Flowers or not?
Garden Clippings for May 21, 2022
Need a suggestion for flowers in your flowerpots? Consider not planting flowers.
Some of the most beautiful plants for containers are chosen for their foliage rather than blooms. Others are chosen for their texture rather than colour.
Potato Vines have quickly risen to the top of the list of favorite plants to cascade over the edge of flowerpots. A mere decade or two ago, Potato vines were a non-issue, but their lush foliage, rapid growth and vibrant leaf colour has caught the attention of gardeners everywhere.
Potato vines, related to the real thing, grow so quickly that they may need to be pruned through the summer. The most popular varieties have lime coloured foliage, followed by the burgundy-black varieties. if you have a lot of space, consider planting both for striking contrast.
Dead Nettle, which for obvious reasons, I’d rather use its botanical name Lamium, is a spiller plant that I love to use at the edge of dark-coloured containers. Leaves are the size of a loonie, in silvery grey colour. Flowers are blue or white, and rather insignificant and easy to pinch off to encourage foliage growth. Lamium is a shade loving perennial that can also be used for rock gardens or at the front of perennial borders.
English Ivy is a dependable, well-behaved old-fashioned vine that pleases everyone. Its lush green or variegated foliage remains tight against the container while not pinching. English Ivy is good for shade.
Vinca Vine, related to Myrtle or Periwinkle, is a twining vine with small leaves and delightful leaves in plain green or variegated with white or yellow margins. Its trumpet shaped infrequent flowers attract hummingbirds. Vinca Vine is not an aggressive grower and is well suited for containers in shade or sun.
Golden Creeping Jenny (Lysimachia ‘Aurea’) is a vigorous low growing evergreen perennial that I don’t often recommend in perennial garden. It can grow aggressively and often succumbs to insects in 3 or 4 years. But plant it in a container and it forms a tidy mound of lime green foliage that appears on trailing stems. Creeping Jenny likes water and is tolerant of sun or shade.
Sedums are a huge family of succulent type, carefree growing perennials. Most varieties produce tiny fleshy leaves that hug the ground. All sedums are water misers that withstand heat, sun and drought. In the garden, Sedums can sometimes become aggressive, although easy to control. In hanging baskets or containers, Sedums are well behaved foliage plants requiring little care.
Hypoestes, commonly known as Polka Dot Plant, is mostly grown as a houseplant. Leaves are cute, and delightfully variegated. When grown indoors, keep the tips of the plant pruned often to avoid a leggy look. Polka Dot Plant rarely survives more than 2 or 3 years because it becomes unsightly or the gardener has forgotten to give it water. When planted outdoors, where there is ample humidity and light, Polka Dot Plant grows to a tidy, showy plant with colourful leaves and a mounding growth habit.
