106 Of Our Best Container Gardening Ideas

Create Some Herb Appeal

Rethink your porch planting with a container that proves there's elegance and purpose in simplicity. Fragrant rosemary, basil, and lemongrass accent soft blue plumbago in this tabletop setup.

Start with a young lemongrass plant positioned in the center of the pot. Then add the flowering plumbago around that. On the outermost edges, fill in the gaps with basil and rosemary, alternating the two if you wish or placing them on opposite sides of the container. Clip and use the basil frequently—this will help it grow and keep it from overtaking the rest of the display.

Develop An Orange Crush

Make bold foliage the focal point for a late-summer container that steals the show. This easy-care, end-of-season planter uses vibrant 'Rustic Orange' coleus, identified by its rusty-hued leaves that will last until the first frost. The filler in this space-saving pot is 'Compact Hot Coral' SunPatiens, which has tiny tangerine blooms and dark, shiny leaves that contrast nicely with the bronze-toned coleus. Finally, the 'Yellow Moon' wishbone flower adds even more lush greenery to the arrangement and offers petite yellow petals with purple throats.

This is a thirsty container, so you'll need to make sure it stays well watered. Place it in full or partial sun.

Plant A Pot Of Pansies

For a low-effort, high-impact look, Mark Thompson—owner of Shoppe, a garden store and nursery in Birmingham—filled an eye-catching, shallow urn with a combination of violas and pansies. Opting for an arrangement that’s composed entirely of these blooms makes a bold addition to the front porch during cooler months. “You can mix colors to your liking or do all one hue,” says Thompson. “They create a mound of flowers that’s really full.” The plants are also inexpensive compared to fillers such as ornamental grasses, explains the gardening expert. “You can get a lot of bang for your buck.”

Get Made For Shade

A simple-to-follow formula is all you need to create drama in a container for the shade. Here, it takes only four plants to convey the sweeping illusion of a floor-length gown. The key to pulling this off is starting with an elevated planter, so the vibrant 'Celebration' and 'Florida Sweetheart' (C. bicolor 'Florida Sweetheart') caladiums pop at eye level. Clusters of white wishbone flower fill the empty spaces between the caladium stems and conceal the actual container, meaning you can use just about any freestanding vessel. The final attention grabber is the graceful creeping Jenny spilling over the sides.

Position this planter in the shade for a gorgeous, easy-to-maintain display, and remember to water regularly.

Incorporate Evergreens

Designer Mark Thompson anchored these complementary vessels with evergreens in the centers: blue juniper in the smaller arrangement and dwarf arborvitae in the larger one. He then filled in the gaps with viola, pansy, and Panola (a pansy-viola hybrid with medium-size blooms). In the bigger pot, he also included lamb’s ears (a semievergreen perennial). “Traditionally, it does pretty well through winters in the South,” says Thompson. “In colder climates, it may die back but will return in the spring.” While the shrubs are hardy enough to last the season, that’s just one of the reasons the plant pro likes them. “They offer a nice contrasting texture to those soft pansy leaves,” he says.

Decorate Porch Steps

These porch-step containers begin with bright pink and yellow zinnias — 'Zowie! Yellow Flame' or 'Magellan Salmon' are some of our favorites. Cool-colored filler flowers, such as purple verbenas and blue calibrachoas, were added to create contrast with texture and color.

To make this container garden even simpler, opt for inexpensive plastic planters that are weatherproof and easy to move around. Grouping your containers in a tight space can help to create a homey, mini-garden vibe. Plus, all of these incredible colors intensify when placed side by side.

Hang A Wicker Container

This woven wicker basket is a natural way to decorate a bare wall in an outdoor space, and it will look just as beautiful whether you set it against brick, timber, or concrete. Pink zinnias and yellow tuberous begonias are the focal points of thrillers. You'll love the variation between the tighter, round zinnias and the softer, open petals of the begonias.

Blue Cape plumbago (Plumbago auriculata) and golden lantana add a hint of drama—these are the fillers. Finally, with its delicate, trident shape, English ivy cascades over the side. This spiller gives the beautiful hanging container a sense of movement.

Brighten Tabletops

If you need proof that a plain and straightforward planter has the power to brighten up what could be a dull backyard side table, then look right here. This container's copper sheen complements the fuchsia zinnias rather than competing with them. Yellow calibrachoas spill over the container's edge.

Subtle splashes from purple verbenas create another unexpected yet robust focal point in this outdoor garden conversation space. If you want your planter to have this beautiful feeling of flow, select a trailing calibrachoa that grows lower than the mounding version.

Plant A Modern Urn Container

A planter in a faux-lead finish is a timeless choice, but the cylindrical shape of these tall fiber clay urns gives them a distinctly modern, clean, geometric feel. This styling can work well in any decor because it focuses on familiar forms. Choosing a neutral tone or texture for your container helps bring out the unique natural beauty of the color of the flowers and foliage pop. Here, a string of pearls creates plenty of architectural drama through their unique shape, while purple calibrachoa and blue ageratum add just the right dose of brightness to add depth to this subtle arrangement.

