I'm doing a landscaping project for a friend of mine. I'm helping him figure out what to plant in a flowerbed and he also asked me to help him figure out what to plant in these two half barrels on either side of his driveway. For some reason he would like perennials in both of them. Do you have to chose plants that are one zone or two zones colder than you are for containers? Since we are zone 2b that means that I should be selecting plants that are zone 1 or even zone 0. Which plants fit into that category? I was thinking of planting an evergreen in each of them plus something else that would hang over the side. That is what I've come up with so far. What type of evergreen I don't know, same with the plant that would hang over the side.

So, any suggestions as to what plants I should plant in them? Or should I just tell him he is stuck with annuals?

Thanks,

Syreeta

One perennial I have in a half barrel that has survived my zone 1B on the deck for three years now has been clematis macropetala 'Blue Bird'. It's right in the middle of the barrel and climbs a metal lattice trellis.

Last summer I also tried using hemerocallis 'Stella D'Oro' with mixed results as half of them made it and half of them didn't. The half which made it were right in the middle of the barrel and had alot of snow cover, while the other half were against a shed and filled the barrel but had early spring snowmelt coming off the shed and into the barrel which probably did them in... probably not the best for barrels.

Hope that helped alittle,
Rob

I have not had any luck with perennials in my barrels and have reverted to annuals.