There should be no question in anyone’s mind that September is a month of change in the garden, where the jubilant floral displays of summer give way to tired, gone-to-seed perennials and parched foliage starting to show us glimmers of fall colors. Even with all of my fall-blooming perennials, my garden is unquestionably looking tired. The same can be said about my containers (actually, even if my containers are not looking tired, I am tired of looking at them). It’s time to make some changes!
While it is impractical to make sweeping changes in the garden, containers are a whole different story. As I have said many times, container plantings are nothing more that floral arrangements with roots. It is important that we think of them as malleable compositions that can be tweaked from time to time. With few exceptions, container plantings are never meant to be permanent.
Depending on what you have in your pots, you may not need to rip everything out and completely start over. I have several containers with permanent focal plants (or “thrillers” as we call them in the trade) in the center surrounded by a mix of “fillers” and “spillers”. By simply removing the tired plants around the center piece, I can interject new and seasonally appropriate plants that change the whole mood of the arrangement. For this month that might mean plunging in some Ornamental Peppers, Mums or a few tender Rudbeckias. By late October those additions will get removed and replaced with winter hardy perennials like Heucheras, Ornamental Grasses, Euphorbias, and trailing Vinca or Ceanothus. Underneath these guys, I’ll slip in some spring-flowering bulbs and maybe even cram in a few Pansies. Come January, when I am craving a bit more color, I will somehow find a space or two for some Primroses. And so it goes.
Of course, if you need to just dump out everything in your pots and start over, that is fine too. If your container is large enough, you can probably save some of the soil. Try to remove all the roots, then add in some fertilizer and top it off with fresh soil. Garden centers have a very good selection of “fallish” plant combinations to choose from, including both tender choices (like the above Ornamental Peppers) that will thrill you for a month or two and others that will survive our harshest winters (sometimes with a little extra protection).
While fall containers can still include lots of flowering plant material, truly winter hardy containers require a paradigm shift. Instead of thinking of flowers as our source of color, we need to shift to focusing on the colors and textures of foliage. We can create visually interesting arrangements simply by combining different textures of leaves. Grasses provide fine foliage that contrasts well with coarser textured plants and their vertical growth habit creates a focal point in the container. Many of our hardy groundcovers, such as Vinca, Ivy, Ajuga and Lamium, are evergreen in our winters and will trail quite nicely over the edge of a pot. Evergreens, such as ‘Blue Star’ Junipers, ‘Rheingold’ Arborvitaes and ‘Sekkan Suji’ Cedars, provide colors from steel blue to bright yellow to rusty orange. Heucheras have been bred for their colorful foliage, that can be anywhere from chartreuse to obsidian-black, and Ornamental Grasses range from totally black ‘Mondo’ Grass to bronze, edged-in-red Uncinia ‘Bellinda’s Find’, or orange or yellow Sedges like ‘Everillo’. If you prefer green and white variegation, try ‘Feather Falls’ Sedge or ‘Glacier Blue’ Euphorbia.
Many plants have interesting branching patterns that become pronounced in the winter, after their leaves have fallen off - Contorted Filberts are a classic example. The bare stems of red or yellow Twig Dogwoods or my favorite, the multicolored Midwinter Flame Dogwood, also work well as winter accents. Get creative and find some dead twigs of whatever and spray paint them your favorite color to match the front door. Remember, you are essentially flower arranging.
Finally, if this all seems like just too much work, then do what we sometimes do and “Fake It”. Remove your old plantings and leave just enough dirt so that you can stuff your container with an assortment of plants still in their pots. Cover any remaining soil with a thin layer of moss and no one will be the wiser. Remember however, even potted plants still need water from time to time. As individual plants fade, simply pull them out and replace them with new ones and be on your merry way. Easy peasy as they say!
Yes, change is in the air but it’s not winter yet so take advantage of these “transitional” months with some temporary adjustments to your containers. There’s no point in surrendering to “Old Man Winter” any sooner than we have to.
