Finally bought annuals now what do I do?

HD was having a great sale on annuals so I finally bought some. I have never done any outdoor gardening and I want some color to liven up the outside so I bought some annuals. But I'm not sure exactly what to put with what, what can remain a house plant after the cold weather starts, and so on. I have some beautiful ceramic pots just sitting in my house with nothing in them. I'm not sure if I should use them for these plants or what to do. I would love some of them to be used in hanging baskets. I have even thought of making a tiny little flower garden between my steps and the end of my porch. It would have to be a raised bed garden because there is nothing there but really really hard packed down dirt, with a little gravel because that used to be a driveway. But I'm leaning more toward growing them in containers since it is really hard for me to the outside work. So what I need to know is what to use in what, what kinds to put together, and any other information that you could help me with. I will post photos of them and maybe you guys can help me out with what to do with them.

Thanks,
Jesse

Here are some yellow snapdragons and some torenia.

Jesse

Here are some nice vincas.

Jesse

I was thinking that these would make a nice hanging basket. What else would I add with it or should I add anything?

Jesse

Here are some marigolds, a lantana, some zincas, geraniums and impatiens.

Jesse

Here are some red snapdragons, pink and purple petunias, verbena, zinnias, an alternanthera, a blue thing that I don't know what it is, and some vincas. Some of the flowers are shown more than once because I was trying to take the photos before it got dark.

Jesse

Here are Dusty Miller, Coleus, and Zinnias.

Jesse

Here is a sweet potato vine.

Jesse

And I'm not sure what this little blue thing is.

Jesse

Hello Jesse! Those are some nice looking annuals you have there.
To keep it tidy, I'll type this as a list....

#1 The impatiens you have are the shade type. They prefer moist soil in shade or part shade. The torenia also like shade as well so they could be paired with the impatiens.

#2 The geraniums would look good in a hanging basket like you said, they would go good with the petunia's and potato vine, which grows like a trailer. The lantana would also go well in the center of a basket or in a container. You could probably bring it in over the winter. And the potato vine you might be able to store like a tuber. Not sure on that one though.

#3 The blue plant is an Ageratum and will probably stay fairly short.

#4Your yellow snapdragons are actualy celosia's and the red snaps are salvia's. Both like a good sunny site and go well in a container.

#5 Have fun pairing your annuals together on you own too!!! See what great combinations you can come up with!

Hope this helps,
Steve

PC - the little blue thing is an ageratum, aka floss flower. I paired them with petunias last year, but the petunias soom covered them. Looks like you have a larger variety though, so that could work. The two most important things about containers, I think, are 1. use potting mix made esp. for containers. They're lightweight, and some even have added fertilizer or water absorbing crystals, so you don't have to water as much. & 2. plant sun lovers and shade lovers together, and also plants that like it wet or dry, in the same pots. So that means, torenias & begonias for shade, zinnias and geraniums and snaps for sun, etc. Make sure everything you buy has a plant tag, these are a helpful starting point. And stuff the pots, adding multiples of the trailing plants around the pots. Use the "rule of 3 shapes" to simplify the process: One upright plant (center or off-center, or towards the back) like a geranium, some mounding plants around it (like marigolds) and some trailing plants, like sweet potato vine. One down, voila! Looks like you got some great plants. Have fun! ;-)

How fun for you!

I also wanted to add that it's important to make sure your containers have drainage holes. You mentioned that you had some lovely ceramic containers already. If they do not have holes for drainage, they will not work well for this purpose. Containers that look pretty but don't have drainage holes are best used as cover-ups for plants that are planted in draining plastic liners. Even then, you have to be careful to lift the liner out of the container and empty the excess water that has accumulated in the pretty container. So, you need drainage holes :) Sorry I got wordy there.

Also, I wanted to say that colorwise, I'd keep the pink and orange in separate containers. They are trendy together right now in clothing and such, but your orange plants would look much more complimentary with the white, red, and darker blue choices. Orange and pale blue (really any pastel besides yellow) is going to look "off".

Hope this helps!

Jacci :)

BTW, wanted to add that the dusty miller definitely comes across as a pastel w/ bluish undertones, so it would be better away from orange as well. Red, white, other oranges, even the darker blue in just a splash will be best for the orange guys, I think :)

Jacci

The Pink Profusion zinnias love lots of sun and make a nice bushy plant about 12" tall and about 15" around for me. I grow them in a bed, but would think you could put maybe 3 in a 15-18" pot. Keep them deadheaded and they will bloom until frost.

I like to put coffee filters over the drainage holes in the bottom of my pots to keep the soil from draining out. Panty hose work too.

Have fun and show us what you come up with.

Susan

Thanks everyone for your advice. I will be going to Walmart today to see what kinds of inexpensive pots that they have. I think this will be fun and hope it will add a lot of color to my porch. I also have some of those long skinny type pots. Will that work for any of the plants? They are not very deep so I'm not sure what I can plant in them.

Jesse

Jacci,

So you are suggesting not to group dusty miller with dark shade like orange and reds.....

I just made a container with Scarlet Salvia and Celosia Red and Yellow) wish i had known before.
I posted the pic at http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/603230/. Not sure now how the container will bloom , will just have to wait and see.

Thanks for next time though....

Tweety

Not sure if it meets your approval but an inexpensive way to make so many containers ecnomically would be what I did.

