Can containers have spring and summer flowers in them?
CharleyD
Posts: 440
Do you think it would be ok to have hyacinths and tulips (i.e. spring flowers) in the same containers as gladioli and lillies? Would everything have enough root space and also, would the summer flowers die back sufficiently to give the spring flowers pride of place when their turn comes?
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Sorry, I should have mentioned that the containers are about a metre long and 20cm side.
I presume, that like me you have a small garden and don't have the space to have different pots for every season. I have 2 big 'winter' pots each one planted with; a small conifer, variagated ivy and tulips (there were cyclamens the first year, but they all rotted in the extreme cold of that winter). In the summer, the tulips having died back I plant a pelagonium and either trailing lobelia or Bacopa. Sometimes I remember to feed these 2 hardworking pots
The summer flowers can be cut down to ground level late in the Autumn to make way for the spring floweres. As to root space, I tend to think that the plants negotiate about that themselves, with anything that has a thuggish habit taking over.
Lol
, I love the idea of the plants doing their own negotiations artjak. Ok, that sounds good then. I wasn't sure if the gladioli or lillies could be cut down.
I do the same as Artjak - bulbs in spring and annuals like petunia and lobellia in summer. The annuals have plenty of room to sit above the bulbs - not sure how much room there would be for lilies and gladioli (ie a second lot of bulbs) side by side with the spring bulbs - maybe consider non bulb plants for summer instead? Or bulbs for summer and non bulbs like primroses or pansies for spring?
Me three! I had begonias in my biggest pot. Yanked them out when they were dead, already for winter. Once bulbs (spring flowers have gone over) it'll be off with their foliage and in with what ever annual I fancy!
Great, thanks 4thPanda.
You are welcome, should have added that I also put violas and pansies in them in the autumn, pics below:
Bulbs now growing through violas and pansies