Container gardening: new annuals for summer containers

摘要

Gardeners are always demanding new and wider plant choices. Plant breeders have responded by putting many new annuals on the market that are perfect for container gardening. Some are released with tremendous fanfare. Because I own a wholesale greenhouse business, I get to preview the newest varieties of plants before they become available to consumers. Here are some of the annuals I grew in containers last year that held up to the expectations created by their marketers. Calibrachoa hybrids (top photos at right) are one of the hottest groups of plants on the market. Several series are being widely promoted by the international marketing cooperative Proven Winners under the name Million Bells~(R), although most people are now using million bells asa common name for all the Calibrachoa hybrids. The only major difference I've noticed among the series is that some plants have a mounding habit and others are trailing. Even the mounding plants, however, will hang nicely over the side of a pot.