Plants For Year Round Containers

It's clearance season y'all. That time of year everything's going on sale. Nurseries are clearing out their spring inventory trying to get some more fresh plants in for the fall time. I was just thinking about that because I'm like I should probably check some things out this weekend and that made me think about some things I may want for perennials in the containers like a little container garden area out here for the winter time because you know this this is all gone as of mid to late October and it's you know crab apples and shrubbery and it's a whole different vibe. I started thinking what are some of the things that I would like to find. I thought well this would be useful to talk about. Let's talk about some of my favorite perennials for containers because some are pretty great. Some are just horrible. So some of the things I've had the best luck with so far. They're you know some twists to some of them. Not really twists but some things to keep in mind like this uh grass over here. Isn't it beautiful? This is an Apache Rose. It's uh from Proven Winners. There we go. See it? Prairie wins Apache Rose. It's a panicum grass. They have one that I really like called Totem Pole which I think would be better for a container because it's tall and more narrow but I planted up two of these last year. They both did great. One of them I gave away after it wasn't looking too hot after winter. I had it in a clay container and I just wasn't keeping it moist enough during the winter time so a plastic pot is the way to go or a sealed container that's you know you do a really good job sealing it. Apparently I didn't do that great of a job sealing mine but the one that's able to hold onto its moisture overwintered beautifully and this is a container I don't have to keep buying every year. Grasses I can usually keep in a container for usually two to three years before they start to just be like I can't do this you need to put me in the ground and that depends on the grass so something like a Miscanthus no I don't have as much luck with those. Panicums usually just fine and sedge grasses aren't really a grass. We'll call it a grass. Those usually I can get a couple years in a container or some before I need to put them in the ground. Perennials do make good container plants because you know you get years and years out of them. It's just a matter of which ones to use. I even took some of this dune grass a couple of years ago and I moved that into a pot which is over here part of the mess. Had a little tornado blow everything over the other day getting that pot glued back together. That's right here that blue dune grass this is its second year in the container. I didn't do anything special to overwinter this in fact I need to do some cleanup on it as you can see. Pull that brown stuff out that'll make it look much much much nicer. In dune grass this is way better for a container than in the ground because it just you know it spreads everywhere and it's really pretty and it's cheap. Every couple years you can divide it up put it back into the pot. I love that. Now succulents those are another option. I'm just gonna walk past acetum. Succulents sometimes take for me anyways in my climate a little bit of extra care just to try and find that sweet balance between them having some moisture but not so much that they just freeze and rot and really keeping them sheltered so having them in a spot where there's something I don't know over them that won't be there in the winter time but you get it help keep precipitation off of them. They can set up most of the year so things like the Sempervivums and a few different sedums that one right there it's called the Atlanta Stone Crop Sedum. Those do pretty well. That's another point I need to pick up. Yuccas, they're sturdy, they're tough, they don't need much water. Awesome container perennial. They can go years and years and years without needing to be bumped up into a larger container. They're just tough. Sometimes on the more expensive side depending on what kind you're trying to get. This is a Recurvefolia. If you were to buy one with this much trunk on it probably set you back a bit but you can get them small and let them grow out. The smaller they are the more shelter they may need. That just depends on the type. There's yuccas that are good down in zone three and yuccas that you can't grow north of zone eight. That depends on what you're getting. Thuja. Thuja Placata and Occidentalis. Both of them great for containers but just don't let them get too dry. They scorch very very easy when you have a winter where there's really cold blowy dry winds. They end up not looking too hot so having them sheltered someplace and making sure to water. That's key for everything except for the succulents and the yucca. They don't need to be watered during the winter time but pretty much everything. You still need to make sure they're getting water. I try and make sure they get a drink like a bucket of water thrown into the pots every, I don't know, three weeks or so. Not always enough for everything like this. It's this beautiful planter with a dumpster right next to it. Now it's what it is. That's the yard waste. All that stuff goes to compost. Panicle hydrangeas. These are my all-time favorite best perennial for a container. I just, I don't even know where to start with these. They're amazing. They can handle the sun. You can take them down to some shade but they still, you know, you want to give them at least really six hours of sun a day but you know you could take them down to four hours as long as that's really bright and direct on them. They'll just have more of a lanky growth to them. Maybe not as powerful of a flowering habit. May not be quite as flower for us but they can take less light. They have a lot of range I should say. You