Window Boxes and Hanging Baskets

Have you noticed that over at Gardening Gone Wild they're talking about container plantings this month? It all started on March 1st with Nan Ondra's post, "Garden Bloggers' Design Workshop - Container Plantings"
We're invited to do a post about containers (archives count) and submit it by leaving a comment on Nan's post before the end of this month.

I did 2 posts earlier this year about containers which you'll find here and here, if you'd like to have a look.

Last summer I went a little crazy over containers, which was a direct result of helping out at my favorite nursery during the spring. There were so many plants I couldn't resist bringing home to try! You know how that is.
But my window boxes are a standard of my summer planting. I've been using many of the same plants for years, because they work so well. I use different varieties and color combinations each year, and sometimes add a different plant, but I basically stick to the same old faithfuls.

I'm thinking I may try a few different things this year though, after seeing so many wonderful ideas in this series of container posts....and that's just so far. I haven't read them all yet, and there may be more to come before the end of the month!

I love to use a combination of ivy geraniums, petunias, alyssum and vinca major. There are some pretty variegated cultivars of vinca available, which add interest. This is my favorite ivy geranium, Marimba, mainly because it grows so prolifically, but I also love the color.

I buy regular potting soil from our local hardware store and add peat moss to it, mixing it up in a wheelbarrow.

In this box are 2 ivy geraniums, 3 petunias, one vinca, with 3 alyssum planted along the front edge. They bloom well all summer. The petunias and geraniums need deadheading, and it's good to cut the petunias back a little when they begin to get a bit leggy. That way they'll bush out and continue to bloom nicely. I don't always get this done, but I should!

This is a white calibrachoa (Million bells), just one plant, which trailed down later in the season and looked great. The petunias are Merlin Blue.

Two of these ivy geraniums were in the same box (they weren't blooming in the first picture) but I can't remember their name.

Here's the whole box

This is the same as the first box, but just around the corner from it. You can see how profusely the Marimba geranium blooms. There are 2 of them planted in here.

I tried a few different things in this box. It's on the north side of the house and gets shaded in the afternoons, so I used begonias and coleus which do well with less sun. There's vinca and alyssum in there as well, as you can see. The begonias overwinter well if you have room for a few in the house, and cuttings can be made for the new season. At the end of the season I plant my vincas in our veggie garden, or a flower garden if I can find room, and they overwinter in the ground just fine. When I'm ready to plant my window boxes later in the spring I'll dig them up, tidy them and use them in the boxes again.

This 'Amethyst' ivy geranium hangs in a basket outside our back door.

You may have guessed I'm partial to pink :)

Here's what it looks like in the early morning sunshine.

I overwintered this one from the year before and can't remember the name of it. There's just one plant in that basket.

I feed them with liquid fertilizer..the 'bloom booster' variety..... about once a week.

In this basket is a mixture of 'Rasberry blast' petunias, and I think the other might be 'Royal Magenta'. I bought this one already planted, and the blooms lasted amazingly well all summer. Sometimes we get lucky!

Fuchsias are another favorite of mine. This one is Southgate. I tried overwintering it, but unfortunately it didn't make it.

Marinka has overwintered 2 years in a row for me. I've had it in an upstairs bedroom and it's even bloomed a little. I'll bring it down and put it on the covered porch as soon as the days begin to warm up. I've begun giving it a little plant food and it's looking surprisingly healthy.

What are you planning to put in containers this year?

Soon it'll be time to start planting them, but meanwhile we'll enjoy the snowdrops, crocuses, daffodils and tulips.....if Old Man Winter ever loosens his grip!