Bargains in Pots

I love the Easter sales. I love peeping at the Bargain Table, picking out plants I like, trying out new varieties. As a compulsive recycler, my favourite plan is to use the new plants in groups of containers - then plant them out the following year.

It's a good chance to experiment - particularly about a plant's reaction to light frosts, or lack of sun. I buy many of these sale price plants for their foliage, so it's also a good chance to get interesting container plantings to enjoy throughout winter. Everything I buy is supposed to be hardy and tough, so the pots stay outside, often in sheltered places.

Pots from the Easter Sale

Usually the plants will spend at least half a year in their pots - then, when I'm expanding somewhere in the garden, they will be tipped out and planted properly. The next Easter sale is never far off, and will provide the next generation of container foliage plants! Seems like the perfect plan.

New Zealand Native Flaxes and Cordylines

A lot of my garden flaxes start in pots - as do my green and red cordylines. In this latest group of container stars, direct from the Bargain Table of 2004, there's a Tricolor flax (I think), a variegated Carex, two slightly frost-tender Coprosmas, a New Zealand native larch and a lovely native tree with tiny speckled leaves.

The theme is that of light and dark - hence the variegations, and the contrasts within the group. Pretty artistic for a bunch of bargains!