2 tips for managing colour in container gardens

Colourful container plants can serve as strong points in the garden, creating contrast and drama, or as a unifying element, drawing together separate spaces. Here are a few tips to managing them:

Pots of red impatiens would bring striking spots of colour to the beginning and end of a shady, ivy-lined path. Pots of pink petunias could be parked at an entry gate, around the front door, by a fountain and throughout the landscape to become a repeating colour theme.

• Because containers offer such concentrated colour, you may need to use a few tricks to tame rowdy combinations or give the eye a rest.
• For example, "neutral" plants, such as gray-leaved dusty miller and white-flowered sweet alyssum, work wonders at turning down the heat of red geraniums.
• Foliage plants, such as hosta and vinca, offer welcome relief from a visual overdose of blooms.
• Conversely, you can sprinkle pots of white caladiums or pastel impatiens in quiet, shady places that need a boost, or station a large urn of dramatically patterned coleus on a pedestal to colour a bed of ferns.

When plants are kept close to outdoor activity areas, including patios, decks and porches, it's easier to admire their colours and textures than it is when you grow the same plants farther away in a bed. This is especially true of flowering plants with intricate colour patterns, such as impatiens with patterned petals or dark-veined balloon flowers, and it's also true of plants with striking foliage, such as bronze-leaved ornamental grasses or silvery leaved heucheras.

• Because plants growing in containers located only a few steps from your door are so convenient to maintain, they present an excellent opportunity to grow showy varieties that need a little extra attention to maintain their good looks.
• Vigorous bedding geraniums famed for their huge clusters of double flowers, for example, need regular deadheading and fertilizing. When these and other showy plants are kept nearby, the small amount of extra effort they require seems more like a privilege than a chore.
• Living close to containers also means that you can monitor them for emerging pest and disease problems easily and treat them swiftly.
• In fact, container plants are often healthier than those growing in the open garden because the sterile, free-draining soil used in pots reduces risk of disease, and elevated containers discourage invasion from many pests who prefer to stay close to the ground.

There you have it -- two simple tips to make the most of your container gardens. By balancing bright and neutral colours, your garden will have a natural harmony. Keeping them close to where you can see them allows the beautiful and intricate patterns on flowers to be truly appreciated. It's really simple and looks amazing!