Return to the Gardening in Shade Forum
| Post a Follow-Up
Recommendations for patio planters please!!
| | |
Posted by Bethany873 Z6 RI (My Page) on Sun, Mar 20, 05 at 23:28
Hi all!
I was wondering if anyone could help me out.....I don't know too much about flowers. I'm looking for something to plant in planters built into the top of the patio wall. The planters are 8" deep, 9" wide and face west, east and south. The patio is covered with the north side attached to the house. There are 5 altogether, 8' long each. The whole patio is white brick, so anything would be a nice contrast. I was hoping for something that would bloom pretty continuously through the entire summer, and not be too high at maturity (under a foot would be perfect). No preference for annual v. perrenial, or what color the flowers are.......well, not hot pink :) Anything other than hot pink is ok! Any and all suggestions are welcome, and thank you!!
|
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Recommendations for patio planters please!!
| | |
If your planters face E, S and W they should have fair amount of sun even with shade cover of the patio provides.
If it's your first year in this house, I'd first study sun pattern there and plant accordinghly.
The easiest way to figure out of how many hours of sun every spot have is to use a 'toothpick' method: every hour, from 8am to 8pm go out and put a toothpick (or any marker) in a sunny area. By the end of the day you'll know how many hours of sun every area receive.
Be aware that amount and intensity of sun now and in a summer would be completely different, therefore you should do that sometime in late May-June, when trees will be in full leaves in your locale.
Size of your planters (8x9") most likely will prevent you from planting anything perennial there as soil there will be completely frozen during the winter and you have to resort to annuals. However you may want to experiment with some spring flowering bulbs (tulips, hyacinths, daffs, etc) and see how it works.
As a blind shot without knowing any particulars I could only venture a guess that for E facing location impatiens, begonias and fuschias could work. |
RE: Recommendations for patio planters please!!
| | |
| My favorite for continuous bloom are the non-stop begonias The most stunning have been red, pink and, if you can find it,coral. They do well with little sun and like their they name, they perform, non-stop. I interplant with the deep blue-violet torenia. |
|
|
|
|
