Border perennials in containers?

I've got a lot of border perennials currently growing in pots some which are divisions I did from last autumn and others that I bought as bare-rooted and potted up. I've got things like Erigeron, aquilegia, hemerocallis, echinacea, phystostegia, stokesia, monarda etc.

Thing is, I'm renovating a couple of parts of the garden and don't want to rush it, so want the option of putting some of potted up perennials into larger containers for most of this growing year or giving them away.

Done a bit of research and it seems with care most everything can be container grown, are there any exceptions?

 

I've grown stuff in pots, and then larger pots, when I haven't quite got around to planting them, or finding a suitable spot.

The only issues are potting-them on, which takes a bit of time, but can be done within a "window" of several weeks once they start to get pot-bound, and watering them - which will be pretty much an every day occurrence unless you rig up something automatic, and may make going away a bit tricky.

Worth adding some slow-release fertilizer to the pots so you don't have to faff about with liquid feed (which mostly runs out of the bottom of the pots to waste anyway ...)

If you grow them on for a year, and then plant them, they will be one-year-more-mature and thus give a more "instant" effect.

 

Buy a large bucket and soak them for an hour or so - this can cut watering down to once every five days or so.

 

Yeah, but its a tradeoff as you then spend hours putting them into the bucket, one-by-one, and waiting 15 minutes for the rootball to get saturated !!

I use that method (usually on a deep tray that I can get several pots into) but I don't have anything like as much tray space as I have plants-lying-around !

 

Kind of - I only have a small garden, and two buckets. So about six done every day, which covers my needs!
If the hosepipe ban comes in, does this get around it?

 

Provided you fill your bucket from the Bath !!

 

As in don't shower, take a bath instead!!

 

No problem Fens. I have loads of perennials in containers - I don't have any space for them. I hate throwing them away, so I hang on hoping that someone wants one.

I suspect that they don't grow as fast in a container, and therefore don't necessarily get pot bound.