How To Plant a Winning Container

When May rolls around, I try my best to stay away from local nurseries. Since I grow most of my own plants from seed, there's no need to buy plants from a greenhouse. Well, that's the idea anyway. My checkbook ledger tells another story.

When it's time to plant up the containers on my front porch and deck, I head down to my local nursery and shamelessly indulge myself. I love to see all the newest plant introductions, like those from Proven Winners. When you're working with plants that are fully leafed out and in bloom, it's much easier to compose an attractive pot.

Some containers, such as the Amalfi Planters, look good with a single type of plant. Petunias are featured in the large planter; the smaller one holds ageratum.

I'm lucky to have a great nursery nearby with an incredible selection of plant material. It's always a bit overwhelming to be surrounded by so many perfect plants all begging to be taken home, and hundreds of potential plant combinations just waiting to happen. Assuming you might occasionally experience the same challenge, here are four ways to narrow the field and make sure you wind up with sensational container gardens this summer.

This Ravello Planter showcases plants with bold foliage and strong shapes.

The structure of your container plantings, that is. When you're selecting plants, you need to consider their eventual height, shape and growth habit. Most plants are either upright, broad or trailing. The most successful container combinations usually include at least one of each form. Start with a tall, upright plant, such as Purple Fountain Grass (Pennisetum setaceum 'Rubrum') or a fancy-leaved, dwarf canna lily. Add one or two broad, mid-height plants such as heliotrope, coleus, African daisies (osteospermum) or dwarf dahlias. Then select a trailing form, such as ivy geranium, bacopa or licorice plant (Helichrysum petiolare).

Another way to create a strong, architectural statement is to place just one bold plant in a container. Imagine a thick, upright clump of bamboo or the perfect symmetry of New Zealand flax (phormium). Consider flanking an entryway with a pair of dwarf Alberta spruce or false cypress. A clump of ornamental grass, such as feather reed grass, makes a bold statement. Or you could focus all the attention on a trailing form; envision a tall, celadon-green urn filled with nothing but a burgundy-colored sweet potato vine.

If you fill a windowbox with shade-loving impatiens and then put it in a sunny, west-facing location, those impatiens will struggle to survive. You will also fail if you try to grow sun-loving ivy geraniums on a shady porch. Consider where the pot will be located and then select plants that will like living there. Plant labels usually list sun/shade requirements (you'll also find some recommendations below).

It's important to combine plants that have similar moisture requirements. Desert-loving portulaca won't be happy growing in the same pot with moisture-loving begonias. Soil preference is also important. A pot filled with rosemary, bay and thyme should contain a sharply drained soil mix that mimics the Mediterranean conditions these plants prefer. Fuchsia, on the other hand, will appreciate a humusy, moisture-retentive soil that's similar to what's found in a wet tropical rainforest.

Foliage is just as important as color in creating a successful container planting. Once you've gathered a group of candidates, consider the size of the leaves and their surface texture. Leaf textures range from waxy portulaca to shiny canna lily, prickly asparagus fern and velvety dusty miller. As a general rule, you want most of the foliage in a pot to be harmonious, but remember that it's contrast that really grabs the eye.

For an example of an exciting texture combination, imagine the tiny, felted-gray leaves of Plectostachys (the miniature licorice plant) weaving among the smooth, burgundy leaves of the cabbage palm (cordyline) and the matte-green leaves of heliotrope.

A well-composed container planting can be just as satisfying to look at as a great painting. For visual excitement, try combining complimentary colors such as purple and orange or yellow and blue. Or paint a harmonious plant composition by limiting yourself to related colors such as blues and pinks or reds and yellows. You can also create a stunning look by limiting your palette to a sophisticated combination of greens, whites and silvers.

When selecting flower and foliage colors, you may want to think about the color of your house, the color of your deck or patio pavers, and the color in adjacent beds and borders. That said, pots and planters present a great opportunity to experiment with dramatic color combinations that you'd probably never dare to use in your permanent landscape.

It won't be long before May rolls around and I'm out shopping for this year's container plants. Will I be in my selections? Not a chance. But I will definitely keep these considerations in mind as I roam the aisles, pulling my overflowing shopping wagon behind me. Inevitably, I'll fall head-over-heels in love with a few plants. Once I'm home I'll have to find a way to fit them into the compositions. Last year the outliers were a pale yellow abutilon and a fancy-leaved croton. No telling whose spell I'll fall under this year!