can put them in, most of them are hardy into zone three or zone four. So they're really tough for containers and they bloom on new wood. So if you have a really bad winter it's okay. You'll still get blooms out of them. One thing though, like this spot right here, I thought oh what a nice spot for an urn, right? Not necessarily. Bannacle hydrangeas, I mean all hydrangeas, when it gets really really hot outside their flowers turn into, they just burn. They look like burnt marshmallows. Everything gets toasted and toasty and that can be a moisture issue when it comes to the heat. So having a proper moisture balance when it's hot out is really important. Not letting them dry out, they shouldn't be stopping wet either, but just never let them dry out during the hottest parts of the year and that helps prevent that but I mean it's just, it gets so hot here that I usually end up with some brown on my hydrangeas if they're getting any afternoon sun at all. It's just, that's the way it goes. It's just part of it. I've learned to accept it. They're so pretty that it's okay. Oh and the pollinators absolutely love them. Okay well these are not perennials. These are impatiens that overgrew some of the perennials. I need to come in here and do some pruning on them. Heuchera, a lot of heucheras I have good luck with. The one I have the best luck with in containers uh there's primo peach I think is the name of it. That one has done well for me in containers and dulce spearmint and dulce silver gumdrop. I haven't tried all of the heucheras obviously but I've had good luck with those three. Some heucheras just never come back. Oh guacamole, that one comes back for me really well and here's some of that sedge grass I was telling you about right here. That's an everfalls carix. Great to have draping over the front of the container and boxwoods. Boxwoods can be great but you go back to that same issue I was talking about with with your arbs making sure that they have proper moisture during the winter time and some shelter from wind. If you can do that maybe throw a bag of burlap over them. It's gonna be really cold and really windy. That helps get them through. The boxwoods, panicle hydrangeas, and the yuccas are the ones that I get the most time out of in containers. Those arbs um I've tried cedars in containers and those things and those are good but after about two or three years they really need to get into the ground. The boxwoods, the yuccas, and panicle hydrangeas I mean I've pushed some of them. Some have been in containers for like nearly a decade I think and they're fine but I really have to amend and add lots of compost and rich matter material to their potting soil every single spring. And you can of course always pull them out and do a root prune. Alberta spruce. I like these in containers but usually they only look good for about two years and after that they need to get to the ground. That's about as much time as I can get out of a spruce in the ground. So this is new. I started this last year. This is a crabapple. It's royal raindrops crabapple. So this will be back in that space that I was showing you before in the backyard with all the tropicals during the wintertime. It's nice because it's got the berries that hang on most of the wintertime. The birds haven't gotten to them yet. Has a nice color which looks good against the gray. Disappears against the brick but in the backyard it's beautiful when the snow falls. It sits on top of that kind of mahogany-esque colored really shiny wood there. It looks really really nice. And in this container I have put a yellow twig dogwood. I have a weed. Little weed. Go ahead and pull that guy out. This pot has this kind of a combination of all of my favorite things to put into a pot and this is new for me. I never tried this but it overwintered beautifully. It gave me a nice flush of really pretty flowers in the springtime and that's just one year. So it could be a one-off. Check back with me next year to see if it stays that way. I would imagine this should be good for about three years or so and then it'll probably need to be pulled and have a root prune just you know because crabapples get kind of cruddy looking period even in the ground. Imagine a container. They're gonna be more of a high maintenance. During the summer I have this on my front porch where it's only getting morning sun. I think that's helping a lot. Uh autumn brilliance fern. A decent fern for containers. I've had the best luck with this one out of all my ferns I've ever tried in containers. They just they do nice and they're somewhat evergreen. I'm in 6b 7a so depending on our winter they'll look nice until about I don't know mid to late December and then they slowly just start to look pretty ratty and around springtime I gotta cut them back and get a fresh flush out of them but it's nice to have ferns in containers so try and find evergreen ferns that are hardy you know a good two zones lower than your zone then maybe that'll work for you. Sometimes if you're like me and you live like 6b 7a or maybe you're in zone seven and you're going okay well let me find a fern oh this one looks good you know something that's hardy down to like say zone three sometimes something being hardy zone three or maybe it's like a three to eight you see that as the zone sometimes that's indicative of a plant that's also not heat tolerant so remember you gotta make sure that it works for all year round so these guys right here autumn brilliance they've been tough the painted ghost ferns those usually look good and lady ferns alike the June hosta I've grown lots of hostas in containers the June hosta by far my favorite it's a sturdy hosta so overall it's one of my favorite hostas that tends to do really well for people has a stiffer foliage the snails don't go for it quite as much like the flowers