OOS - it's cool to find someone else interested in gardening in So. Westchester. I find remarkably few people garden in the area. What's your favorite nursery around here? I like Nabel's in Mamaroneck. Putting plants together in a container is like flower arranging with a moving target - how can I economically and easily keep a series of mixed containers in continuous display? Maybe I'm over-thinking this (it wouldn't be the first time), but I practice intensive cultivation on my vegetable beds, why not in my containers? My interest in mixing annuals and perennials is in part because I bought a bunch of dwarf bulbs on sale and need to justify it to my wife ("it's an investment, sweetheart!") and because I enjoy seed starting annuals and need a new project once everything's planted in the veg garden. Redneck and Gary, I think what you do is closer to my goals than the style OOS uses, since I'm interested in a mix of plants in a series of larger planters (although OOS's backyard filled with a variety of individual containers is maybe the same thing on a larger scale). But you're both from more temperate zones - I don't even think about winter for my outdoor containers (although maybe I can overwinter some ivies and such in the house). I love the idea Redneck proposes of using ferns (I love ferns but haven't ever grown them), but most of my containers are in full sun so they would probably bake. BTW, yes, they are dwarf cannas. I guess utlimately what the original post was trying to ask is whether the best way to maintain a larger mixed container is to plant it up all in one go with enough foresight that it looks good for 4-6 months or whether you should constantly be moving new plants in and out as I do in my veg beds. And if you're going to move new plants in and out, do you start in a series of smaller containers and move them to new containers when they're at their peak? With either approach, what plants work well? It's interesting that everyone named perennials for the most part - I had envisioned more reliance on annuals. I'm going to follow up with a separate post asking for ideas for good container annuals started from seed...

Renee, Cat's Whiskers have two blossom colors, white and light purple. The white blossomed one is my absolute favorite flowering plant. Sometimes one can get lucky here in my Zone 8b and get one to winter over in a very protected spot. I have never been able to. However, it easily roots in water in about a week. So, as cold weather approaches I root up a bunch of cuttings, pot them and grow them on by a bright window until spring. Very easy to grow but are heavy feeders. To overwinter your present plant, surround it with chicken wire and wrap burlap or muslin or landscape fabric around the wire and then pile oak leaves inside the frame. It might work. Hope so. Have you noticed that humming birds love Cat's Whiskers?

Thanks everyone for the replies. I have had it more than a few years, but don't remember how long. It was doing terribly in a previous location, hardly any growth or flowers, so moved it Feb. 2015 to the new location. It has been going nuts since then. jasminerose4u - I hope it doesn't turn into a 10 ft tree! LOL Jackie - thanks for poem. Don't think I have ever heard that one.

I got one by accident. It was covered with disease in my cold and damp climate. The orange color was quite pretty. I was able to send the plant to a gardener in a warmer, dryer climate. I do think that the color is not so good in direct, bright sun. I thought the ones I used to see on the West Coast were rather garish.