Easy Native Plant Containers for Summer

Simple ideas & a native plant container demo at Adkins Arboretum this Saturday!

Many, many native perennial plants will thrive in containers. May is a great time to plant a couple of containers for the summer. Trying plants in containers is also a good way to figure out what conditions plants like. It's much easier to control the soil, drainage, amount of water and light in a container. If a plant isn't thriving, you can try more or less water and light. Once you are finished with your container, and many of my plantings last years in their containers, you can plant the perennials out in your garden. The reverse works too. You can try plants that did not thrive (code for died!) in the ground to see if you can get a better result and understanding of what the plant needs in a container.

The Simplest Approach

The absolute simplest way to go is to select one type of plant for your summer container. That avoids the need to group plants with similar light and moisture needs together. Here are three favorites.

Summer Whites

There is nothing simpler than white gaura (Oenothera gaura) in a white container. This biennial will bloom all summer long and give you lots of whirling white flowers that dance on a summer breeze. They don't need a lot of water and will likely rebound if you forget to water. In more southern parts of the Chesapeake watershed, guara can be perennial, particularly in containers but also in the ground.

Festive

Our native trumpet honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) grows well in containers and adds fun color and flowers all summer long. With any luck at all, you will see hummingbirds visiting this easy to grow vine. This can grow in full sun to part shade.

Made in the Shade

For a shady spot, grab a couple of American alumroot (Heuchera americana) and let them do their thing. Water regularly and after the blooms in early May, the various colors of the foliage will add interest and brightness,

Mixes

A Mix for Part Shade

If you want to mix plants together, the possibilities seem endless. This container is for part shade to part sun and will evolve as summer progresses. The trick is to choose plants that have about the same water and light requirements. These are all somewhat adaptable and I think they will well do together. The plants here are heuchera 'Caramel' (Heuchera 'Caramel'), turtlehead (Chelone glabra), bowman's root (Gillenia trifoliata) and lyre-leaved sage 'Purple Knockout' (Salvia lyrata 'Purple Knockout').

heuchera 'caramel'

lyre-leaved sage 'purple knockout'

bowman's root

white turtlehead

Heuchera and lyre-leaved sage add foliage contrast and color all summer. The bowman's root blooms in May and the turtlehead will add flowers in late July or August. Water wise, the turtlehead and bowman's root thrive in moist soils but grow just fine with average moisture. The lyre-leaved sage tends to the drier side but will also grow just fine with average moisture.

with spiderwort

with heuchera

The heuchera and lyre-leaved sage are cultivars with changed foliage color so their value to wildlife is likely very minimal to none. Heuchera 'caramel' does make this container though. I first tried spiderwort (Tradescantia virginiana) which has the same light and moisture conditions as the other plants and is fairly adaptable to different light and moisture situations. The strappy foliage didn't really work where as the different leaf shape and color of the heuchera made the container pop.

A Mix for Sun

These plants for full sun are trumpet honeysuckle, gaura, black eyed susans (Rudbeckia fulgida), evening primrose 'Siskiyou' (Oenothera berlandieri 'Siskiyou) and heuchera 'caramel.'

honeysuckle

gaura

black-eyed susans

evening primrose 'Siskiyou'

heuchera 'caramel'

The honeysuckle, guara and evening primrose should flower all summer long. The black-eyed susans will flower in July and August. The heuchera will add foliage contrast and color. Typically heucheras favor shade but I have had these in container in full sun and they grow fine so long as they get enough water.

A Native Plant Cafe!

For even more ideas, check out Adkins Arboretum's Native Plant Cafe this Saturday, May 10th. As part of the plant sale and other festivities, at 11 am, Concetta Gibson, owner of Leaf & Bed and co-founder of Wild Ones Delmarva will talk about “Container Gardening with Native Plants” with a live demo showing how to design beautiful, eco-friendly native plant containers. Coffee, pastries and native plants ... yes, please!

Happy gardening.