Easy ways to freshen up tired-looking containers

As summer wanes, I always have fun discovering new ways to perk up tired-looking plant combinations in outdoor containers. Often, it's just a matter of replacing a plant or two with something new that will look good well into fall.

Take, for example, the small, flat-backed basket that hangs on the wall by my front door. The flowering vinca that performed so admirably in the basket all summer is looking tired, but the bronze sedge still looks great. So does the golden moneywort I dug out of the yard last spring to plant where it could spill over the basket's edge.

Now all it takes for my basket's autumn makeover is a couple of pansies to replace the vinca. Easy. Inexpensive, too.

If you have a container that already has an ornamental grass or grasslike plant such as sedge or yucca, you already have a good start on a nice fall combination. The same goes if your pots already include plants with colorful foliage, like golden moneywort, coral bells, Angelina sedum or ajuga.

Perennials with variegated foliage, such as Herman's Pride yellow archangel (Lamiastrum), Oriental Limelight artemisia, Yellow Ripple English ivy and Illumination vinca also work well in fall combinations. So do silver-leafed perennials such as lamb's ear and Powis Castle artemisia.

I don't hesitate to dig up extras of any of these plants from the garden if I want them to refresh my containers for fall. Then all I have to buy are a few cold-tolerant annuals to provide a bright burst of color.

Pansies are always a good bet for fall. They come in an amazing choice of colors to fit any color scheme.

Some other annuals also offer surprising tolerance for cold temperatures. One of my favorites is Purple Robe nierembergia, a small plant with fernlike foliage and a cascade of small purple flowers. It often keeps blooming until Thanksgiving.

An equally cold-hardy annual is twinspur, which produces solid mounds of snapdragonlike blossoms in pink, coral, red, rose or lilac.

You can also count on old-fashioned favorites like snapdragons and pot marigolds or newcomers like nemesia and osteospermum for autumn color in your pots.

For another twist that will keep outdoor containers looking great all winter, shop now for small potted evergreens. I often find young junipers for just a couple of dollars each. They provide long-lasting green that I find especially welcome in the dead of winter in the front-of-the-house containers.

If the evergreens are still healthy by spring, I dig them up and give them away, making room for another round of flamboyant summer flowers.