Perennials in Containers

There will come a day when my partner and I will downsize and so lose our outdoor in ground gardens. With kind of this in the back of my mind. this season for the first time I have begun to plant perennials in pots with the intention of overwintering them. I have a couple of hardy mums, two roses, a butterfly bush and a helianthus.

I was at a nursery today and was impressed with the large perennials they have in containers:

- Ligularia "Britt Marie Crawford"
- Persicaria "Painters Palette"
- "Joe Pye Weed"
- Baptisia
-
-

What are your favorite perennials that you have in pots that you overwinter successfully?



This message was edited Jul 5, 2016 10:08 AM

And finally a BETONY:

I understand the desire to downsize and simplify, of course. Handling large pots for "winterizing" (sinking into the ground; moving to a protected area to be mulched; bringing into a cold room; whatever) also takes effort and strength, something many people may not be able to manage even using a dolly... just something to consider. Potted plants also need daily watering in this climate (and those huge perennials will need to be planted in much larger pots than the nursery ones). All in all, having a smaller garden to take care of, but with perennials in the ground can be pretty low maintenance, particularly if there is no grass (a constant maintenance chore if it's kept well). I don't see a maintenance advantage to growing perennials in pots if one actually wants to winter them over in a cold climate where they will have to be protected in some way.
Growing annuals in planters avoids any wintering-over chores, particularly if the pots/planters can be left in place (even covered if need be).

Looking (far?) ahead to downsizing I was just musing about using pots regardless of the contents ie perennial and or annual.

This is my first year doing it with perennials and so far so good.

Rouge: Really nice plants. Showy.
I bring in all of my window boxes and put them in my downstairs garage. I water them about once a month through the winter.
I have about a dozen. It's worth it to me to Not have to re-place all of the flowers each spring.
I also dig up and containerize my Lantanas and put them in the downstairs garage. They are fairly expensive annuals. The Lantanas get really big through the summer. Keeping them through the winter is the easy part. Digging them up and re-planting them is more of a pain. My hubby does it. If he didn't do it, it wouldn't get done. He likes them so well he's willing to dig them up.