Combine Succulents In A Hanging Container

Hanging containers work well in limited spaces and add beauty to your area in simple yet unexpected ways. For this unique design, a mix of structural succulents gives the arrangement a bold internal architecture and takes center stage in a simple hanging fiber clay planter. A purple fan flower punctuates the lush greenery.

The fan flower is unique because all its blossoms have petals on one side. In the Tropical South, these plants can also be evergreen. Given their bold, bright color, they offer a refreshing contrast to the deep, dark container suspended in the air.

Decorate An Outdoor Fireplace

This ingenious arrangement contrasts modern containers strong, stark lines with the plants' soft, ripple-in-the-breeze movement. The carefully curated selection of beautiful containers has warm, rich metal tones to complement the outdoor oasis. The handsome planter on the mantel has a slate-like finish and blends various succulents with the pink plumes of 'Joey' Ptilotus (Ptilotus exaltatus 'Joey'), a bottlebrush plant native to Australia. Large-leaved kalanchoes and dwarf golden arborvitaes sit at the base of the fireplace, and a Boston fern represents a cool, summer-time version of an outdoor fire.

Fill A Rustic Washtub

This sturdy galvanized metal washtub—a flea market gem—is filled with an overflowing mix of lantanas and impatiens. Arranged with maroon Joseph's coat, green coleus, and yellow creeping Jenny, this dense container greets guests or highlights a back porch with a sense of joy and happiness.

Coleus varieties, first introduced into Europe in the 1700s, are popular as plant choices. Given their tropical history, they are not particularly cold-hardy, so don't plan to add them to a container too early in the spring.

Convert A Bucket Into A Hanging Basket

This weathered, rusty metal bucket—another great flea market find—is studded with periwinkles, profusely blooming Rieger begonias, coleus, and other annuals. But what it is not is overcrowded, which could keep the plants from getting adequate light.

Try suspending this arrangement on a branch for even more rustic, Southern-inspired charm—this will add to the casual, easy-does-it feeling.

Design A Toolbox Planter

A simple galvanized-metal toolbox is an unexpected container-gardening vessel that fits into an all-natural springtime setup. Here, it showcases a classic arrangement of bright green spearmint, red geraniums, and white sweet alyssums for a container that feels both light and fresh. Thanks to the built-in handle, you'll also love the ease of moving this around the garden. What you'll love the most, though, is the rustic charm of the weathered metal contrasting with the soft and subtle colors of the flowers. This arrangement is a beautiful study of hard and soft elements in container garden design.

Make A Romantic Freestanding Urn

Sit back and imagine this classic cast-metal urn in a dreamy garden or on a light-filled screened porch. The pot itself is styled with classic Victorian lines, giving it a romantic element, but it is the arrangement that truly makes it magical.

The key to designing this look is combining contrasting textures. The combined arrangement creates a cascade and crescendo of bright colors. This selection includes a loud celebration of grassy cordyline, puffy pink dianthus, dainty blue lobelia, and bold trailing sweet potato vine. Set against the beautiful shape, the simple monochrome tone of the vase creates a show-stopping container for your home garden.

Arrange An Untamed Hanging Basket

This romantic container captures the feelings of magic and mystery through its bright colors and beautiful sense of movement. To achieve these effects, you'll want to try varying the scale of flowers and greenery to produce the wildly untamed, "growing in a garden" feel that keeps this basket relaxed.

Beginning by selecting this sphagnum moss-lined metal hanging basket, larger dianthus blended with smaller petunias and variegated English ivy, and tiny baby's tears dangle over the sides. The effect is the sense of beauty in bloom, bursting forth in wonder from this colorful basket.

Pile Flowers In A Tabletop Container

Planting in layers is an integral part of putting together this stunning container. The handmade bowl, made of concrete and recycled materials, provides a delicate addition to this gorgeous centerpiece. The wide shape accommodates many of the same flowers and plants used in other romantic containers, just in a more whimsical display that looks like a flourishing flower arrangement.

If you select flowers like dianthus, you will undoubtedly be starting this container with the right colors, tones, and shapes. Its impact will be elegant and beautiful. Settle in at the table for an evening drink or a casual conversation, and let the romance blossom.

Create A Wall Swag Container

This abundantly vibrant design puts the flowers in the spotlight. The sleek container, perched atop a painted brick wall, is covered by the overflowing blooms, which include sweeping pink petunias, super-delicate baby's tears, and rounded clusters of rose pink dianthus.

This arrangement focuses entirely on the flowers—the hidden container merely offers grounding support. Depending on your design, you may even wish to consider a series of these containers as a way to highlight a garden wall and bring color and emphasis to something you might have previously wanted to ignore.

Use Geraniums Built For The South

Southerners used to have to choose between geraniums that could handle high temperatures and humidity and those that produced lots of flowers. But this sad state of either-or is no more since developing the Calliope-series geraniums (Pelargonium interspecific Calliope®), offering the best of both worlds.

