Favorite Container Garden Plants, Goldenrod in a Vase, October 10, 2016

What are your favorite container garden plants?  For several years, instead of buying starts to plant my containers, I've been trying out seed-grown plants or cuttings.  Here are some favorites this year for my deck garden.  If you would like to vote for your favorite, either of those pictured or one you grow yourself, leave your selection in your comment.

Browallia speciosa self-sows readily, in fact the seeds fall into my containers and come up the next year as a surprise.  They are very long blooming and make a cascade of blue-purple, sorry, they look washed out when photographed-

I also have a second variety, Browallia americana, that is a taller plant with larger flowers, this one came up much later in the season, notice the heart-shaped leaves-

Another very delightful container flower is the tropical milkweed, Asclepias curassavica, it would be an annual here  but as a container plant I can take it indoors in the fall to overwinter, this is its third summer outdoors!  I am so impressed with it, every branch is continually in bloom like a candelabra!

I'm also growing 3 different Cuphea, two of which have expanded petals at the end of their "cigar" tube- viscosissima which gets very tall and rangy-

C. llavea, also fancy flowers but also only a few blooms on the ends of long branches-

And finally Cuphea ignea, which looks like tiny glowing orange cigars, small plants but compact and well-branched, continually covered with lots of long-lasting flowers.  It makes me smile.  The flowers don't even get fuzzy and puff up like the other two before they burst open to scatter their seeds, which makes it hard to save seed-

Meanwhile, I had to make use of some of the Goldenrods blooming now for In A Vase On Monday.   Join hostess Cathy in her challenge to find some flowers to plonk in a vase, for your enjoyment.  Goldenrod makes great golden fall color in spikes of tiny star-like flowers, with a faint anise-like fragrance.  Here is a mixture of my three stalwart varieties, Solidago 'Fireworks', 'Golden Fleece', and 'Solar Cascade'.  I added some red clover for an accent.  After enjoying the vase for a while, I cut the stems off and dried the flowers for tea-

I bought 6 varieties three years ago, but the small ones, Solidago 'Laurin' and 'Little Lemon', did not return, as well as the more fragrant S. odora.  But I am happy to enjoy the 3 that do well.

Today I am also linking with-

Today's Flowers hosted by Denise

Macro Monday 2 hosted by Gemma Wiseman and Mystical Magical Teacher

What fall flowers can you find to put in a vase?   Have you grown plants for planters?  -Hannah

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Favorite instrumental version, from the movie Angel Eyes-