I’m going to do a little potted plant update today. I love having a lot of big potted plants around our patio during the summer. It allows me to switch out the types of plants that go in them every year, see how things fare and what I end up loving and what just doesn’t look that great by the end of the season.

I do in general keep the same color theme for all of the potted plants on our patio, and echo a handful of plants but in slightly different ways throughout all of them. Last year, I did sets of three of the same plants over and over, but this year, I wanted a bit more variety.

If you’re interested in how I put together a pot, I wrote a blog post on the four easy steps of that HERE.

All of my patio plants were planted in mid-May, so this is a little mid-summer update.

In May…

When I planted this series, I thought it was going to be my least favorite combo of the three sets of pots. I was soooo wrong. It’s in the running for most favorite now.

The zinnias fared so well, that I actually pulled out one of them and put it it in its own pot.

Plants in this series:

• Large Pot: Superbells in Double Blue, Magilla Purple Perilla (coleus), Sweet Potato Vine in Sweet Caroline Sweetheart Lime, Salvia in Majesty Arctic Blue
• Middle Pot: Euphorbia in Diamond Frost, Zinnia in Double Zahara Salmon
• Small Pot: Lantana in Sunrise Rose

In May:

Also in the running for my set of favorites. The hibiscus wasn’t blooming the day that I took this picture, but wanted to show you how beautifully everything came in. And one of my favorite things to do is to use the creeping thyme in a pot, because it starts to cascade over the sides of the pot and looks so cool by the end of summer.

Plants in this series:

• Large Pot: Superbells in Blue Moon Punch, Magilla Purple Perilla (coleus), Sweet Potato Vine in Sweet Caroline Sweetheart Lime, Salvia in Majesty Arctic Blue
• Middle Pot: Hibiscus in Passion Wind
• Small Pot: Creeping Thyme

In May…

When I initially planted all of these planters, I loved this set this most. And now it’s my least favorite 🙂

I think it’s something about the colors in the coleus against the million bells here that I don’t love.

Plants in this series:

• Large Pot: Superbells in Doublette Love Swept, Sweet Potato Vine in Sweet Caroline Sweetheart Lime, Salvia in Majesty Arctic Blue, Euphorbia in Diamond Frost
• Middle Pot: Magilla Purple Perilla (coleus)
• Small Pot: Creeping Thyme

One thing remains true, this coleus that I’ve been using in my pots for years is a stellar performer. I’m getting to a point now that I cut it back in my pots just about every week so it doesn’t take over, but it is truly a beast. That’s one of the reasons I was curious as to how I would like it by itself in its own pot this year.

We’ve reached the time of a year in mid-summer, where I’m dealing with the most pests to my flowers, they need a lot of water (as in, I water these pots daily), and fertilize them once a week with a water soluble fertilizer. This will be the routine until early September when the heat starts to subside a bit.

Hope this was helpful to see how much plants fill out in just a couple of months! Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions! I love to hear from you!