This one's called 'Dark Red,' and it forms the centerpiece of a container filled with bright color and subtle greenery. Here, the filler forms a backdrop to the bold geraniums and adds height, while the weathered container gives a sense of contrast against the masonry-and-mortar design elements of the courtyard. Let these geraniums burst forth with color in your Southern garden—temperature and humidity are no problem.

Bring On The SunPatiens

Bring it on—a beautiful container in the sun, that is. This high-drama, low-maintenance container spotlights 'Variegated Spreading Salmon' SunPatiens (Impatiens x hybrida SunPatiens®), but leaves room for a foxtail asparagus fern and a six-inch pot of 'Neon' pothos.

Everything is set in a glazed-ceramic container, its bright green finish complimenting the natural colors of the plantings—a beautiful example of a container garden aesthetic that keeps it simple. Let the SunPatiens, a strain that resulted from a cross between a New Guinea hybrids and a wild species, be this arrangement's bright, central focus. Then, let everything else help them shine.

Show Your Team Spirit

Everyone in the South understands that college sports are a fun-filled family pastime, and what better way to show and share your team spirit than to bring your favorite colors into your container garden?

This beautiful plant design in this LSU-themed container thrives in part sun and moist potting mix. You'll find a range of shades of purple, from bright and bold to subtle and sublime, all set in a celebratory container. You can take this idea and substitute the colors of your favorite team for a seasonal celebration that brings together nature and culture.

Create Drama With Elephant's Ears

Elephant's ears' oversize leaves—the secret to this stately combination—create drama through scale. And they allow you to fill in the blanks with tiny, colorful flowers. This arrangement is set in a concrete urn with an aggregate texture to give it a weathered, antiqued finish. You'll love how the delicate flowers soften the feel of the pot itself.

One of the beautiful wonders of the elephant's ear (Alocasia and Colocasia spp.) is that it flowers first, and then fruits. The fruit makes the stem look like corn on the cob. Whatever stage it's in, it looks gorgeous in your summertime container.

Meet Miss Lantana

Lantanas bloom in a slew of sunny colors from spring to fall. Plus, the nectar-laden flowers attract pretty butterflies like moths to a flame. This beautiful plant is native to America, so if you want to focus on plants that will attract or entice wildlife, this can be a good choice.

Lantana is also generally resistant to deer—they don't find it particularly attractive, even though you will. So plant a container or two of this beautiful, durable plant, then sit back and wait for your fluttering-winged visitors to arrive.

Make Snapdragons The Thriller

This deck-top container garden is a study in variation, proving just how beautiful the simple repetition of a shape or color can be in creating a relaxing outdoor space. Here, three ceramic containers in a subtle shade of turquoise hold a variety of beautiful plants.

In the largest pot, working from back to front and tallest to shortest, densely plant 'Liberty Classic Yellow' snapdragon, 'Bouquet Rose Magic' dianthus, and 'Tickled Pink' veronica. Place 'New Look' dusty miller and 'Lemon Ball' sedum in the front to trail over the edge. Pack a powerful, single-note punch in the two smaller pots by planting 'Supertunia Vista Bubblegum' petunia in the midsize container and more sedum in the smallest.

Combine Greenery And Tulips For Spring

Add a touch of wildness with a 'Tiger' fern (a selection of Boston fern) in your spring container garden. Pair it with your tulips, Lavender Blue' and 'Purple Wing' Plentifall pansies, Acorus, heuchera, and variegated ivy.

These shaped concrete pots enhance any outdoor environment. Their angled geometry pairs well with their tops' color and movement sprouting out. Let the plants grow and flow—the containers keep them just where you want them, creating a great harmony of color, and, as they drape over the edges, you'll see where Plentifall pansies got their name.

Group A Warm Summer Trio

Heat-tolerant geraniums, calibrachoas, and mecardonias in bright red, yellow, and purple shout a welcome in a cheerful way. For the most part, we've filled these whitewashed pots to burst with a single color, showing how to create harmony from the variations between each element.

This approach works well, creating a single environment for each container, making the task of watering and fertilizing and sun more simple. Whatever plants you choose, make sure they thrive in similar conditions. All three of these plants are heat-tolerant, making them perfect for grouping together.

Shop For Bargain Blooms

One of the best ways to keep your garden looking fresh is to take advantage of seasonal sales at your local nursery and stock up on popular plants. And, since you want them to look beautiful until it is time to make them permanent additions to the landscape, keep them in their nursery pots. Then, display them in galvanized buckets on the porch until you are ready to plant them in your garden. You can easily recreate this look with gerbera daisies, salvias, shasta daisies, daylilies, and sweet potato vines. Look for similar pots at gardening or home-supply stores.

Grow Daffodils In Containers

This tip is a great way to get plenty of punch from just a few dozen daffodil bulbs. You can move containers wherever you need color on a particular day, be it your front door, porch, steps, or patio. As soon as the bulbs finish blooming, plant them in the garden. No bulbs are more straightforward for container growing in the South than daffodils, and few bulbs signal the arrival of spring more readily than these.

These daffodils, planted in classic terra cotta pots, look fantastic but work in any container from traditional to modern. Choose whatever works best in your garden.

