Specialty Gardening: Garden readying, containers for spring, 2 by ryanscarter

ryanscarter wrote:
Hello all. I am a garden designer in Shanghai, China and have been asked by a client to refurbish the garden for the spring here. The garden was installed last September. The site is on the sixteenth floor of a hotel in downtown Shanghai, in a very windy location (there are no other tall buildings around for several blocks, explaining the lack of broad-leaved choices... I may change this when I plant other things this year). I have whatever selections I will make for new planting under control; as for maintenance, I plan to prune as needed, remove dead material and top-dress with leaf mold. As the soil used was friable, not non-organic (this is too expensive here) but quite good all in all, nothing further should be needed in that department this year, so far as I know. A few photos to see what I'm working with are attached.

Just wondering if anyone has any other suggestions that I haven't thought of. Always happy to learn something new. Current plant choices include:

Passiflora incarnata
Tradescantia virginiana
Caryopteris 'Worcester Gold'
Phyllostachys nigra
Loropetalum chinensis
Ficus carica
Agapanthus africanus
Buxus chinensis
Iris germanica
Rosmarinus maritimus
Panicum virgatum
Annual verbena, lantana and tradescantia (these survived the winter owing to a mild winter, but I might take them out regardless and replace with other things)


Thanks,
Ryan
http://www.cartershanghai.com