They'll all do fine in containers until you're ready to plant them out in the fall.

Just for the record, here's a partial list of perennials I've had in containers for the last 5-7 years:

clematis
lilac
weigela
hosta
mock orange
sedum
lamium
astilbe

Point being, perennials can be quite happy in pots for a very long time - provided, of course, that the pot is large enough.

Good luck healing from your surgery!

PV

I agree with PV!!! They'll be fine in containers. I hope you have a rapid recuperaiton and are back on your feet soon!
Joann

janie58,
I have nothing to add to the great advise you were just given, I just wanted to wish you a speedy recovery!
Get well soon.:)

:)Laura

I'm sorry you had to have a setback with surgery and hope you will be ok. Something we gardeners all dread, not being able to work to our full capacity (for us).

Is there somebody you could hire to help you? If you got it all planned out and marked, then supervise if you can walk around and watch, it should go fairly fast. I know I feel better if I plant my own stuff myself, but felt fortunate last fall to find somebody to plant my tulips and odds and ends. I could have done the tulips myself but just plain didn't feel like it and didn't want to waste the bulbs.

The containers should be fine, but they gobble up so much soil and are getting a little hard to fill; some are a little heavy to lift. Maybe you have help with that. This will mean double planting really.

Good luck with it; you know best what will work for you.

I grew both daisies and rudbeckia in containers the first year. That fall put them in the ground and they did great. The bottom half of the container I used dirt out of the garden, the top half I used potting soil. The only thing that you will need to watch is they tend to dry out quicker than in the ground. I wish you a quick recovery and hope that everything goes okay.

Wishing you a speedy recovery!! And just in case you didn't know, PV is the Queen of Containers. She knows her stuff so if she says they will do fine, then they will :O)

I hope you feel better soon. I will say that one of the great advantages of containers is that you can line them up together to cut down the watering and walking you have to do. I have a bucket garden of eight square buckets I do that way and I find that my patio chair makes the whole process quite comfy at that height. It's also a leisurly way to weed.

I would like to thank all of you who sent me advice and for your get well wishes. Went to the doctor today for my surgery follow-up and everything looks good. Will still need another 6-8 weeks to recuperate but that's ok. Hubby will help me when I need to transplant my WS seedlings. And for the time being, I have a few flats of seedlings happily growing under grow lights in my kitchen to keep me occupied ... and happy. Thanks again :>)

I hope you are on your feet in no time flat,I can only imagin how hard this is for you.
I am wishing you the very best,and keep imagining your babies growing big and strong,time really does go by fast,look, it is almost sparing already.
cAROL

Please take a look at PVick's balcony set-up. She grows plants up there in containers, I would have never thought of..gives a new twist to balcony or rooftop gardening. Amazing set up she has!

LOL, pippi! You're becoming one of my biggest supporters! My garden and I thank you!

PV

You can add in some kitchen herbs to those containers, they will make nice greenery and are also quite edible and yum. Parsley, cilantro and basil are small enough that they'll do fine for container gardening, the cilantro and basil are annuals with flowers that do attract butterflies, the parsley is a biennial and its flowers are a butterfly magnet too but you'll have to keep it a year to see that.

Janie--Sorry to hear about your surgery. Hope you won't be down for long. Thank goodness for large containers--every time I had knee surgery I could at least grow in large containers!!