Now that some of my perennials are established, I was thinking of adding some container for the patio. The issue with the patio is that part of it is covered by trees and is fairly shaded. I am just starting on the sunny area of the patio first.

Container 1 - 17" Terra-cotta. Currently, it contains two oriental lilies. The plan is to put about 4 lily in the pot and have them bloom at different times.

Container 2 - 12" Terra-cotta. Filled with Rannculus bare roots. I followed the instruction to soak the root for several hours and then plant them into the pot.

Container 3 - 10" Terra-Cotta. Filled with a minature Rose that someone gave me that I have been keeping as a house plant. It was fairly root bound and was suffering from nutrient defficiencies. It definitely needed to be repotted. I cut the roots a bit to remove the bound, the roots were starting to loop.

The reason for the terra-cotta is because we do occassionally get really strong winds, so I don't want to wake up one day to find that the pot is in my neighbor's yard.

For soil mix, I am using a potting mix that I amended with some orchid potting mix, perlite, and sphagnum moss. I have no scientific basis for this mix except that I used it succesfully in houseplants. I also added some Micracle Grow slow release plant food.

I'll be able to tell in a few months whether I am successful.

Note: the next day the squirrel decided to start digging in the pot and pulled out a few Rannculus. I layed on some cayenne pepper on top for now until I can come up with a better solution.

Paul