“Thrill, Fill, and Spill” for Garden Containers
Tips With Hamilton Land Services’ Mary Susan Stacy
The Ladies of Historic Brookhaven Social Club welcomed Hamilton Land Services’ Mary Susan Stacy to its May meeting on planting garden containers. The group of about 30 women gathered in Sarah Cyrus’s backyard on Brookhaven Drive on Monday, May 20.
Here are Mary Susan’s top tips for creating colorful pots that can withstand the summer’s heat:
- Before planting, gather your tools and get a container with a good-sized opening. Mary Susan keeps her Hori Hori garden knife and a pair of clippers in holsters so she can easily reach them while working. “I like to do groups of containers with a large one and maybe two smaller ones in the front,” she says.
- Consider taller, flowering plants for the middle of the pot, a second layer of foliage (like coleus), and then a front layer of smaller flowering plants. “I do mostly pinks and whites, and sometimes add lavender, blue, and purple,” she notes. She usually avoids red and yellow flowering plants unless a client specifically requests these. Margarita vine, which hangs, adds a nice touch as well.
- Plant things close together so the pots will have immediate beauty.
- Use good potting soil and fertilizer for annuals in containers. For fertilizer, she recommends Plantone, which is organic and can be found at Home Depot or Lowe’s. “Just sprinkle a handful on top of the soil and it will get mixed in while planting the flowers,” Mary Susan says. After the container is planted, she recommends watering with liquid Miracle Grow and soaking thoroughly. Another product she recommends is Rose & Flower Care, a combined fertilizer, insecticide, and fungicide by BioAdvanced.
- Deadhead (remove dead or faded flowers) and fertilize every few weeks. This will help your plants last four to six months.
- Water every other day, unless it rains.
For the demonstration, Mary Susan purchased plants from Home Depot. She used pink pentas, white geraniums, and pink and lime green coleus. Hanging out of the planters, she used lime green margarita vine and pink and white million bells. For an example of a shaded pot, Mary Susan used Kimberly queen fern with caladiums and impatiens. To hang out of the pot, she suggested white or lavender torenia, which blooms in the shade.
Editor’s note: Mary Susan Stacy is an account manager at Hamilton Land Services, which is owned and run by Brookhaven Drive resident Tim Gartland. For more information on planting attractive containers, contact Mary Susan at marysusan@hamiltonlandservices.com or (404) 245-9232.