I'm containing balloon flower this year, the lady at Lowe's said it's hardy to -40 degrees! Will you be bringing the pots to a basement or garage during winter?

There's a miniature gardenia that would do great in a container. I don't know if it would winter over in your area, though. It has the added bonus of being evergreen. See if it's available in your area. Also, alot of the roses do well in containers. Good luck! :)

I've got lilies in some containers. I saw them on our garden walk last year and loved the look! You can put about 3 lilies in a 16" pot. Mine have big buds that are about to burst open any day (these are orientals).

I think next year I'm going to try some asiatics, too.

Tracy

I have Platycodon 'Sentimental Blue', Sedum 'Autumn Fire', Achillea 'Moonshine', and various hostas in plastic pots that overwinter outside without special care. But they were under so much snow cover I didn't see them for months! I also have a miniature rose and a deciduous azalea that get their pots buried for the winter.

My 'Butter Pixie' asiatic lilies did not survive being left outside in their foam pot. Probably needed better draining soil than I had used.

The containers will remain outside at all times

You can try daylilies, asiastic lilies, oriental lilies, hosta, irises, peonies, roses, clematis, lily of the valley, Sedum 'Autumn Joy', creeping phlox (all of which I have or have had). And this year, I'm trying bleeding hearts, heuchera, variegated jacob's ladder, and bee balm. The lilies are supposedly hardy to zone 5 and in some cases (depending on the type) to zone 4.

Here's one of mine this year (I have to divide my lily containers desperately):

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The bee balm is supposed to be pretty hardy - to zone 3 as is the phlox I believe. Here's the bee balm (my hummer loved it - this is 'Jacob Cline')!

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Some others that I have like an Agastache, some cannas, and a couple Salvias, are marginal or not hardy, so I will be trying to overwinter those somewhere.

I think you might like the peonies though. I have been really happy with my herbaceous one - a Sarah Bernhardt (have wintered it for 2 years now in its current container - a 14"), and am trying a baby grafted Seidei tree peony for the first time, but would love some others if I had more room! I don't even mulch them and the rhizome eyes are right at the top of the soil pretty much uncovered. In your case, you could probably throw about an inch of soil on top of they eyes and call it a day. If you get early, mid, and late-flowering ones, you can get something like 6 weeks worth of peony blooms and some decent foliage for the rest of the time.

The peony (and this year I tried a peony grid ring but obviously it wasn't tall enough...LOL):

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I've been growing daylilies, coneflowers, perrenial salvia (May Night), and now yarrow on my balcony garden in containers for up to 5 years for some of the plants. I haven't lost anything yet, save for the one daylily that got an incurable case of thrips that ruined the flowers (nothing to do with overwintering), so it is possible.

The key with most of these plants is to NOT overwater, but don't let them dry out. Still, you are better off letting them get too dry than too wet. This is probably true for most plants, at least from what I've seen!

Now, you do live in a colder climate than I do, so more care will need to be taken in the winter, of course, but it should still work.

I got a good deal on a bunch of perrenials this summer, but the bed for them isn't ready yet so I built up some containers using oak pallet boards. These are mostly low growing rock garden types. Hebe's are like miniture shrubs with great variations in leaf shape, color and form; one mimics boxwood in form. There were also:

Ceanothus gioriosus - Point Reyes
Euonymus fortunei - Emerald 'n' Gold
Gaultheria procumbens - Wintergreen
Hebe
Buxifolia
'Patty's Purple'
Pinguifolia - pagei
Topiaria
Lithodora
Grace Ward
Ocymoides (saponaria)
Rock Soapwort
Oxalis
Copper Glow
Sunrose
Annabel
Veronics repens
Sunshine

These have filled in one 4' box and one 2' box very nicely. So far our coldest night has been 27 and we have a light snow on the ground. The oxalis have died back to the ground (they are bulblets) but Copper Glow was lush and blooming right to the end.

I'm new at container planting. I remodeled my kitchen a couple months ago. I kept my old sink.I plan on using it
in my yard as a container.Afterall it already has a drain.
What types a flowers would look good in it.

Perennials that came back this spring in containers:

Yarrow (hot pink)
Hechura
Shasta Daisy
Dailily (a yellow version of the common orange)
Clematis

I had covered all but the clematis and yarrow.

Good luck!

Try Plumbago. Beautiful foliage that trails over the pots, and blossoms gorgeous electric blue flowers. You'd really love it! It's also available in white, however, the blue really makes things "pop"!

Clematis, lambs ear, hops vine, and dianthus. Hops and dianthus do really well in my hot, dry microclimate (south facing concrete patio - lots of heat - I am on the NM border so the patio is probably more like zone 6).

Happy Trails,
Michelle

rain1950,
I noticed you listed Anabel. Is that as in the Hydrangea? How does she do in a pot and what size?

Beebalm comes back great, but tends to want the entire container to itself (which is ok by me)
My favorite no fuss perennial for containers is Helenium.
It should be hardy in your zone and spread nicely without getting out of control.

George