Add A Tropical Punch

Are you dreaming of summer vacation, but the only thing on the horizon is more heat and humidity? This container garden may not be a balmy getaway, but bringing warmer weather to your doorstep is a breeze with this combo. The beautiful container with a water-inspired glaze has a gorgeous array of plants that burst like a sunburst on a bright day.

You'll love giant-leaved, sunny 'Maui Gold' elephant's ear and heavily blooming, fiery orange SunPatiens. The velvety, fragrant citronella plant and purple iridescent Persian shield provide nice tropical color. Add a heavenly skirt of angel vine to spill down the sides.

Brighten A Shady Spot

You'll be installing window boxes everywhere once you see how beautiful and simple this arrangement is—and how much it brightens this once-empty shady space on the side of the house. 'Aaron' caladium, holly fern, 'Key Lime Pie' heuchera, 'White Nancy' Lamium, ivy, and light pink periwinkle come together in this eye-catching window box.

This container box emerges in a subtle sea of layers, each adding depth and color to the other. What is so unexpected is how easily this box stays in a palette of greens and yellows, relying on tone and variation to create a melody of color and shape.

Fill A Freestanding Container

The pitchfork may suggest a bit of Grant Wood's American Gothic—but the stand-out star is the freestanding flower container. Here, we make a statement with this large, overflowing planter that can work equally against a blank wall, at the perimeter of a parking court, or on the edge of a terrace. Fill it with 'Diamond Frost' euphorbia, coleus, 'Supertunia Vista Bubblegum' petunia, and geranium. The weathered will only add more patina over time. Let it happen. This oxidation is part of the beauty of natural materials like wood—and this beauty is only enhanced further by vibrant flowers.

Aim For Visual Variety

One of the beauties of container gardening is the ability to create visual variety. Containers are the perfect canvas for a unique color, texture, and composition approach. These showy snapdragons add height and bold color to your containers. They pair well with a mixture of flowers that will act as your fillers and spillers, including Penny violas, tulips, parsley, and ivy.

Each has its wonder and surprise, rich with color, tone, and texture. This container garden feels incredibly expansive without taking up a great deal of space, so it works well in any number of locations.

Go For Collard Greens

Yes, you read that right: Collard greens are one of our picks for a fantastic container garden. Easy and versatile, collards have graced Southern gardens and tables for generations. A cousin to kale and cabbage, these nutritious, leafy greens thrive in the cooler weather of fall and early spring.

Durable, versatile, and beautiful, they are also incredibly visually enticing and imbued with many tonal variations. They work well in different-sized containers. This galvanized-metal tub is filled with collards, creating an intimate container garden. Use them in situations where you want simplicity to come to the fore.

Pile On Pink Flowers

The natural hues of the sweet potato vine and pennisetum make a trio of pink flowers pop. Geraniums, petunias, and angelonias also come in an array of other colors you can combine for a monochromatic scheme.

They've also adapted to grow well in the humid Southern climate and often bloom continuously from spring until fall. Take advantage of all the eye-stopping excitement that will bring to your front porch. Here we've used three sizes of pressed-metal planters with decorative embossing and a copper-toned finish.

Make An Indoor Terrarium

Choose a glass container with an opening wide enough for your hand to make a terrarium. Gently add an inch or two of washed, fine gravel. Top gravel with a thin layer of activated aquarium carbon. (You'll find both items at your local pet store.) Next, add moistened potting soil, and you'll be ready to plant.

Create a collection of plants, or showcase just one. Good choices include ferns, succulents, mosses, miniature moth orchids, African violets, and kalanchoes. How often you need to water or fertilize your terrarium depends on the type of plants you choose, but this is a beautiful way to enjoy container gardening.

Pair Evergreens And Annuals

One challenge with container gardening is retaining visual beauty through changing seasons. This thoughtful approach puts that problem to rest. The solution is to think of every container as having a "keeper"—a durable plant that continues from season to season—with a plant that may require more attention.

For this beautiful pair of urns, we've partnered colorful annuals with an evergreen for an established planting that can still change from season to season. With ivy spilling over the sides and 'Pandora's Box' violas providing bold tones, these planters offer a lot of excitement. In general, violas are more tolerant of temperature variation than botanically similar pansies.

Bring on Spring

This container is as sensual as it is beautiful. It combines a burst of daffodils with bold hues and fragrant seasonal blooms for colorful containers that keep giving. This trio combines floriferous 'Superbells Dreamsicle' calibrachoa, the fragrant 'Snow Princess' sweet alyssum, and cool-weather 'Sunsatia Lemon' nemesia.

Tonally, these bolt towards the warm end of the color spectrum and are rich with deep oranges and yellows, tempered by touches of white throughout. Even separately, every one of these would be a visual delight. Together, the interplay is exhilarating.

Build A Tower Of Pansies, Grass, And Ivy

To truly celebrate the joy of container gardening, take the time to change your containers to reflect the season's colors. This fantastic arrangement of bold, bright pots, orange pansies, violas, and Panolas provides a warm autumnal greeting to everyone you welcome to your home. It is always important to experiment with composition to make a growing garden a visual delight. Try pairing colorful and distinctive flowers like these with a textural plant, like grass. You'll love the lush, full carpet of green that the grass creates, punctuated by the bright bursts of color from the flowers.

