The Iris reticulata have joined snowdrops and winter aconites in flower. The show is fleeting and everyone should spend some quality time admiring these hardy flowers that can cover the ground once established. Our balmy weather won't last and evenings can easily slip back into the twenties and even teens.

Our average last frost period is the end of April and early May and surprise frost can hit in early June. If you are anxious to begin putting plants in your containers, the safest plants for pots and urns are pansies, ranunculus, stocks, perennials, cool season vegetables, and hardy bulbs. Be ready to cover your pots in cold snaps (28 degrees or lower) to keep them looking fresh. I prefer to use an old sheet rather than plastic, which has no insulating value.

Cool vegetable crops can go out soon, lettuce, peas and kohlrabi starts can also be beautiful additions to spring pots. I often remind folks of the prolonged beauty of leafy red lettuces and how stunning they are with pansies and violas. Once this wonderful trio is planted out and hardened off, they can endure temperatures in the low twenties, although you may loose their current flowers.

Peas, the edible type are also pretty growing up cut twigs, arranged tee-pee fashion. The red or purple stems of brambles can also be tied and arraigned as upright supports for the delicate tendrils of spring peas. As natural frames or winter sculptures, they can be beautiful all winter.

Kohlrabi, a cool season root crop, is unusual. The foliage is like broccoli but the base swells to form an edible tuber that is delicious. Once you try them, fresh out of your pots, you'll find that they never make it into a planned meal. Better for the hungry gardener as an afternoon snack. The taste is like a cross between turnips and cabbage. They come in white and purple skinned varieties, the purple seems to be a little faster growing, otherwise they are both equally tasty.

For edible flowers there are violas, nasturtiums and calendula. Violas are high in vitamin C and come in so many colors that caterers love them, used both as a garnish and ingredient. The taste reminds me of lettuce, a simple, leafy kind of taste which is considerably better with salad dressing. Nasturtiums, on the other hand are very strong tasting, eat both the flowers and leaves for a peppery snap. They will tolerate a light frost and prefer early spring, while temperatures are still cool.

It should come as no surprise that rabbits and deer love pansies, violas and most cool greens. Plant ranunculus and daffodils in pots, both are poisonous and will be left alone by hungry wildlife. A few perennials can be added, they will stand up to the cold and many varieties are deer resistant. For a sunny pot consider the many herbs, typically hairy and smelly, deer will avoid them. For the gardener looking to fill a shady pot, use hardy ferns and the shade loving ornamental grasses like carex and Japanese forest grass (Hakonachloa macra), the deer will leave them alone also.