Text by Christine McComas
Photo by Ellen Nibali

In summer you can’t help but notice certain containers with their small petunia-like flowers cascading crazily over the sides.  It’s the oh-so-easy and rewarding calibrachoa, also known as ‘Million Bells.’

This low maintenance mounding annual comes in a color palette wide enough to please the artist in every gardener. They are beautiful solo, yet those with a contrasting throat color look especially nice in the company of container-mates of that color, for example a geranium or verbena.

Calibrachoa like sun to part sun, moderate water, and good drainage. They are neat and need no spent flower removal.  Known to attract hummingbirds, they will put on their exhuberant show until a hard frost.