Pair Caladiums With Multi-Textured Foliage

To create this flowing composition and add color throughout your garden, plant caladiums, ivy, and ferns in a large pot in the corner. This arrangement helps hide a downspout and fills the space with bright beauty.

Working with the idea that repetition creates rhythm and builds a harmonious container garden, smaller pots of the same caladiums tie the grouping together. The boldness of the plants contrasts with the simple, neutral containers. Think of using natural tones in stone and off-white for these outdoor container compositions.

Plant A Succulent Garden

This succulent garden is an example of using individual plantings in single containers, allowing each to reflect its unique leaf shape and form complemented by the architecture of the container.

Using various decorative ground covers jazzes up your potted plantings—these are enhanced with beautiful selections of natural stone. The highlight of this design is a potted blue agave surrounded by pebbles, serving as a living sculpture on this deck. The smooth stones inside the container reflect the larger stones around its base, creating a synthesis inside and out.

Mix Up Succulents

Enliven your outdoor table with drought-tolerant plants, the perfect go-to for hot, dry climates. This shallow bowl of mixed succulents makes a great centerpiece, creating a mixture of tones, shapes, and textures. When considering this arrangement, echeverias, sedums, and other similar plantings work well.

Look for plants that will create visual interest as they grow, and consider containers that can make long, shallow, and low spaces for these great green wonders to develop. You'll love how harmonious these succulents are together. They are terrific low-maintenance plants that will last until frost.

Make Use Of Grasses

Sometimes design is all about the form rather than the function—like when plants with distinctive visual features create amazing sights in a gorgeous garden setting. For such an approach to work, you'll have to pay special attention to how the forms work together.

For this design, textural plants construct a beautiful sense of high drama. This homeowner helped to create this sensation by adding spiky and vertical plants, such as ornamental grasses and caladiums, to her pots. Against the vast, multileveled, linear expanse of her back garden and its beautiful pool, she created a sense of lightness and height simply by using plants that reach for the sky.

Let Creeping Jenny Go Wild

If tempted to let your container garden run just a little wild, then plantings like these may help create that perfect sense of the cultivated mess. Just plan to allow your plants to spill out of their container. A generous planting of golden variegated sweet flag (Acorus gramineus 'Ogon') fills this kettle with golden creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia 'Aurea') trailing out and onto the gravel below. One container lifts the eyes while the other gently creates a delicate, soft carpet of green that creeps towards a comfortable seating area. This garden is not entirely wild, but it is just rugged enough.

Use Tiny Succulents

Bigger is not always better, and using any of these tiny succulents is a case in point why. Rather than overwhelm small spaces with extensive plantings, here is an excellent lesson on using containers to fill bare spots in your garden.

This concrete planter, tucked into a planting of dianthus, is filled with tiny textured succulents, pulling you in for a closer look. This arrangement creates a contemplative moment of intimacy and pause, a time for simple reflection, and a sense of communion with these delicate plants.

Plant A Salad Bowl

For a new take on the living and eating local approach, group a variety of planters with edibles, like lettuce, but also ornamentals, like marigolds and geraniums. Using unique containers like vintage wooden boxes, bowls, and buckets is a great way to bring harmony and symmetry to any container garden. These containers, not designed with plantings in mind, need to be transformed into functional pots by drilling drainage holes before you use them.

Prune Woody Herbs Into Topiaries

This container garden, with its formal structure and arrangement, takes both its inspiration and design from classical French garden techniques.

Regardless of your overall garden design plan, you can add height to the center of any flowerbed by placing a vertical topiary in its middle. This approach is sensational because it uses traditional techniques but includes new, time-saving gardening innovations.

Let Mandevilla Climb

Mandevilla is a beautiful, bright flowering and climbing vine found throughout the South. Mandevilla can thrive in containers. These plants can grow more than 10 feet a year and bloom continuously from spring until the first frost. Given its tropical origins, it revels in hot weather. In the coastal South, mandevilla may survive the winters, but container plants can be moved indoors in areas with colder climates.

Hang Ferns Along The Porch

You can add charm to a great front porch space with hanging Boston ferns—a quintessential feature for any Southern porch. Cheery containers also add inviting color to this architectural essential. Get containers filled with ferns, dress the porch swing for company, set the rockers out, and enjoy a gorgeous summer evening. Your container garden makes every minute in this family-friendly space even more beautiful.

Brighten With White Impatiens

Using white to lighten your garden is a great way to let the plants be the neutral foundation for your design. Several large pots of white impatiens brighten a shady corner with hundreds of blooms.

Planting a single style in a container can help to tie your outdoor space together. If you plan to grow several different container garden features, consider choosing separate planters for each or a single container to create a sense of harmony.

Group Ornamental Greens

Although they may not be the first thing that comes to mind, don't ignore edibles when selecting your planting materials. Different lettuce varieties have beautiful colors and textures, can add visual interest, and provides a surprise to your container gardens—and your kitchens. Fine-textured foliage such as thyme adds interest and contrast.

