Canna can help fill those emply pots

Q: Recently, my parents gave me several large pots that didn’t fit in their decor anymore, thinking that they’d look good surrounding my patio. I really like them but haven’t figured out what to plant in them. I have an idea that if I place them along one side of the patio, depending on what I plant in them, they could hide a sort of eyesore part of my small backyard. Each one is 14-inches across the top and 32-inches deep from the rim. Any suggestions? — A.L., Albuquerque

A: My first thought was cannas. These remarkably easy to grow plants can offer you lots of color from the foliage to the tropical hinting blooms. The leaves look like leaves from a banana tree.

They can be really wide, variety dependent, and you can find cannas that offer several different leaf colors including true green, a burgundy-green, and some even a green-bronze color.

The bloom colors can also be visually staggering with pale yellows, brilliant yellows, oranges, coral, pink and vivid red.

So not only would your gifted pots, lined up along that one side of the patio, keep the view nicer, the color you could add would be delightful.

Since the pots are quite large, you might consider planting several columnar junipers. That way there’d be evergreen color year-round.

I would suggest meandering through any one of our local nurseries and see what you can see. You just might be surprised by what you find.

Q: Do you have a way for me to remember which part of a fertilizer does what to a plant? I really liked the one about “prune after the bloom” and I am hoping you have something similar so I can get the correct fertilizer when I need it! — T.M., Albuquerque

A: How about this, “Up, down and all around.”

A bit of guidance is necessary first. All broad spectrum fertilizers list three numbers in succession.

Let’s take a lawn fertilizer. You’ll see something like 24-10-10 listed on the package. The first number — the 24 — would be the nitrogen content of that bag. The second number will always reference the phosphorus content, and the third number will always be the potassium content.

Now, here’s how they work. Nitrogen is used by plants to create healthy green upward growth. Phosphorus is utilized by plants to grow healthy roots, the downward growth. (It’s used to create healthy blooms too, but that’s not part of the equation right now). Potassium is needed to make the nitrogen and the phosphorus work well within the plants’ systems. So you can see up, down and all around.

Wanting to grow a healthy lawn with green upward growth, you’d want a fertilizer with more nitrogen. Want to settle in a bunch of root crops or keep roots healthy? Then you’d want a higher middle number, the phosphorus. Needing to make sure that all the components of the fertilizer will work together, then be sure to see the third number, potassium, is in the mix.

It’s an easy way to remember which fertilizer you’re looking for.

Happy Diggin’ In up, down and all around!

Tracey Fitzgibbon is a certified nurseryman. Send garden-related questions to Digging In, Albuquerque Journal, 7777 Jefferson St. NE, Albuquerque, N.M. 87109, or to features@abqjournal.com.