Planting a summer pot for a shady garden

Planting a Summer Pot for a Shady Garden

In this lesson, I'm going to show you how to plant up a pot for a shady area.

The back of our barn is a cool and shady area which generally gets around three hours of sunshine a day. We focus on the soft and cool palette here as it brings light to what would otherwise be a dark, dank zone.

I am using an agricultural water trough as a planter here, which already has a big drain built into the bottom.

Recipe for a Soft & Cool Pot in a Shady Garden

Bride: Lily 'Casablanca'

Bridesmaid: Pelargonium 'Tomentosum'

Gatecrasher: Nicotiana 'Only the Lonely'

I used to plant our lillies as bulbs. Lily bulbs can be planted in autumn or in March, but our bulbs were being ravaged by lily beetles as soon as they began to grow. Now, I plant my lily bulbs in pots first which seems to protect them from the lily beetle.

I'm going to plant these lilies at a deep enough depth so that the lily bulbs will stay here permanently. If you are going to do this, remember to write it down somewhere so that you remember the lilies are in there for seasons to come.

These lilies will continue to flower until mid-August at which point I'll cut them back by two-thirds, leaving a third of the stem with leaves to feed the bulbs beneath the soil through photosynthesis.

To ensure that this display carries on until late autumn, I have then chosen two plants that will come into their own once the lilies have gone over.

I have chosen Pelargonium 'Tomentosum' which has a lovely peppermint fragrance if you rub the leaves and Nicotiana 'Only the lonely' which is another tall plant which will replace the lilies and provide height once they have been cut back.

Planting the Lilies

Dig a deep hole in your trough and then ease your lily plants out of their pot. Pop your plant in the hole and firm it in. I am planting two lilies down the centre of the pot.

Planting the Pelargoniums

The pelargoniums are working as a spiller plant here, so angle them in the four corners of your trough so that they will grow over the edges.

Planting the Nicotianas

When it comes to pots, you want to plant them more densely than you would if you were planting directly into the soil.

You can get away with planting pots more densely as you will be watering and feeding them more often than you will the rest of your garden. It will also help them to look luscious and full for longer.

Plant your nicotianas as close to the root balls of your lilies as you can. This will ensure that they will be able to cover the lily plants up once they have been cut back, thus prolonging the life of your display.

Feeding and Watering

As this trough is in a much shadier spot than our whopper pot it won't need as much water. In general, I will water a pot in a shady spot about twice a week.

When it comes to feeding, I will probably feed this trough with about half as much feed as the whopper pot in the sunny spot. This means I'll feed it once every two weeks.

The nicotianas will probably need to be individually staked as they grow, and if the lilies get top heavy once they have begun flowering then they will either need staking, or I will create a small fence around the inner edge of the pot. I will build this fence out of silver birch, which will help to support everything inside. I will usually add this fence around a month after planting.