Use Purple Fountain Grass As A Centerpiece

Layered, loud, and filled with color and excitement, purple fountain grass spills from its container. The purple fountain grass blooms in summer and can continue blooming into fall, giving this container wonder from season to season. Adding pumpkins near your containers adds idyllic fall quality to your front porch. Put it together and let its radiance glow.

Combine Variegated Plants

Contrary to popular belief, not all boxwood varieties are dark green—or shaped into topiary or complex geometrical forms, even though they easily can be. A popular choice for container gardens, known as variegated American boxwood (Buxus sempervirens 'Elegantissima'), has green leaves accented with white.

White violas, highlighting and reinforcing the color of the boxwoods, illuminate this garden corner along with other variegated plants. Everything is tied together with the consistency of the terracotta pots, which reflect the brick pavers.

Soften A Hardscape With Spillers

Containers can be a simple yet sophisticated way to soften a hardscape. The colorful flowers spill over and conceal hard edges. Plant flowers in several containers, creating visual consistency throughout the arrangement. This collection layers coleus, pansies, calibrachoas, and scaveloa in hues from red to deep purple. Place it in sun and keep the plants well-watered.

Stack Layers Of Violas

Find a simple planting scheme and stick with it until you've found the perfect amount of containers to make it beautiful—don't think your container garden needs every type of plant imaginable. Instead, repeat your favorite plants in containers and stack them into a tower. Pots of bright violas in various shades of purple spill over and out of this two-level container, creating a lush look.

Elevate Containers With Shelves

If you like architectural elements or details on some of your containers, you can elevate them for more of an impact. Shelves host a range of layered containers in this informal garden. Some plants cascade over the sides, creating a whimsical sense of movement. A selection of hydrangeas gets lots of attention on the front porch.

Combine Heat-Tolerant Coleus And Lantana

Finding plants with the right combination of beauty and durability for withstanding a harsh climate can be a challenge. Coleus and lantana fit right in with the South's increasing appetite for hot, cheery, assertive colors that stand up to heat and humidity. With suitable types of coleus, you'll find them to be tough and tidy, and you'll also get beautiful leaf shapes—something that makes a plant even more enticing for a small container. Pair those shapes with tight clusters of lantana flowers and get an incredibly intriguing arrangement of visual exhilaration in golden hues.

Bury Mint Containers

Mint, admired for its flavor and aroma, can be an incredible herb to grow in a garden container. Its bright green leaves bring in a pop of color. Left uncontrolled, however, mint tends to overrun an outdoor space. With this in mind, you will want to keep this invasive herb in kitchen garden pots.

Pick your mint based on the flavor you want and whether you'd prefer it for tea or flavoring food—you'll be thrilled by the variety of mints available. Plant in full or partial sun, and remember that mint likes moisture.

Create A Caladium Border

Caladiums are one of the most popular plants in the South for creating beauty in difficult-to-grow-in shady places. Caladiums—a tropical plant native to America—have incredible foliage that can have blotches of red, rose, pink, white, and more. Some of our favorite caladiums include 'Pink Symphony,' 'Iceberg,' 'Miss Muffet,' and 'Candyland.' Incorporating planters into your landscaping plan brings this beautiful plant into your hardscape. This poolside scene includes a trough-like container built right into the bank. Fill it with a colorful array of caladiums, and you will have created a poolside tropical oasis.

Plant A Pot With Lily-of-the-Nile

Lily-of-the-Nile (Agapanthus africanus) makes a big statement and is a beautiful plant to pair with subtle tones and colors. Agapanthus comes in various colors, from a deep blue to a pale blue and seemingly every shade in between.

If you want to know which color blue the plant is, you will need to choose one that has already blossomed if only identified as 'blue.' The gorgeous blue flowers of evergreen varieties create a spring-like atmosphere year-round.

Intersperse Planters In The Garden

Sprinkle planters around the garden to add color, especially in tight spots or where it's challenging for things to grow. Here variegated agave, native to southern Texas and eastern Mexico, is a spreading ground cover that grows to about a foot tall and, if left uncontained, spreads to roughly 4 feet wide. It becomes the perfect planting in a container, depending on your needs.

A similar height, the Japanese roof iris (Iris tectorum)—so named because it was popular to plant this on cottage roofs in the island nation—brings a gorgeous pale violet color. During your garden design, plan to vary the heights and sizes of your containers for greater visual interest.

Mix Up Greens

Within a design scheme best described as cabin meets modern, smooth metals and natural woods combine into one harmonious whole. Rather than stick to a rigorous, single-plant approach, a series of textural evergreen leaves gives a more modern look. An assortment of plants in shades of green anchors the backyard corner and adds depth to the small space. Enjoy a relaxing afternoon on the comfortable bench near this incredible container garden wonder.

