Here are some unusual plants to try in Pacific Northwest pots this summer
The second week of May is a mad scramble to find the best plants to add to the garden.
My favorite geranium, Vancouver Centennial, with the terra cotta leaves and orange blooms, sold out. The ‘Silver Falls’ dichondra — sold out. This is the year of plant lust and plant shortages as difficulties with shipping and an employee shortage have hit some local nurseries.
But hope and spring is eternal, and if one nursery runs out, there is always another nursery to visit, or new shipment that will arrive. Make this the year to visit every nursery you can drive to, looking up new places to buy locally grown plants, in search of the perfect petunia or the oddball perennial you would never even think to try.
The secret to laid-back gardening is to try lots of different plants and then just plant what does best for you. That means you have to try a lot of plants in the scientific mode of experimentation. Dead plants are not mistakes — they are composting opportunities.
Here are some unusual plants — thrillers that are killers (in a good way) — to try in pots this summer:
Graceful Grass ‘Prince Tut’ Cyperus
This is a mini version of the Egyptian papyrus grass that looks spectacular in a large container surrounded with bold foliage and trailing petunias. The spiky leaves surround tufts of graceful seed heads that remind me of a lion’s mane. This cypress is heat and bog tolerant as it really wants to grow along the Nile river bank. If you want something different, this annual grass from Proven Winners kills it.
Canna ‘Tropicanna’ is the best at being bold
Huge, paddle shaped leaves that unfold with tropical colors of orange, yellow and lime green make this a tall plant for a large container or to grow in the ground as an eye-catching specimen plant.
The foliage grows from underground rhizomes that are like bulbs and so this tender plant can be overwintered in a frost-free location then cut back and regrown the following year. Give it a pot at least 24 inches deep as it could tip over in the wind and dress it up with lime green sweet potato vine and deep purple and red coleus.
This tropical plant needs sun and warm weather. Wait – did I mention the flowers? The leaves are the bees knees but the flowers are unique and spectacular as well.
Cordyline is electric in pink, and may survive winter
The spiky foliage of cordyline or Ti plant is a natural for the center of any container, but the new hot pink varieties sold as “Electric Pink” and “Flamingo” are as tough as they are beautiful. I am proud to say that for the second winter in a row my two cordyline plants have survived outdoors in a plastic pot. Ignore the price. Invest in a cordyline and you could be thrilled for years.
Marianne on ‘Plant This! Not That!
- Zoom webinar: Visit Molbaks.com to join Marianne Binetti for a free Zoom talk
- When: 10 a.m. May 22
- Register in advance for this webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_rieKiOjSTqGGHxMEiiKFyw