Totally confused...

emily_jackson

As I've mentioned before, I'd like to start container gardening, however I'm totally confused as what plants to buy and when they'll flower. I've bought and planted some double begonias, but is it a waste of money buying plants now that have already flowered, as will I have to throw them away in a few months? How do I know what to plant season by season?

I_have_spoken

You should still get more flowers from begonias this summer, you can store the corms indoors over winter - no need to chuck them away.

Elsewhere

It depends whether you have space indoors for plants in the winter/out of season.

If you have, a very simple plan is to plant bulbs (daffs, tulips etc) plus wallflowers over winter and maybe pelargoniums (geraniums) or fuchsias plus some lobelia in the summer. The bulbs can be dug up and stored in summer, the pelargoniums and fuchsias potted up and kept indoors (watered sparsely) over winter. Buy the wallflowers and the lobelia when you need them (not very expensive) and chuck away at the end of their season.

But unless you are prepared to spend on plants actually in flower, or bring them on indoors yourself, there will always be a few weeks when you will have just greenery in your containers.

Personally I plants bulbs in my outdoor tubs in the winter and replace them with houseplants in the summer - so my containers are full of such things as spider plants, cacti and succulants in the summer.

Most bedding plants - sold in many supermarkets these days - will flower for ages over the summer - petunias, alyssium, busy lizzie etc. etc. but they are annuals, so are thrown away in autumn.

Here's an American site with some suggestions

http://www.finegardening.com/10-plants-year-round-containers

peter_the_piper

And not just supermarkets.:rotfl: