Affiliate Garden Club Containers Are Back

Something to think about as the gardening season approaches:

Every year, Hershey Children’s Garden visitors enjoy a creative partnership between our staff and the Garden’s Affiliate Garden Clubs. The Affiliates, a network of area garden clubs, have a rich and varied history with the Garden that includes programming, hosting speakers, and even mounting exhibits and shows. 2009 marks the fourth season of a fun Affiliate collaboration in Hershey Children’s Garden – one that brings whimsical scarecrows in the fall and vibrant containers in the summer that add an extra layer of enchantment for visitors young and old.

Garden staff supplies the containers, soil, site for each pot and twelve creative themes. Affiliates supply the creative arrangement of plant material. The final effect is a garden bursting with fun, amusing, colorful vignettes. Some of this season’s themes include "Stinky Gardens," "Stripy Gardens," "Furry Gardens," "Jurassic Gardens," and "Pink Gardens."

With stimulating designs like these, there is bound to be summer-long enjoyment. Our Affiliates are busy dreaming up their whimsical plantings for this season. They’re not just for kids, and plan on checking them out in a couple of months.

I know it’s only 20 degrees outside, but I am already thinking about container arrangements for this upcoming growing season. The containers that are currently stuffed with branches of red twig dogwood, curly willow and various evergreens, will come alive this spring with colorful arrangements. I like to buy a few extra bulbs so that I can pot them up and heel them in for the winter. Then, when the tulips and daffodils come up in the beds, I can consolidate some of the potted bulbs in containers to compliment what is in the beds. We also had a number of leftover amaryllis bulbs one year that we let go dormant and then pot up in the spring for stunning summer container displays. Last year, I had very good success with red, orange and yellow dahlias in containers. I mixed them in with red and green joyweed and some yuccas. And, the true low-maintenance container can consist of the succulent houseplants you have around the house. Combine them in a large container with some well drained sandy soil and you can pretty much forget about them.

I recently attended a presentation at Youngstown State University in which they described their extensive container planting program. They use a lot of tropicals that need to be overwintered somehow. I was concerned about the need for expensive greenhouse space for this. The speaker stressed that they have been successful with some low-maintenance, cool, dark storage of these plants that basically just need an occasional drink to make sure they don’t dry out. So, I will be experimenting with various plants next winter to see which ones can survive this kind of dormancy.

Anyway, the other exciting part of the YSU presentation was the list of their favorite container plants. They use Plectranthus extensively and have it cascading out of and skirting many of their planters. They recommend a dwarf sweet potato vine if you don’t want to be cutting it back all season. I don’t mind its aggressiveness, because I like to keep rooting more from the cuttings to fill in areas where perennials might die back in the beds. Some of their other container plants that I want to try this year are Eupatorium capillifolium elegant feather (6’ tall!), Aristolochia grandiflora (Tropical Dutchman’s Pipe with 8” flowers!), non-climbing morning glories and banana-leafed cannas. I am always willing to try something different, so let me know if you have any favorite container plant recommendations.