© Janet Davis

Every spring, I go a little crazy finding just the right plants for my collection of 23 pots and planters of various shapes and sizes. And though I have certain old standbys I’d never be without, I always make a point of experimenting with plants that are new to me.

One of the secrets to effective container planting is finding good trailers and spillers that anchor your pots visually, while softening their overall appearance.

Here are several good ideas for trailers and spillers for your garden.

· Everyone is familiar with English ivy, Hedera helix, but it’s worth searching out unusual varieties with white or yellow variegation, especially if you’re using white or yellow flowers in the container. (Remember: most yellow-variegated leaves, including hostas, need half-sun to bring out the color.)

· Trailing vinca (not the bedding plant with magenta flowers) with small white-and-green leaves is one of my favorite long, foliage trailers. Pinch the ends back when planting to increase the branching stems. There’s also a spectacular new yellow-variegated trailing vinca called ‘Illumination’.

· Another great foliage trailer that goes and goes and goes is variegated mintleaf (Plectranthus madagascarensis). Similar in appearance to a Swedish Ivy on steroids, this very vigorous plant trails up to 3-feet (1 m), If pinched when young, it produces masses of tough stems bearing frilly, variegated, aromatic leaves.

· A plant that’s gaining popularity as gardeners discover how nicely it combines with pastel pink and purple flowers is licorice plant (Helichrysum petiolare). Over the season, strong stems covered in felted, gray leaves extend first outwards, then down. ‘Limelight’ has velvety, lime-gold leaves and is effective with purple, orange or red flowers. Give licorice plant well-drained soil.

· And don’t forget that old-fashioned houseplant, asparagus fern (Asparagus sprengeri) for a feathery effect in areas where it will receive afternoon shade.

· One of my favorite spillers is ivy geranium, which likes a little more shade than its upright cousins. Foliage is very lush and green and the flowers are much like regular geraniums.

· Cascading geraniums (a.k.a. “balcon geraniums”) are the most carefree members of the geranium clan. With their masses of fragile-looking blooms in pink, orange and red, they’re great for window boxes and pots because they’re self-cleaning (no deadheading) and shrub off rainy weather. I like the form that trails quite far over pot edges, but there’s also a “mini-cascade” form.

· For blue and purple designs in part shade, I like to use cascading lobelia or purple browallia (Browallia speciosa). In sun, try Swan River daisy (Brachyscome iberidifolia) with masses of small lavender flowers, or cup flower, Nierembergia caerulea. .

· Then there are the new trailing petunias with masses of small flowers. I love Petunia ‘Purple Wave’ with its bright-magenta blossoms, and use it almost every year in my deck pots. And from South America, there’s Petunia integrifolia, similar to Purple Wave with loads of magenta flowers.

· Calibrachoa is a relatively new plant, similar to a petunia, but with much smaller flowers. When happy – it must have full sun – calibrachoa can trail 2-3 feet. Native to South America, it can be found as the patented strain “Million Bells’ in shades of pink, yellow, red, blue-purple, white and a lovely orange-yellow.called ‘Terra Cotta’.

· Search out hard-working trailing verbenas like ‘Homestead Purple’ or the Tapien series from Japan that come in blue, pink and purple. Newer strains include Deadhead verbena regularly.

· Bacopa (Sutera cordata) is a pretty, trailing plant that’s covered all summer long in masses of tiny blossoms in white, pink or lavender, all set against rich-green foliage. One of the best new bacopas is white ‘Snowstorm’.

· Want masses of little yellow daisies? You have several choices. Try Dahlberg daisy (Dyssodia tenuiloba) in sandy, well-drained soil or bidens (Bidens ferulifolia) with its clambering stems that reach hither and thither through pots of annuals. Bidens is one of the longest-flowering annuals, surviving light frosts and sometimes still in bloom in my containers in early December. And if you like marigolds, Tagetes ‘Lemon Gem’ is a real gem; not a trailer, but a lovely, mound-shaped plant that is perfect as an edger in a herb garden too.

· To achieve a luxuriant look in afternoon shade or filtered sunlight, try one of the fabulous Pacific Hybrid hanging tuberous begonias (Begonia x tuberhybrida). You’ll have a bounty of gorgeous, trailing, double blossoms – that look like roses -- in every color of the rainbow. Keep your plants moist and well-fed. Pick off the small, single female plants to get better and longer bloom-for-the-buck from the big, double male blossoms.

· Another star trailer for shade is fuchsia, with elegant tubular flowers, often bi-colored, in sumptuous shades of pink, purple, magenta and white. There are some upright fuchsias and others that trail, so make sure you know which is which. Give your fuchsia lots of water and morning sun only and feed plants bi-weekly with a soluble fertilizer. And keep your eye peeled for hummingbirds which love fuchsia blossoms!

Adapted from a column that appeared originally in the Toronto Sun

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