Perennials for cool season containers may seem like the proverbial horticultural oxymoron, but that is exactly what I have been planting the last few days in my zone 8a landscape. My favorite pansy pals are Goldilocks lysimachia, Lemon Coral sedum, Ogon Japanese sweet flag and Burgundy Glow ajuga.

The kicker to all of that is I’m not planting pansies yet but fresh crops of Supertunia Petunias and Superbells calibrachoas. Last year the fall planted petunias and calibrachoas lasted until the floods of mid-summer. I’m exaggerating somewhat on floods but we had more rain than I ever remember. You have to admit nine plus months of blooms is incredible. Believe me though I’ll add pansies and violas in a couple of weeks

Goldilocks lysimachia, or creeping jenny, is simply amazing with its yearlong tenacity of performance and dazzling color in the garden. I love how it plummets over the rims of containers stopping only when it hits the ground, then still keeps growing. What I may treasure most about it in the West Georgia area is the colorful transformation from summer into winter. That kiss of cold is like magic.

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In the summer it provides chartreuse or lime green where ever you want it. But in winter it gives the closest color to a 24K gold bar that you can find in a plant. Put that in boxes or baskets with blue violet-colored pansies and it will remind of you of sapphires and gold. This award-winning plant gets taken for granted but it shouldn’t though as it is perennial in zones 3-10.

Lemon Coral sedum is a succulent that is perennial from zones 7-10 and giving soft needle like texture. There will be at least once or twice a year that I look at its beauty and simply can’t believe it is a perennial thrilling not only with its foliage but later with a billowy cloud of bright yellow blooms.

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It too spreads, but is more like a slow lava flow of lime gently tolling over the rims of containers and baskets. It the landscape it forms a ground cover carpet of succulent lime. In my ground cover application, I have it partnered with Surefire Red begonias. Oddly I am also in year three with these begonias.

Ogon means gold in Japanese and this variety of Japanese sweet flag gives an unbeatable fine grassy element or texture to the garden and mixed containers. This is the plant that acts as the finishing touch or icing on the cake if you will, to mixed containers. As beautiful as your mixed container design may be, it is this little filler plant that says TA DA.

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The Japanese sweet flag spreads from the tip of rhizomes similar to that of an iris. They can reach about 10 to14 inches tall which gives you the opportunity to use it as a groundcover. It is perennial from zones 5-11.  Never under estimate the power of just one small grass to a mixed container.

Lastly, I find most gardeners simply don’t think of ajuga as a container filler or soft spiller. Its funny we call it bugleweed, we plant it in tough places in the landscape where nothing else grows, we love it when it blooms, but we just don’t think about it in the cool season mixed container.

Burgundy Glow is an award-winning cold hardy variety recommended for zones 4-11 and offering multicolored foliage usually showing a healthy dose of pink. The foliage is the perfect foil or contrast if you will for the fine textured Ogon sweet flag and even Goldilocks lysimachia or creeping jenny.

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All of these perennials offer among the easiest opportunities to propagate and use elsewhere in the landscape. The cool season planting calendar is just now getting underway and I urge you to incorporate these four perennials into your designs. 

Norman Winter is a horticulturist and national garden speaker. He is a former director of the Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens. Follow him on Facebook at Norman Winter “The Garden Guy.” See more photos and columns by Norman Winter at SavannahNow.com/lifestyle/home-garden/.