Hey – I’m back!  Still waiting for spring. We actually had snow the other day. Again. At least it’s pretty much melted today, although our temps are still only around 40 right now.

The antidote to this? A gardening class!  One of the local nurseries held a container gardening class. I don’t do a lot with containers other than stuffing a couple annual pots into a container and calling it a day, so this was a good class for me to get ideas.

Here is a baby greenhouse in early April:

These are all gearing up for May when the big buying season happens, which is basically Mother’s Day through Memorial Day. These will all be ready to plant outside then.

We started off by picking out our pots and filling them with soil. We had a style choice from a couple of hanging baskets or a patio pot. I don’t hang flowers currently, so I was one of the only ones to choose a patio pot.

The filling station:

We filled the pots half way and then added a couple tablespoons of slow release fertilizer:

Then filled the pot:

Yay  – playing in the dirt!! 😀

There were stations set up with different plant combinations. You always need to keep in mind where your container is going to be and how much sun it will get, which will decide what flowers to put in.  One tip – halfway through the growing season, fertilize with a quick release fertilizer (or bloom booster), especially when the pots start looking tired.

Everyone had a 12-inch pot, regardless of style. These are small baby plants provided by the nursery, so we used 9 plants for each pot.  If purchasing the 4-inch potted plants, use 3 of them instead of 9 – or use 5 or 6 of the 6-pack annual size.

When doing multi colors, place all of the same color in the center and then alternate the other colors in a ring around the edge about 1/2 inch from the edge of the pot.

We had some design inspirations to choose from.  I liked this one:

However, me being me, I swapped out one of the plants. I used a blue superbells instead of the dreamsicle.

I put the blue in the center. See how these are smaller than the 6-pack size of annuals?

I love the superbells – or in real terms, the Calibrachoa if your nursery doesn’t carry Proven Winners – although most do.  They bloom all summer and fill up a pot nicely.

All potted up with my 3 plant tags to remember which ones are which. We then put a large marker in these with our names on them.  The nursery is holding these in the greenhouse until we pick them up in mid May, although we can visit them any time LOL!

I can’t wait to see how pretty this looks!  I’m glad I wasn’t the only person that said goodbye to my container…. garden nerd…

Here are some combinations that you can use for container ideas. These are all for mostly sunny areas.  Callie means Calibrachoa, which is also the name for the Superbells

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You can just write the names down and ask for them at your nursery. They will be able to tell you similar ones if they don’t stock those, but again, Proven Winners are carried in most places.

I didn’t leave empty handed, though. Everyone was given a little potted marigold on the way out!

Yay to be planting again!!