Really big containers are even better: within them you can come up with some
really interesting plant combinations. A winner that has trucked on for
years in my garden is a rusty old iron cattle trough with a convenient crack
in it (providing drainage). Bronze fennel dominates, Hakonechloa macra
‘Aureola’ (a weepy, golden-stripy grass) and a brown/yellow Viola ‘Irish
Molly’ are permanent, shorter, colour-coordinated residents, and in late
spring I add September-struck overwintered cuttings of pale yellow Argyranthemum
‘Jamaica primrose’, with Helichrysum petiolare ‘Limelight’ to
sprawl through the lot.
Another coffin-size container in my driveway – in full view of passers-by, the
planting in it needs to demonstrate that I at least know how to keep things
alive if I am to preserve some sort of reputation – is home to that most
voluptuous of herbaceous geraniums, Geranium palmatum (not hardy in the
north). Stalk loads of pink flowers are carried above its glossy leaves for
weeks in the summer. With a bit of tidying up, the shuttlecock of foliage
endures all winter (even perking up last week after being “wilted” by recent
frosts). You might think that bit-part players in this drama have a lean
time of it. But a small self-seeded colony of Bowles’ golden grass (Milium
effusum) and dusky Origanum laevigatum ‘Herrenhausen’ perform
with understated efficiency. And while the geranium itself will be short
lived, it has conveniently self-seeded within the trough.
Container planting doesn’t all have to be high impact and in your face. “Best
in Show” at Yemm Towers last summer came about somewhat by chance. Fearing
that after several years’ service in my shady woodland patch, a mature Hellebore
x sternii ‘Silver Dollar’ (with biennial flower stems) was on its last
legs, last spring I bought a new young plant “to bring on” as a replacement.
I realised that the very large plastic container into which it was repotted
(in John Innes No 3 plus leafmould) would fit neatly into a vacant urn
outside my kitchen window, so there I plonked it.
Virtually maintenance free – such a large pot needed little watering – the
hellebore’s jagged leaves grew larger and ever more beautiful during the
summer, and there it sits right now, with dusky-pink tinged flower buds just
developing on the shoot tips. Maybe it will get planted out in the garden as
planned. Maybe it won’t. I could just cut its flowering shoots back in early
summer, and let it put in a repeat performance in its pot next year. And
maybe I will be here to tell you about it.
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