If My Plants Could Talk

I've never been a container gardener. I don't know how to create combinations in pots and keep them looking good. But this year I seem to have quite a few containers all over the place.

Ungainly yellow flowered weeds have sprouted from the stones of the low patio wall. They are hairy goldenaster and they grow wild and prolifically in harsh conditions with no care. Here I let these wild plants do their thing -- they are floppy and weedy looking -- but I tame their awkwardness with pots of sturdy red geraniums nestled beside the goldenasters.

A faux "cement" fiberglass pot of cuphea is exploding this year with orange firecrackers that the hummingbirds love. 

'Kent's Beauty' ornamental oregano is doing well on the patio table. I've had trouble growing it before, but discovered it wants more shade and water than I had assumed a Mediterranean herb wanted.

I have lots of containers of blackeyed Susans, which all got potted up in desperation this year. After two years of trying unsuccessfully to keep them watered in their garden spots, I dug them up and put them in containers.

This has been such a mystery to me. Rudbeckias are sold locally, promoted as drought tolerant, easy care sun lovers for this climate. None, absolutely none of my rudbeckias did well in the ground. They wilted -- not just drooped a bit in the heat of the day, but laid down flat in the soil every day without twice daily soakings. 

They needed so much water and didn't seem to be able to use it. I had several planted in different spots, and none thrived or bloomed or seemed to have the will to live.

So they all got taken out and put in plastic containers in some shade, where I keep the potting soil soggy. I mean constantly wet. And they love it. Go figure.

I'm not sure I want the care and fuss of blackeyed Susans in pots next year, though. The point was to have a naturalized prairie-style summer bloomer in the garden, not high maintenance bog plants in plastic pots.

In a terra-cotta container, I managed to get nasturtiums to bloom. At least two flowers anyway.

That's two more than the nasturtium in the big urn out front has produced. That container is not flowering at all (Miracle Gro potting soil was too rich for them.)

The Cape plumbago has been moved in its big brown pot to the back corner of the house where it serves as a screen to hide the ridiculously complex waterworks as seen from the deck. My self installed irrigation system is needlessly convoluted with space age timers and coil hoses and hose splitters attached to hose splitters. I'm pretty proud of it.

But I don't want anyone to see it, and the Cape plumbago obliges by being full and hiding things from around the corner. A tropical sun lover that should dry out between waterings, the plumbago seems happiest in shade with frequent water.

And how about my potted Japanese maple -- I haven't killed it at all.

I even pruned it this year and it looks fine. I keep the soil moist.

I have many more containers going this year, all sorts that are doing well. But I'll leave you with this little one -- Monardella macrantha, which is an odd plant with the brightest, richest red flowers I've seen. 

It's a rock garden plant that wants dry soil and sun, but I had no success and lost several until I figured out that, like the blackeyed Susans and the ornamental oregano and the Cape plumbago, it actually wants wet soil and shade. 

I wish my plants could tell me what they really want, but together we are figuring it out.