Leave No Pot Unplanted
Late last week I made my first visit of the year to Anton’s, one of my favorite local nurseries. To say that they know me there is an understatement. In fact, in spring and summer I make so many appearances that the staff often remind me to punch in my time card.
What Anton’s has right at the moment is mostly Violas, both hybrid pansies (Viola x wattrockiana) and the smaller Johnny-Jump-Ups (Viola tricolor). But that’s enough for now, as I like to fill my pots with spring annuals as early as possible.
Actually, I also bought a few ‘Snow Crystal’ Sweet Alyssum (Lobularia maritima), because I wanted something fragrant. For fragrance I also would have purchased some Stock (Matthiola incana) and Wallflowers (Erisymum), but in fact the ones available had no scent. In the next week or two there will be more varieties and I’ll wait until then.
Anyway, I needed a lot of spring annuals, because I have a lot of containers. One reason I have a lot of containers is that I hate throwing away the pots that come with the shrubs I’ve purchased over the years. They are often so substantial and solid, it seems wrong to throw them out or even put them in the recycling.
Lots of containers means I need lots of annuals, especially because I like to cram many plants into each container. If the tag says space every 6″, I space every 3-4″. I find this is the best way to get a container that is overflowing with blooms.
As a result, by the end of the weekend I had planted 4 flats of Violas, or 192 plants. No, I don’t grow them from seed because my schedule won’t allow it. Yes, buying that many annuals is expensive. However, I like to think that buying spring annuals prevents me from spending an even larger sum on lottery tickets, or on an expensive hobby such as sailboat racing or climbing Mt. Everest.
After filling up all the pots, I looked in the garage and discovered a bunch of containers our former neighbors very kindly left me when they moved last fall. So I still need just a few more plants.
Have you filled pots with spring annuals in your garden?
gardeninacity 
I have just a couple of pots out the front that I have planted up for spring with primulas, forget-me-nots and violas. I don’t put that many out as we already have a few flowers in the garden and in a month or so I shall put the summer annuals out. It is an expensive hobby, but certainly more rewarding than many other hobbies! I’m making my first trip of the year to the big garden centre in the nearest city today… I’m quite excited about it! 🙂
Have fun on your trip to the garden center! I planted some forget-me-not seeds this spring, we’ll see how they do.
I haven’t filled them yet, but I will! I like your new patio, hope you find a moment to sit and enjoy it!
I try to sit on the patio and relax for at least a few minutes every day there is decent weather.
Or one round of golf, for goodness sakes! Violas are winter annuals here, as they have the uncanny ability to survive our cold by moving water from their cells to intercellular spaces and down to their roots during a freeze. Of course, we don’t get the kind of cold you have, or the snow either. If it’s a relatively warm winter they’ll look perky through the season and in early spring they are always fabulous. We’ll have to pull them out by the end of April, though, to establish summer annuals before it is too hot.
I have seen them come back from a mild winter even here, though they may look dead for a while. I usually let the spring annuals stay until early June.
Spring doesn’t last long enough here for me to plant too many spring annuals. I like to go straight to the summer annuals when I start filling pots. I do have some violas and pansies in pots tho. Love em.
I can’t wait that long! Tender annuals may not be safe until the beginning of June here.
I too am a sucker for Pansies/Violas at this time of year — hardy little buggers! And they seem to be breeding them to be tougher and tougher. I may be making a trip to Shady Hill Nurseries, my local favorite place for annuals, this afternoon. Often I will cut Corylus, Salix or Dogwood branches to add height to the pot. Last year my Pansies made it through the hot summer with flying colors, much to my surprise. I gave them a haircut mid summer and they responded faithfully.
I’d love to have some pussy willows in the garden but we just don’t have the space.
I love pansies but the season here is too short to spend money on annuals for only a few weeks. And, maybe you need to donate some of those extra pots to a local plant sale committee. 🙂 Love your brick patio.
I would think you would have a longer transition period of cooler weather there than we do here.
I just adore your wheelbarrow plantings. So clever.
Thanks!
Not even close to getting the annuals. Here our nurseries won’t open for a month or more. May 30th is the day everyone shops them. I am surprised with you having similar weather most years that you are planting annuals, even the cold tolerant ones. That is a wonderful start to your spring. Home Depot probably has the pansies out. So many years they try and beat the season and take the loss on plants when it snows in April or even May. People buy the annuals from them and even plant them.