I think they're really pretty and they just come back every single year no matter what container I ever put them in flawlessly and they always look better as if they're in the ground they're really good and there are some hostas I've tried uh usually the more fancy types that just they I don't know they're terrible containers but yeah the June it's always been reliable and a common one pretty easy to come by dogwoods they're so hardy kind of getting into the similar thing with some of the panicle hydrangea they can take so much cold and they're versatile sun to shade so they make good container plants too you can keep them pruned back if you want to this is only the first year so it's the first second year really that that's been the container if I could do it again which I could I could pull this out but I may end up doing that I would probably prefer to have a variegated dogwood in here I think that that would look much better an ivory halo or strawberry daiquiri maybe sergeant pepper something like that but I just wanted some contrast I like that yellow there and as that gets more mature and vibrant with more sun when I get it moved around the fall time that'll look really pretty there's a boxwood back there and you know that's that's about if there's also a barberry over there but I don't know a lot of y'all can't plant barberries use I love a you not sorry the fastidious type well I mean fastidious a growth habit that's wrong I didn't mean it that way cephalotaxis that's a less hardy you they're beautiful but they're less hardy I like them though I'm referring to just your regular taxes use here's one over here right here beautiful plant they do wonderfully in containers this one I picked up on clearance from I think home depot last fall and it's still in its nursery can it just looks great they're not doing anything special with it so for years I had a couple of fastidious types I don't remember I think they were hicksey I use hicks use and a container on each side of the well there's still some up here look right here right there I bought those about four or five years ago and they're great you don't get much growth out of them when you're keeping them in a container but sometimes that's all right it's just nice to have some evergreens outside during the winter time I know it's weird that it's July I believe when this video comes out to be talking about winter time but this is when I start thinking about it because a lot of the summer planting stuff is done and the things are going on clearance this time of year that I'd be using for fall and winter containers and you know it's not like what I do is over the top and ridiculous but even just having a couple of planters outside that have some evergreens and you know something with some texture even if you do one of these ever falls carrots that went over here if you pop one of these into a container and it does brown out for you I don't mind that brown on the front of my container in the winter time it's a nice texture really and the birds seem to enjoy it too the birds are always pulling at it and enjoying it it looks nice bamboo they're an option find something that's you know a couple zones lower than yours most of the types of bamboo will do well in a container at least for a few years they need to be repotted fairly frequently to keep them looking the best and then the final look over here at the hydrangea trees usually you get there's two and they were beautiful those are strawberry vanillas and I have had those for I said at least a decade they started off over here trees grew there wasn't enough sun so they've now been moved over here which is great up until usually about mid-July and then they get kind of toasty so you know that's the only downsides I usually end up with some brown on my flowers there's just so much pavement but those are just the easiest and the most rewarding they flush out nice and early in the year which is awesome it's one of the things I love about them having a plant that flushes out and you know usually mid-March for me is very nice because there's nothing out here in March almost everything in my garden dies back to the ground I don't have a lot of evergreens over here I have the temple bloom heptacodium it flushes out about the same time as the panicle type hydrangeas so we start to get some foliage around mid-March they don't really they don't look full anyways until late April but you start to see that movement in the green which is great I love that it's something that happens early a lot of deciduous plants is where I live you know the ones that I think have a more fun exotic look I don't see anything out of those until like mid-May sometimes I have things that pop out early magnolias grandifloras not one that I have had the best luck with in containers they just don't usually do that well for me they'll go through the winter just fine I'll have them in a pot it'll be absolutely beautiful but then when late winter into spring comes around that's when I struggle with them none of that doesn't really make much sense but this happens with some other evergreens I've tried usually broadleaf evergreens acubas I've had this problem with where they look great all winter long and then I guess that time of year where we have random days where it might be 90 degrees outside but then it's going to be 25 or 30 the next day and our groundwater is ice ice cold I mean not literally because that would be ice you know so that's you know I don't know 38 40 degrees the water gets very very cold that time of year and these plants are receiving these really hot temperatures and they need the water and so I have had to learn to fill up buckets and let those sit out and warm up and then use those buckets to water those plants on those random really hot days and that helps a lot but that's a step further than