I bought different colored Plastic big size fruit bowls with scalloped edge from Dollar Store. They were embossed with self design. Drilled few holes at the base of the bowl for drainage and used panty hose to avoid dirt from flowing out.
In all it costed me a $1.00 each for a container of my own size and shape. You can see the pics in the container section.

Hope you lots of fun.......Tweety

Is there a special brand of soil that would work best? I was looking at all of it at HD and there were so many kinds and I have no idea which brand or kind to use.

Jesse

Tweety, that is a great idea. I think I'lll go visit my Dollar stores today. I know that Dollar Tree has some great fruit bowls and they are a nice size too.

Jesse

Jesse - For your long narrow planters, you can put any of your plants in them. We have ones like that, that are window boxes. They work great.

Steve

Hi! Jacci, you're gonna think I'm after you, LOL. I disagree about the orange and pink together, and I think the dusty miller looks great in your container tweety. To me, whatever floats your boat. I do think it might be helpful to think of value, in other words, light to dark shades. Mixing a pale yellow with a dark blue, instead of a pale blue, has more zip. Still, it comes down to what you like. I do avoid clashing reds, that's when a red with a bluish undertone (like celosia) is paired up with a red with an orangish undertone (like a salvia), not so good.

I just bought 4 giant plastic bowls from Walmart. They are all bright colors. So I thought I would match the plants to the different colored bowls. That is my project for later today. I am thinking of making a sort of bed buy putting all the bowls side by side in that little area that I have and then getting some spaghum most to put around them so they will look like they are planted in the ground when they really aren't. So I have 4 huge bowls and a few of those long skinny containers. And I'll get something to go around the little area to make it look like a nice little bed. My porch has two sets of steps and I want to go beside the one set and make something with some bricks or wood to sort of make the bed look nice. I will make it even with the end of the porch. I think that will look nice. What do you all think?

Jesse

I think that should look very good Jesse. I really like your idea of matching the colours of the plants with the bowls!
Do you have any pics?

Steve

Not yet but as soon as I do I will post them here for you all to see.

Jesse

Jesse - If you haven't bought your soil yet, go for Miracle Grow potting soil. As a first time container gardener, it will give you the best results. Soil is the one thing you should never be cheap about.

I just bought my soil and that is what I bought. I did not get chance to work on them today but I have all of my stuff now so that I can begin in the morning. I hope it turns out to be pretty.

Jesse

Well I finally did something with all of them today. I made my very first baskets. I listed them all on the container forum and thought it was easier to just give you guys the link. I hope you like them. http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/605975/

Jesse

I posted a reply on your other thread.

Steve

LOL, PrairieGirl, YES your are after me! :) If the pink isn't pale, I suppose it's possible to pull it off. Pale pink doesn't do it for me with orange, though, for the reasons you said. The value order is all backward. To my eye, dusty miller can look toward pale blue from a distance, and pale blue with orange is almost worse than pale pink with orange. Now, with a lighter value of orange (peach, light coral) dusty miller would be better suited.

Now that PrairieGirl and I are getting far too into color theory for the purposes of your thread, plantcrazy, I apologize for sidetracking a bit :) Trial and error, honey. As far as the design goes, put together what you think looks nice and see how it goes. As far as maintenance goes, pay heed to the wise advice others have already given on grouping plants w/ similar light, moisture, and feeding needs and you'll be good to go!!!

Be sure to show us all pics later on!

Take care,
Jacci

Jacci - Didn't you used to be Hugahosta? What's up w/that? LOL You didn't have to change your identity, I'm not really after you, you know! :0)

I have some updates on my little flower garden. What I did was to buy a little cheap fence type thing to put around them in front of my porch. I also lined the back and the bottom with some cardboard we had laying around and was way too big for the trash. So I put the cardboard down first. Here is a photo of them on the cardboard with the little fence thing.

Jesse

Then I went to HD and bought some white rocks and put them down. Here is how it looks now.

Jesse

Look how much this coleus has grown and filled out.

Jesse

Jesse,
That really looks nice.

Thanks toy. I didn't really expect them to turn out this good. I was sort of shocked myself that they looked so pretty. I'm thinking about trying one in the front of my house. I would use a couple of the fences and make a circle or a square, put a bird bath in the center and put plants around it. Instead of putting water in the bird bath i was thinking of filling it with seed. We have so many blue jays and cardinals around here and I'm always trying to get good photos of them. So what do you think, bird seed or water? I could always keep water in the birdbath and hang up something to put seed in. Here are some more that I bought today. I just love getting things on sale. Although I paid full price for the lantana. I've been in love with it for about a year now and always wanted some. So now I have three. Should I do a pot or a hanging basket? I want to take them in this winter and carry them over to next spring.

Jesse

Here are my tomato plants. I'm going to check out the tomato forum to see how to grow them best.

Jesse

Here are some other flowers that I bought.

Jesse

Editted to say that the new plants are on the bottom. The ones above are ones I've had for a long time.

This message was edited Jun 6, 2006 9:20 PM

They all look nice and healthy, lucky you! Our HD's plants look a little worse for wear by now.

Those all look so good! I really like your geranium pot in the first photo.
Also, I love the red spike in your last photo, be sure to bring it in come fall!

Steve

Yes, I will try to get them all through the winter and put them back out after our last frost next year. I'm so happy to get some of my cacti out of the house and on my front porch. My house is over run with plants.

Jesse