the plethora of petunias available today - and there are more varieties being developed each year. To keep things in order, petunias are divided into several categories - multiflora, grandiflora, floribunda, milliflora and spreading, notably the popular, award-winning Wave petunias.

• Common Names: Petunia.
• Botanical Name: Petunia x hybrida.
• Hardiness: Annual.
• Bloom Time: Late spring to frost.
• Size: 4 to 24 inches high, 12 to 36 inches wide.
• Flowers: Mainly pink, red, pale yellow, violet-blue, white or multicolor funnel-shaped single and double flowers.
• Light Needs: Full sun to partial shade.
• Growing Advice: common bedding plants. If growing from seed, sow 10 to 12 weeks before the typical last-frost date in your area. Space seedlings about 6 to 12 inches apart. Spreading varieties such as Wave should be placed 18 to 24 inches apart.
• Prize Picks: The compact and spreading Carpet series makes a colorful groundcover. The Wave series offers appealing variations on the color purple, including Lavender Wave, Purple Wave, and Misty Lilac Wave.

Photo: Cornell.edu

Perilla

Ready for some real flavor? Perilla - part of the mint family - looks like coleus and tastes like basil. Toothed or serrated, and sometimes curled, the various forms of this herb will help your container garden take shape. Though commonly green, perilla's Atropurpurea cultivars sport lovely ruffled reddish-purple foliage.

• Common Names: Perilla, shiso.
• Botanical Name: Perilla.
• Hardiness: Annual.
• Bloom Time: Grown for foliage.
• Size: Up to 3 feet high and 1 foot wide.
• Foliage: Mostly green, sometimes variegated or tinted red, purple or orange.
• Light Needs: Full sun to partial shade.
• Growing Advice: Amend soil with organic matter before planting.
• Prize Picks: Usually found in green or purple. Britton has green leaves with red undersides; the relatively new colorful Fantasy lives up to its name.