I would like to take things so I just don't bother with those anymore it's just too much of a pain don't have time for all that to be setting buckets out in the morning and waiting for them to come up to temperature so I can water the evergreens but that has made a tremendous difference not having that ice cold water watering these plants on those random 80 90 degree days you know when it's you know like March that's just when everything goes and downhill and they just it's just too much differentiation I think is what's going on there you have the plant saying hey I need water and then you water it with cold water and it goes oh I don't know what to do with this you just shocked the crap out of me and then they stop taking up the water and you know and magnolias will hold on to their foliage for a very long time and you'll think oh this plant's fine and then they start to drop their foliage from something that went awry months and months ago hollies will do that too also so there aren't a lot of broadleaf evergreens I can think of where I live that do really well in containers year round unless you have a really good sheltered spot for them which I really don't a sheltered spot and you know maybe a deeper well or something with warmer water I know the further south you go so those of you who are actually in 7a 7b and 8 I mean there's you know tons of options for containers to keep out year round but uh for me it's more limited I mean you can put anything in a container and try it year round right the windmill palms they're fantastic I don't pee from the ground I've did a whole separate video on that which I'm not cold hardy palms I was repotting things that's too much to but I like having them in container because I only have to move them in for usually at minimum three weeks a year some winters maybe six to twelve weeks it's just it depends if it's going to be below 15 degrees fahrenheit or if we're gonna have a lot of ice then I scoot them in so you can spend the majority of the year outside and I would consider that a broadleaf evergreen it's a pretty big broad front right called a broadleaf I don't know you get what I'm saying okay so we talked about some fillers thrillers things that are really full things are really tall that you can put into a container as far as trailers go there's only a few that I've had much luck with during the winter time as far as them staying looking fairly decent and that's going to be creeping jenny uh ivy which I know a lot of you will refuse to plant I have no issue with planting ivy you just make sure you don't let it touch the ground once it gets to the ground cut it you don't have a problem but yeah it's easy to forget things or for a piece to snap off maybe there's some place where it is highly invasive then you know they don't do ivy and then the trailing sedums they won't always be as pretty but if you can find these packs of steppables with that have some of that pakisandra type sedums in them and whatever the blue one is I can't remember the name of oh they do great now the further down they hang the more they trail off the edge of the container the more damage they have the closer they are to the top of the soil the better they tend to look but still it's a nice topper you can put into your container you have you know just maybe one plant in the middle just put all kinds of sedum around it oh it looks so nice maybe not all year but let's say you know we're nine to ten months out of the year that's pretty good and you don't have to keep rebuying them every year that's what I love about having some of the perennials in containers now this year I'm gonna take it easy I just want to find one good tree for the backyard I have the big royal raindrops crabapple and then I planted a there's what was it as a prairie fire prairie fire did fine in the container it overwintered wonderfully however it didn't produce any flower in the spring and that was you know part of the was you know to have something with attractive wood like that uh royal raindrops crabapple and then have a nice show of flowers so for me that came down to actually being royal raindrops crabapple and a weeping cherry I did a weeping cherry out here last year that did great it flowered beautifully they're not as hardy so that one I planted was a zone five and notice this is 6b and we did have several dips well below zero fahrenheit here and it still it did well so I'm gonna bump that to a larger container and then probably try and find other royal raindrops like bone and clearance that I have one for each side of the the space right here I know this isn't centered it's just the way things went this year and it's fine I'm trying to deal with it hopefully you can too the pots warped in this queen palm so I can't get this all the way up it just is what it is not the subject of this video okay that's a most of what I could think about the top of my head and some stuff I had written down uh comment down below what are some things you've had really good luck with hopefully that was a nice big variety of things to try things for people to try throughout all of the zones I was trying to think of like dieback perennial type plants you know um some salvias if you have a lot of sun those have done well for me and that just at that point you're just getting into the what can I keep alive during the winter versus what can I keep in you know an actual outdoor container you know just a sturdy perennial to me for the garden I guess that could be anything as long as it's hardy and you only have to get a little bit of water and it comes back every spring but I'm thinking more about like containers and structures you know you get it yeah hey anyways comment down below let me know thoughts opinions things that you have tried and of course as always and most importantly everybody keep on growing bye