An exotic beauty like Passiflora coccinea, with its astounding scarlet star-shaped flowers, deserves a container all its own. The big pot in the foreground is a mix of pinks and reds.

DALLAS — Pots come in handy if you've already dug up the lawn and converted it to garden beds but can't drive by a nursery without stopping. Container gardening is ideal, too, for people with space restrictions (as in apartment and condo dwellers), physical limitations, budget considerations and time constraints.

A flowerpot holding just one kind of plant can be satisfying and ornamental, as long as the plant is lush, healthy and filling — even better, overflowing — a container's confines. But the current fashion calls for combining foliage and flowering plants of different colors, textures, sizes and forms all in one pot.

There's even a recipe: something tall and spiky, something full and something to trail over the pot's rim. Most important: You must combine plants that have the same needs in terms of sun exposure, water, fertilizer and, in some regions, the same ability to withstand hot nighttime temperatures. In more hospitable climates, where the nights cool down and there are not weeks-long stretches of daytime temperatures in the 90s, the spring and summer seasons blur and overlap. In that perfect world, flowers planted in early spring bloom through the summer.

Much of the blooming stock enticing us in early spring, however, won't survive July in some states. Corporate horticulture sees profits to be made in developing heat-tolerant garden plants for the southern tier of the United States, but research and development is still young. Some recent successes include Torenia, the Tidal Wave series of petunias, Dragon Wing begonias and Angelonia. The point is, be prepared to replace what's showy in April with sturdier bloomers in midsummer that will flourish until the first freeze. If you've chosen wisely, you'll only have to freshen up containers with a few replacements, not totally replant them.

The English would be mystified by the current clamor for containers. They've been combining garden plants in classical footed urns, terra-cotta long toms, wooden windowboxes and chipped crocks for centuries. And they are particularly adept.

Photographs in The Terracotta Gardener (Trafalgar Square Publishing, 1990) by Jim Keeling, owner of Whichford Pottery in Warwickshire, show examples at country estates and cottages, and no two are alike. One example holds (barely) three lily bulbs, five verbenas, one hosta, one variegated agave and 12 other foliage and flowering plants. Another contains 13 bedding annuals and tender perennials, including petunias, verbenas, Pelargoniums and Felicia.

Cascade of color

Planters with punch: Don't discount flowering vines. A tepee of bamboo stakes or a graceful wire tuteur gives a container needed height, but if you let their hair down, vines add a rich cascade of color and lushness.

An exotic beauty like Passiflora coccinea, with its astounding scarlet star-shaped flowers, deserves a container all its own. The big pot in the foreground is a mix of pinks and reds. 'Dragon Wing' begonia in the foreground provides fullness, while the lacy Diascias in pink and cranberry and, for a jolt, orange creamsicle will grow to spill over the rim. (When summer hits, you can replace them with trailing Torenias.) A dark Cordyline 'Purple Heart' provides the spike factor. Rising above it is the West African Clerodendrum thomsoniae (red glorybower vine), whose clusters of blooms are smoky pink and raspberry. In the background is a pot of dark-leaved New Guinea impatiens transferred in toto from a plastic hanging basket for instant fullness.

Hotties: Cannas, until recently dismissed as too old-fashioned for sophisticated gardens, are enjoying renewed popularity but more for their foliage than their flowers. Pinstriped Canna 'Tropicanna' stands up to Texas heat, as long as it receives sufficient water. Its fiery coloring pairs prettily with other hot-hued plants such as Bracteantha bracteata (strawflower), red-, yellow- and orange-ribbed Swiss chard and red carnations. A skirt of furry, gray-leaved Plectranthus, a good foliage selection for containers, softens the edges.

Our little secret: Retailers often sell mixed plantings in plastic hanging baskets that are already full, already trailing and in bloom. If you are short on time or in need of last-minute prettifying for a party, a hanging basket is a smart option. Cut the plastic hanger away, tap the root ball of the combined plants out of the container and plop it into a decorative pot of a similar size. Fill in any pockets with extra potting soil and water. The pot will look homegrown. This combination includes flowering maple and trailing snapdragons.

Bountiful blooms: A low, rectangular trough calls for plants that spill. Heat-tolerant 'Tidal Wave Misty Lilac' petunias and trailing ivy-leaf geraniums blur the edges of the chiseled stone. Zonal geraniums provide fullness, and spikes of 'La Bella Mix' snapdragons add accent. Pelargoniums (geraniums) can come through the summer if they receive only morning sun, are fed often, deadheaded and kept evenly moist but not waterlogged.

A fine vintage: Recycled oak wine barrels make good planters because they are deep and sturdy. Be sure to elevate the barrel to keep the bottom from rotting prematurely; even better, place it on top of casters so you can move it.