Thanks so much for your input! I can definitely keep them watered now. I've thought about other types of hydrangeas, but I'm really attracted to Endless Summer because I want to have blooms each year!

You can plant anything in a pot with care, meaning that you will need to water them well until they get established. Maybe even twice a day as summer is approaching. Here are my favorite easy to care for plants for full sun: For structure, I really like purple leaved Loropetalum in the back or dwarf crepe myrtles or vitex chaste tree and in front of them, Indian Hawthorne shrubs or shrub roses. I plant evergreen daylilies in between and offset to the front of the Indian hawthornes or roses. Check out Oakes Daylilies online and Marietta Gardens if you are interested in Daylilies. You can plant ground covers, tender perennials, perennials and bulbs in front of the daylilies if you wish for color. Some good tender perennials are blue daze, portulaca, and caranthus rosea periwinkle (the pink and white varieties) not the blue shade lover. These bloom all summer unlike annuals. For perennials, I have salvias, true sage, stokesia, dwarf white lantana. For ground covers, I have variegated mint, creeping raspberry, creeping jenny and lime green ornamental sweet potatoes. Also, you might like shrublike thornless antique roses, very easy to care for, which bloom almost eight months out of the year. There are thornless varieties. Choose polyantha, china or Tea (not hybrid tea) or the Knockout roses, which are readily available at most garden centers this year. Gardensmith on the Westbank in Algiers has over two hundred types of roses, many easy to care for and many nearly thornless. For bulbs, I like dwarf agapanthus, society garlic, eucomis, crinum, rain lilies, Tiny Tot gladioli.

Beginnerkelli, I planted both beets and carrots in July last year, and the beets were my best and sweetest and not bothered by leaf miners. The carrots didn't get real large by the time winter weather hit, they were barely big enough for eating but very sweet. I'll be planting both around July 1 for fall harvests, if I'm not completely sick of them by then. Cucumbers could also be an option. I did bush cukes in pots last July. Here are the notes I kept: Beets 7/18/2008 Planted two rows in bed #1. 8/23/2008 Growing beautifully. Lost two or three to cutworm. Leaves not bothered by leaf miners. 9/15/2008 Small and sweet. Plan to plant last crop about two weeks earlier next year, or around July 1. Carrots 7/18/2008 Planted a 6" wide row in bed #1. 7/26/2008 germination was rather poor. The ones that did come up look healthy, but I doubt they will mature before we leave for the winter. 10/1/2008 pulled carrots for rabbit, too small for eating. Plant at least a month earlier for late crop. Granny Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden

If the idea is to save money, and especially if you're doing containers, I agree that herbs are your best bet. Potatoes and squash won't save a lot of cash. Okra and eggplant might be good bets. I especially like the latter because they produce well through the hot summer. Tomatoes and peppers turn off in the fiercest months of heat, though you might get a fall crop. Summer greens? Well, they say that they are "heat tolerant", but that phrase has a different meaning in Texas than elsewhere, and I haven't had a lot of success nurturing at least kale in July and August. Of course, if you're planting in June, we're talking about harvest in September and beyond, so it's mainly going to be about survival.