Oh Gigi, those are beautiful. Wish I could grow them like that.

Lynn, it adopted to its growing conditions I have these out so you can see the pots that they are in.

Double bonus being in the beautiful blue containers.

Yap, I bought these from JoAnn fabrics.

Gigi, I never thought about planting mine with succulents. I love that idea and I have a blue pot! Thank you for sharing.

You are welcome! I planted fireball lily (blooms in May), flapjack, amaryllis and mums in these pots. I love succulents so I stick the babies on any potted plants I have so long as they have similar water requirements.

Gigi those are so pretty. My Apple Blossom is almost finished blooming and I did not get a chance to snap a pic.

I went out today and snapped a few pics of my pots on the patio. I started planting them with perennials so I did not have to buy a bunch of annuals every year. I hate to sit out on the patio this time of year when I weather is perfect 70s and no humidity and have to look at empty pots waiting for our short summer to see pretty plants.

The pots are terracotta but because they are so big I cannot bring them inside for the winter. I put them up off the bluestone with styrofoam and wrap them with plastic for the winter. I still have to get my handyman to lift them and take them off the styrofoam. Here we go.

In the pots are Spring bulbs, Oriental Lilies, Asiactic Lilies, Hardy ostrich fern, sedum as soil cover.
Spring.


Pic from above


Summer, I just add an annual plant for a little more all summer color.

I just love them Cinta. A beautiful and cheerful spring bouquet.

So dramatic, those potted heads!

Cinta, so many interesting plants in those lovely planters! You probably always have something blooming. And the ferns make it look so tropical.

I love the idea of putting perennials in the planters. In the summer, add an annual or two and you're done. I need to remember that.

Holly has been adding more perennials to some of her containers, and as Ibis said adding just a couple annuals for summer splash. The biggest job is moving them to a protected site for the winter.

Thank you all for the comments. I sometime think I am enjoying the pots more than the gardens. It does help that my patio is the size of my last suburban back yard.

Ric, my pots are too big to move so I have started to plant Zone 4 plants and I have become the styrofoam Queen. I set the pots on top of styrofoam and wrap them in styrofoam and wrap plastic over everything. It is the freeze and thaw that break the pots. I just do not have the strength to bring in that many pots any more. As it is I am dragging in about 20 pots of tropical plants.

Cinta, I sure know what you mean by dragging around pots. We have a lot of large tropical plants and there is the Spring and Fall migration each year in and out of the GH.

Cinta, Holly was generous enough to buy me a little cart that you can sling big heavy pots in to move them around to load them on a small trailer to move them to the GH. It's still a lot of work, but much more manageable. When the migration begins, it looks like I'm pulling a piece of jungle with my little Wheelhourse.

In a pinch I can just load the entire trailer, a 6'x10' and pull it into the barn.

Awww Holly is so kind.

I use something similar to haul all my tender succulents inside for the winter.

One year I threw all the tropical plants over the railing of the patio. This patio is two floors up and I keep all my tropical in the laundry room below the patio. I broke a couple of the plastic pots but since they were cheap I felt I saved my back from carrying them down and around to the door. That was the year I had 15 Brugmansia 5' tall trees. Three yrs ago I finally left them outside and let old man winter have his way with them. They were just to much for me to keep moving in and out every winter.

So you can see what I am trying to describe.

All you need is a greenhouse on that patio.

Good thought there, Ric. Or a solarium.

Oooooh, could it be a solarium, please. That always sounds so sophisticated and classy and special. As soon as they finish adding the ballroom to my mobile home I'm going to look into a solarium myself.

Hey, if we are going to dream, why not dream BIG. It costs no more.

I might as well add that silver Ferrari I've always wanted to the list.