What do you grow in containers?

I started off container gardening in earnest because I wasn't planning on staying here very long and I wanted some Rhodos, but didn't want to buy them, watch them grow for a few years and then leave them behind when I move then have to start over again.

Then I decided I wanted some shrubs as screening but on a side where the drive runs up the side of the house, so they had to go in containers.

Then I started buying other plants and it's become a bit of an obsession to the point I have about 70 (mostly large) containers with a real variety of plants, mainly shrubs.

I believe most plants can be grown in containers, although obviously they need a bit more care than those planted in the ground.

Some of the plants I have in containers are:

Fruit trees - Malus Royalty, Prunus Royal Burgundy
Acers - 8 varieties, various sizes
2 Magnolia Susans
Rhododendrons - about 10 larger ones and 5 dwarf rhodos
Camellias - 7 varieties
Azaleas - several varieties of evergreen and deciduous
Roses - 6 David Austin roses and a Pas de Deux
Lilac - 3 varieties
Shrubs - Arbutus Unedo, Cherry Laurel, Portuguese Laurel, Choisya Ternata, Elaeagnus, Osmanthus, Photinia, Broom, etc
Also Fuchsias, Clematis, Buddleia, 3 alpine Daphnes, Philadelphus, Tulips, Daffs, Linaria, Stocks, California Poppies, Violas and a bunch of other annuals I'll be planting for the first time this year.

I arrange them much as I would in a border, with the taller shrubs at the back (to provide screening) and then the smaller shrubs/flowers in front to provide colour against the backdrop.

It gets a bit wearing when I have to root prune/pot on a load like I did last year or when it's dry in summer and it takes me an hour to water them but on the whole I really enjoy them and have the added benefit that I can move them around if I want to (thankful for my trusty trolley or I wouldn't get very far!).

The problem when I do move is that I am going to have to hire a separate lorry just to take the plants with me although I am planning to plant some of them out once I've widened some of my borders.

What have you got that does well in tubs?

 

I wouldn`t be without mine too.
Nearly all my back garden plants are in pots as it flooded, not now as all the soil down about 24" was removed, and "proper" drainage put in then filled with gravel.
I have: raspberries, black/red currants, 4 different mints, blueberry, olive tree, avocado , thymes, sage, rosemary,all my herbs really. as you say, fuchsia, this year I have 5 pots of daffodills, tulips and hyacinth. nerine, several pots in greenhouse, growing on calla lillies etc, I have bought a cherry tree which is in a holding pot to plant on later, oh also a rhodo.

 

I have several blueberry bushes in containers, plus two dead goosegog bushes (seen off by caterpillars), some ivy and some couch grass.

 

Just some colorful annuals to place at certain points on the deck or in front of the gazebo. Love big colorful crocks to use. The rest of your list is in ground.

 

Blueberry, nectarine, plum, cherry, gooseberries, strawberries, pineberries, fuschias, french lavender, various spring bulbs, chrysanthemums, sambucus nigra, lilies and a variety of annuals in the summer. They're all on the decking which wraps around the back of the house so gives us somewhere lovely to sit out (and just pick and eat some fresh fruit when we fancy it)

 

Bay tree, 4 metres high in a half ex-whisky barrel.

 

Apart from my container annuals
A standard olive tree
Phormium
Fatsia Japonica
I also grow a few veg in containers behind the shed.

 

Just Boris the Olive Tree, must be 25 years old now, was a mere twig when I got him from RHS Wisley

 

Do you ever get any edible olives from Boris Ziggy ?

 

I had 2 last year.

 

Lots!
A couple of Bomarea species
Brugmansia
Various tender bulbs
Cantua buxifolia
Sollya heterophylla
Various Salvia
Iochroma
Beschornia yuccoides
Various succulents
Opuntia
Canarina canariensis
Canna
Hedychium
Strelitzia
Mackaya bella
Tender Passiflora

lots more too!

 

Merle when I read you're post I thought you were talking about me!!

Yes I know the feeling. I will be moving in the future but I'm not sure when so containers are ideal. I've got around the same number of pots and two wooden raised beds.

Same here....I couldn't leave my plants behind. I'm very attached to them and some are gifts!

Agreed! And it's nice to try growing something in a pot when the general advice is that it's better not to! If it doesn't work, well it doesn't work.

Yep, my OH is panicking and wondering how we're going to move them - I'm awful sorry OH but I'm a pot addict.

So to answer your post, I've got cotoneaster, japanese flowering cherry, linaria, achillea, acers, sorbaria sem, mints, rosemary, buddleia, a whitebeam, a sycamore started from seed, hebes, labrador violets, skimmia, spring bulbs, lavenders, clematis, asters, perennial wall flowers, agastache, red valerian, erigeron....I'll stop now!

 

Loads I have forgotten to mention. but remembered this morning, I grow my runner beans in large pots, 2 to a pot against the fence.