Top Columns With Containers

This container sits in a natural environment on a table of weathered wood, a great way to frame colorful plants. The vibrant coleuses provide a pop of color among textural grass plantings. Plants with bold but often or predominantly monochromatic foliage, such as coleus, can work well in a classically shaped planter such as this one with Roman and Rococo influences. Resist the urge to sand or sandblast containers such as these if they are structurally sound—brush off any loose debris and leave their history and finish to shine through.

Plant A Garden Box

Having fresh herbs at home can be much simpler than purchasing them at a store. Transplants of cilantro, parsley, and chives are at their best in the late winter months, both in containers and in the ground. Plant them in a shallow box, as pictured, and use them as an outdoor centerpiece. They will grow wonderfully well together, and you'll have as much or as little as you need on hand—top a wide range of delectable dishes fresh from the oven with herbs from your garden.

Label your herbs so you can grab a handful whenever you need it. These raised-bed container gardens should produce plenty to share with family, friends, and neighbors.

Create A Potted Boxwood Hedge

Potted boxwoods don't require using the hedge clippers, although you can train these plants into any shape you'd want. These plants offer a formal elegance with the simplicity of minor maintenance. Boxwoods can generally be drought tolerant, and you won't have to fertilize them too often. With a sizable variety, you can create a living wall in a line of concrete planters. This container garden hedge is easy to maintain, utilitarian, and beautiful to behold.

Try Cascading Ivy Geraniums

These Mini Cascade ivy geraniums are a charmer in a window box. This flower works wonders as part of a hanging container garden, blossoming into a rich and verdant cascade of flowers spilling over and out of their planters. Ivy geraniums aren't as heat-tolerant as other types but can be used as winter annuals in the Coastal and Tropical South. You'll be excited by the rush of color in the off-season.

Grow A Brood Of Hens And Chicks

These architectural, low-growing hens and chicks plants fill a vintage metal planter, the silver undertones of the leaves mirroring the copper finish of the tub. The Southern Living Garden Book describes hens and chicks as Mexican natives with "rosettes of fleshy leaves," which is simply the perfect description for these succulent perennials. Available in a wide range of colors, you can choose the hens and chicks that best fit the tone of your container garden. Or, mix and match to your heart's delight and revel in their subtle variations. Unlike many succulents, hens and chicks can overwinter in the South.

Use A Bigger Pot

For big impact, use big pots. They'll accommodate more, and added soil means they won't need watering as often—this simple advice is the best tip when creating a large-scale container garden.

Trailing Algerian Ivy (Hedera canariensis) is a great choice in this case, with its large, broad leaves. It is also an aggressive grower. The other ideal plant selection here is the needle palm, which may be the hardiest plant in the world—so Southern summers won't challenge this robust palm. Add in some colorful annuals, and your containers are full, fun, and fit for anything.

Plant Purple Pixie Loropetalum

A beautiful weeping shrub looks stunning in a pot. Purple Pixie® (Loropetalum chinense 'Peack') combines showy pink flowers in spring, deep burgundy evergreen foliage, and a pronounced weeping form. It reaches 1-2 feet high and 4-5 feet wide as a ground cover. Placed in a container, a one-gallon plant in a 24-inch-tall pot will completely hide the vessel in just a couple of years. This plant is a great way to give visual structure to your garden without making decisions regarding more formal architectural elements when you prefer to focus on softer, more natural forms.

Accent Containers With Dwarf Alberta Spruce

It is nice to use colorful flowers, such as pansies, to accent porches and entryways or to use as filler flowers. They subtly enhance any garden container. Here, a skirt of yellow pansies surrounds dwarf spruces. The dwarf spruce is also well suited for container gardening.

Tiny Tower® dwarf Alberta spruce (Picea glauca var. conica 'MonRon'), for example, grows only 4-6 feet tall. These beautiful, small trees also have soft, bright green needles when they are young and color to a gorgeous silver-green as they mature. You may need to gently prune this spruce into shape, which will help to promote slow growth and a dense form.

Heighten Pansies And Violas

As much as we love pansies and violas, they don't exhibit a lot of height. This floral choice means you have to use containers to give it a sense of elevation or increased height. Give them a lift by perching pots on benches and tables or placing them on your steps. Then leave your pansies and violas to brighten the space through bold color and soft blossoms. Grouping them will create even more interest, so use more than one container. Go big, go bold, and go colorful.

Use A Vintage Sorghum Pot

Succulents equal low maintenance. For this simple container, fill a vintage sorghum pot with cold-hardy succulents like sedums. Pair them with flowers that attract masses of bees and need little water.

You're helping the natural ecosystem by encouraging bee activity—nature's pollinators. That's smart container gardening. Since the container itself, a vintage sorghum pot, is also repurposed, this is a beautiful way to approach your rustic backyard container garden.

Plant 'Mona Lavender' For Fall

Don't confuse plectranthus, or 'Mona Lavender,' for the lavender you think of when you imagine the beautiful-smelling plant filling the fields of Provence. This gorgeous natural wonder shares its color but is not the same plant. Use a pot of 'Mona Lavender' plectranthus as your container garden to add an unexpected pop of color to any outdoor space. It will brighten the shorter days of fall and add wow to your yard.

