‘Plants suitable for growing in pots’ is the theme for Green Thumbs this month. Whether you want to “dress up” a verandah, entrance porch, balcony or courtyard; you want pretty flowers or striking foliage or interesting shaped plants- there is a huge range of options available. Some of my favourite plants to grow in containers are:
Geraniums: beautiful long flowering, sun hardy plants that you see in magnificent hanging baskets or tall pots in gardens throughout Europe. Ivy leaf geraniums in various colours, Big Red and Pink Splash are some popular new cultivars.
Standard patio roses: short (60cm) standard forms of many of your favourite roses are available. We’ve had a couple of Bonica patio roses in pots on the verandah for years, with masses of small pink flowers through spring, summer, autumn if you give them a regular trim back.
Acacia cognata: a small, compact Australian native shrub with narrow, weeping lime green foliage. Cultivars Mini Cog and Limelight are striking for their form and foliage colour.
Strappy leaved plants: such as Phormium or Cordyline are very hardy and come in a range of striking leaf colours. A couple of favourites are Cordyline electric pink and Phormium Choc n Cherry or Phormium yellow wave.
Dwarf conifers: for a “formal” look, it’s hard to beat a couple of small, compact conifers in pots either side of the entrance to a house or section of the garden. Thuja smaragd is one of the light green conical forms that looks great and Thuja aurea nana is a more compact form with golden coloured foliage.
Dwarf fruit trees: if you have limited space in the garden for growing fruit trees, container grown, dwarf fruit trees are a practical, achievable option. Trixzie cultivars of peaches and nectarines grow well in our region and produce full size fruit from trees no larger than a meter high. I’ve also had dwarf cultivars of popular apple varieties such as pink lady and granny smith, as well as productive lemon and lime trees grafted onto dwarf rootstock that can be grown very effectively in pots.
Flowering shrubs: hydrangeas in a wide range of traditional and modern flower forms and colours and a new compact form of the tough flowering shrub, Buddleia (Buddleia buzz) which comes in white, purple or blue flowering cultivars, are also widely grown in pots in great local gardens.
By Ian Rogan