I plant containers using a mixture of potting soil and Orchid Bark Mix (the mix that contains wood chips, perlite and charcoal.) It's a fast draining medium which seems to work well for me. The only types of plants I don't use it for are Gesneriads (African Violets & kin) and a few orchids that are mounted on wood. My plants are fairly neglected by most folks standards and go for weeks without water sometimes but we have very high humidity here year round and the plants on the screened porch are in a little microclimate of their own due to the waterway directly outside of the porch, which keeps the humidity up.
