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| Zone 8b, British Columbia
I have 2 cement urns in front of my house. My house faces North. One urn will receive shade in the morning but sun from the west in the afternoon, while the other urn gets sun in the morning but shade in the afternoon. The urns are about 15" wide. I want the same plants in each urn. Can anyone please suggest a plant that will like both of these conditions? Thanks very much. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by ken_adrian z5 (My Page) on Fri, Sep 21, 12 at 17:27
| what is your goal.. vertical.. or weeping??? 15" isnt much for vertical for sure ... what house colors are we talking about ???? personally.. i cant do this type of request.. w/o a pic of the area ... ken |
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| The conditions don't sound too different to me - part shade, albeit with sun at different times of the day and stronger sun in the afternoon. But still, I don't think that's too hard to manage. As Ken said the selection depends so much on the style of the containers and the look of your entryway, so those are the bigger factors. |
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| Hi Ken, I've taken some pics of my house. It is a fairly new mobile home; cream colored with green shutters. Right now my planters are hiding behind some plants that got taller than I had anticipated. lol First I planted boxwood, they ended up with psyllids and drying out (even though I watered them), then I tried sarcacocca, it turned brown. So now I'm ready to try something else. It's hard to take a good pic because I have a red Japanese Maple in the middle of the lawn that blocks my vision when taking a picture. Sorry about the blur. |
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| Another pic |
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| I thought of moving the urns but wouldn't know what to do here. Thanks for all your help |
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| Hi Ken, I hope you see this. I took a couple of pics for you to see. I hope this helps. Thanks again. |
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- Posted by ken_adrian z5 (My Page) on Mon, Sep 24, 12 at 18:36
| i would get rid of the urns .... but you dont want to.. so i recommend the look at the link .. others will have to tell you what the plants are .. ken |
Here is a link that might be useful: link
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| Thanks for the link Ken. The flowers are pretty in that urn. I don't want to get rid of my urns completely because I like them. I guess I can put them in my backyard, or maybe set one in my garden bed. I don't mind moving them to another place. Thanks again Ken. |
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- Posted by ken_adrian z5 (My Page) on Tue, Sep 25, 12 at 8:13
| well.. what i saw.. was that your decorative urns.. are hidden by the shrubs in front of them .. hence the reason i wanted to go vertical ... if you can find a better site.. the world is your oyster in terms of potential ... [what the heck does that even mean.. lol] ken |
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| ...the world is my oyster? lol Is it possible to go vertical with these urns? If so, got any ideas? |
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- Posted by ken_adrian z5 (My Page) on Tue, Sep 25, 12 at 12:01
| i linked a picture.. 2 replies above ... did you miss it??? ken |
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| Hi Ken, I saw the picture and liked it a lot. They look like annuals but I'm thinking something evergreen perhaps, if that is at all possible. If an evergreen won't work in these urns, then I'll just forget about it until next spring and plant something like in the link you sent to me. Thanks Ken, I really do appreciate all your help. |
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- Posted by gardengal48 PNW zone 8 (My Page) on Tue, Sep 25, 12 at 13:48
| Lots of vertical possibilities :-) Very "hot" for containers in my area right now are lemon cypresses (Cupressus macrocarpa 'Wilma Goldcrest'). Bright, chartreusey gold foliage (that smells like lemons when brushed) and a nice tight, compact growh habit. Rather winter hardy in our area as well, even in containers. Combine with some winter pansies and a cascading sort of groundcover ('Gold Child' ivy, 'Illumination' vinca, etc.) and you are good to go. You could select other columnar dwarf conifers but most would prefer more sun than that location offers. Yellow or gold colored dwarf Hinokis could work or a small Lawson cypress like 'Barry's Silver' (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana 'Barry's Silver'). Other possibilities are Ilex crenata 'Sky Pencil' or Euonymus japonicus 'Green Spire'. Even a small sized nandina will provide a vertical element for several years. Growing shrubs or dwarf conifers in containers is somewhat similar to bonsai in that the containers serve to reduce the growth rate and naturally dwarf the plants therein :-) |
Here is a link that might be useful: Cupressus 'Wilma Goldcrest'
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- Posted by ken_adrian z5 (My Page) on Tue, Sep 25, 12 at 14:04
| gal definitely knows your zone better than me.. but her pic shows a very large tree .. aka conifer ... all conifers have vast potential.. in the long run ... your urns are very small .. relatively speaking ... short of learning bonsai ... it will not 'thrive' very long.. in a pot ... and frankly.. nothing evergreen will be long lived in your smallish pots... considering you want them to grow a couple feet tall ... IMHO ... if you want a tree/conifer.. plant it in the ground .. not in an urn ... of course.. if you can get her suggestion for 5 or 10 bucks.. in your area.. GO FOR IT ... they dont live in my area.. so arent sold here.. so i would have to invest 20-40 $$$ to mail order in ... so i would not use such ... maybe they are cheap out your way ... do you think anyone else will come along and give you some ideas??? .. crimminey .. lol ... ken |
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| Thank you Garden Gal for your ideas. So I guess I'm off to the garden centre this weekend to shop around for these. Ken, you've been wonderful with helping 'BIG TIME' I think I'll go Google these plants now. I appreciate all the help that I've been getting. |
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- Posted by gardengal48 PNW zone 8 (My Page) on Tue, Sep 25, 12 at 18:38
| Ken, that is not a very large tree :-) Check the scale - it's growing in a bed of heather. The photo shows one about 3' tall at the most. FWIW, this is a dwarf conifer and only gets around 8' tall, maybe as much as 15' over a very long period of time. It is commonly sold in quite small starter sizes (quart size pots) for this exact purpose of container planting. And grown in a container it would take even longer (and with routine potting up) to ever achieve that projected mature size. It may be different in your neck of the woods but growing plants in containers - ALL kinds of plants - is a very common practice here. There are some who devote an entire business practice to container design.....and not just seasonal container design. Maybe it has to do with our rather urban setting and the fact that many folks don't have any land......or very much land.......in which to plant directly. Lots of condos, townhomes, zero lot line houses and even floating homes, all of which make inground gardening difficult, if not impossible. And contrary to what you might think - these plants thrive for many years under these conditions. I grow my entire collection of both conifers and Japanese maples in containers and have done so for years. The only consideration for long term container growth for any kind of hardy plant in my and cadence's location is the quality of the potting soil and attention to watering and routine fertilization. And the need for some rather infrequent root pruning. Expand your outlook and broaden your horizons :-) Not everyone gardens in acres of sandy Michigan prairie!! |
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- Posted by ken_adrian z5 (My Page) on Wed, Sep 26, 12 at 8:18
| but gal.. all i was trying to tell her.. was that her little urns.. arent going to hold an 8 foot tree ... then you said: It is commonly sold in quite small starter sizes (quart size pots) for this exact purpose of container planting and i admitted i suspected such ... and no.. i have no real interest in learning .. in depth about pots ... they are a PITB up here.. winter storage and all.. all the power to those who like the challenge .. i am just not up for it ... anyway.. GO VERTICAL ... and enjoy whatever comes of it all ... ken |
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