“Container Solution”, a copyrighted post, was written for my WordPress blog called Always Growing by Jan in Covington, Louisiana
Finally, we have had some rain. Just like so many areas in the country this summer, we are still in an extreme drought, but 2 inches of rain over the last four days has helped. Of course, even with this rain, we are still way below our normal rainfall, but it is nice to be free from dragging hoses around the garden for a few days. Because of the drought, not very much is going on in the garden this year as in past years. Hardly anything is blooming because I think the dryness and heat seems to be really stressing plants out. They are just staying alive and not really growing. I am hoping the recent rain will help this as it usually does.
Because of the drought, that started back in late March, I have not dared to plant several small shrubs that I purchased in late winter. I am holding them over till either we get more rain or early fall arrives. Because of this, I am using more containers in the garden than ever. Before, I used containers mainly on the patio or front entry, and they consisted of annuals or tropical plants. Gradually, I stopped planting those, especially the tropicals, because it just got to be too much trouble to overwinter them. I only kept a few favorites in pots or hanging baskets.
Starting last year when I pretty much stopped planting annuals in the garden, I did make a few containers of colorful coleus and placed them in areas were the ground was not suitable for planting. This gave spots of color without too much work.
This year as I was contemplating a problem spot in the entry garden, I thought of containers as a solution. The area where I needed “something” was under a Kwansan cherry tree and so did not get much sun. In the past when I planted coleus there, they didn’t do well – leggy, sparse looking. Impatiens took too much water, hosta even failed, and tree roots didn’t make for any deep planting of other shade plants. Finally, I decided to go with containers and thought caladiums (notice the raindrops) should do well. I just wish I would have thought of this earlier.

Since this is the entry garden and makes that all important first impression, that bare spot really stood out. Now, with the three blue pots of red caladiums and one pot of Persian Shield in the back, this area looks so much better and blends in nicely with the rest of that garden area which has filled out well since spring. I only wish I would have thought of this container solution sooner.