I have to make due with my hyacinths I have forced indoors. They are make the house smell like spring at least.
My hyacinths in pots outside are all up and you can see the beginnings of the flower buds.
Worth every penny I think. One week of bringing my own lunch in to work and I have a decent pansy budget, it’s all about priorities!
And think of all those lottery tickets I’m not buying.
Your patio turned out great. Johnny-Jump-Ups are great. Anton’s must be happy to see you coming! I don’t do many pots because I forget to water them, but I do have violas in the meditation circle where they overwintered. They’re thriving right now and the color is welcome.
Violas are so bright and cheerful (and relatively cheap), and they provide color when not much else is blooming.
I like the concept of a nursery where “everybody knows your name”. Little by little, my containers are filling up, but I didn’t dive in as whole-heartedly as you did.
They certainly do know my name over there, and my credit card number.
Wow! 192 plants and just getting started by the sound of it. With my garden weed-infested, a herb garden that is a civic project, and a neighborhood start-up monarch waystation, I’ll just enjoy your container plantings this season and hope to play catchup later. After the endless winter, it feels good to get outside and enjoy the signs of spring.
A neighborhood monarch way station sounds like a great idea!
192???? You have me so beat!!! And let me just say that your new patio is stunning Jason!! I love the shape of it…it will be the perfect spot to enjoy your garden!! Have a great week!! Nicole
Thanks, we’re really happy with how the patio came out.
It’s that time of year! The wheelbarrow planter looks great! I keep meaning to gather a bunch of unconventional containers for planting. Maybe this is the year to go for it!
Absolutely. The possibilities are endless.
It’s still too cold here, even for pansies. I did see some crocuses on Easter though so it’s happening.
Glad to see a crocus on your latest post!
What’s spring without pansies?
Exactly.
Very nice patio, Jason. I’m sure you will enjoy many hours on it viewing your garden work. I have bought some pots but no annuals just yet. I usually put in some pansies as a right of passage to spring.
I certainly hope to sit on that patio as often as possible.
Your patio still has lots of space for more pots! The fall planted winter pansies are doing their thing now and I have so many perennials and evergreen things growing in pots that I don’t plant any spring annuals. A few summer things get squeezed in here and there though.
I have never got in the habit of growing perennials in pots. Pansies here have only a slight chance of surviving a winter in a container outside.
Love, love that old wheelbarrow! I made my first plant shopping expedition this weekend, but I came home with only a few pansies. I do enjoy them, but by summer they look pretty straggly, so I usually wait to fill all my pots until the danger of frost has passed and can plant lantana, petunias, and the like.
Before I wrote this comment, I scrolled down and realized how many recent posts of yours I missed–the post on worst plant names was hilarious, Jason. I remember asking for a ‘Pinky Winky’ at a local garden center one year and getting some strange looks from sales people who weren’t familiar with it:)
The pansies do get straggly in summer. I basically throw them on the compost in June and replace them with summer annuals – Pentas, Nasturtiums, Lantana in sun, impatiens and calladiums in shade.
Sadly no we can’t plant anything…still not warm or dry enough…soon I will be planting out about 60 viola and pansies….I do grow from seed due to cost. And I have reduced my pots. I hope to grow flowers for cutting in many until I make some cutting beds in the fall. Quite the nursery.
Hope the weather improves for you soon!
I used to fill pots for the same reason, because I hated throwing them out. But also because I lived in an apartment and didn’t have any other kind of garden space. I still have pots but don’t trust myself to manage filling them and caring for them. But you may have swayed me…!
What’s the worst that can happen?
I plant my pansy pots in the Autumn and they are looking really good and full of blooms now. I love the wheelbarrow planted up, I think I will copy that idea.
All you need is an old wheelbarrow. The one I use is pretty decrepit, in fact we were going to throw it away.
I do like your wheelbarrow, and all you spring planter choices. I seem to have all sorts sprouting in my pots, I’ve forgotten what I planted so shall be in for some nice surprises….hopefully!xxx
I always forget what I’ve planted where.
Hello Jason, it’s coming up to that time of year for me too – the annual trip to buy plants for the front trugs and new for this year – for three hanging baskets. I’m not sure what to go for – the same as last year (trailing fuchsias and trailing lobelia) or something like trailing begonias. Aah decisions…
Also known as the sweet agony of indecision. Your lobelias are the Lobelia erinus? They are another annual here that gets ratty with hot weather, though they are really beautiful at their best.