Drape Baskets In Begonias

Begonias thrive in outdoor hanging containers with rich, well-draining soil. The 'Dragon Wing' begonia drips with flowers throughout the summer and fall. For an even more exciting container, combine it with 'Silver Falls' dichondra for a splash of color against shimmering foliage. You will marvel at the dichondra's heart-shaped leaves, and its silver-toned leaves will glisten.

Accent A Boxwood Garden

One of the most exciting ways to create a boxwood garden is to make subtle changes to varieties of the same plant. For this design, English boxwoods grow in the ground surrounding a terracotta pot planted with an American boxwood.

When planning your boxwood garden, particularly if you plan to use containers, be sure they are well-drained and can be kept fungus-free. Also, Southern gardeners face specific challenges. Choose boxwoods best suited for hot and humid climates, be aware of insects that may wreak havoc on boxwoods, and check your site's exposure before planting. Follow these simple steps and reap the rewards of a beautiful boxwood container garden.

Make A Living Gate With Leyland Cypress

Get creative with your containers. This living gate in this Kentucky garden rolls open to let you in and can be closed for privacy. The structure starts with a galvanized horse trough filled with soil and planted with Leyland cypress. A wooden brace attached to an old piano dolly on the bottom allows the container to move with little effort.

Hang Baskets In Unexpected Places

Your garden is a creative palette, and garden design is your paintbrush. One of the best ways to create a beautiful composition is to hang your baskets in unexpected places. This container is a medley of spider plant, small ferns, impatiens, and ivy that grow in various shapes and heights, creating a unique array of delights.

A hook installed in a tree branch holds this basket featuring a stunning combination of plants that will work wonderfully in the shade. You'll love how many of them spill over the basket and drape in the wind.

Contain Purple Heart

Purple heart (Tradescantia pallida) is a beautiful ground cover, but tends to run and become invasive. As the focus of a container, it fills to a beautiful, bold color and a lush fullness.

Create opportunities for container gardening by building planters into your hardscaping any time you do a creative outdoor project. In this innovative design, they have taken the edge off—a large, round planter filled with purple heart softens the corner of this wall. Let it become a feature, and let a plant-like purple heart be its focal point.

Put Baskets On A Pedestal

Flowers don't have to grow at ground level. Get face-to-face with your containers by literally putting them up on a pedestal. Eventually, the plantings will grow over the containers and obscure them completely, leaving the plants to float over the pedestals.

For this garden, sleek geometric poles provide an elegant contrast to the wild excitement of the plants. Still, you may choose a pedestal that complements whatever design aesthetic you prefer for your style. Top it with a suitable container, and enjoy the visual variation.

Use Contrasting Pinks

Plant an attention grabber with a creative combination in contrasting colors. The top wisker basket contains Profusion zinnias, ‘Truffula Pink’ gomphrenas, and geraniums. The bottom one has begonias, Surdiva scaevolas, cleomes, and ‘Glitz’ euphorbias. Together, a range of pinks and soft whites sets off the cool paint colors on this home.

Consider The Color Wheel

Cluster containers in one space for high impact. Look at the group as a whole composition, and plant it as a cohesive unit with complementary and repeated colors. If you aren't confident choosing colors, think of your plants as you might think of an artist's color wheel or color chart. Paint chips from home improvement stores can also suggest how you might like shades and tones together. Then, select your plants and your containers to create the feeling you love in the space that makes you feel comfortable.

Plant Under A Topiary

Always a classic, the topiary's proper form provides order among rambling plantings. But an evergreen topiary like this ball-form spruce is also a hard worker, going strong through fall and winter.

Pair it with the 'Orange Marmalade' firecracker flower (Crossandra infundibuliformis), and it will feel at home on the porch during the changing seasons. Firecracker flowers are ideal from late August through early fall as their colorful blooms continue to shine even when most other summer flowers are dying. If your area gets a final heat wave, the firecracker flower will take it in stride as long as you keep it watered. Leave the firecracker flower until the first frost, when it will die off. Then swap in tougher, cold weather-friendly blooms like mums.

Repurpose Garden Features

Sometimes your container garden can focus as much on its structures as it does on its plants and flowers. With creative thinking, you can repurpose large pots around your yard. This unused pot fountain was repurposed as an accent table and stood for a cheerful container planting.

In a similar vein, low columns can also form pedestals for containers. Look in antique stores, salvage yards, and related locations for unexpected finds that can ground your garden with creativity and history. Then, think outside the container and create new pieces that are uniquely yours.

Soften Outdoor Rooms With Containers

An outdoor room can be a welcoming place to mix your containers. The relaxed, soft greens of this planting create the feeling of a unified, welcoming space that you can settle into on a warm, sun-filled summer afternoon.

Hardscaping defines a space for seating, which well-placed containers will soften and enhance. Then, sit back and listen to the sweet chirp of birds, watch the butterflies, and enjoy the fragrances from your beautiful container garden.

Force Bulbs Indoors

Daffodils are container-friendly options for spring plantings and are quite literally some of the most-prized bulbs in the South. Increasing yearly, they can fill a container naturally. They also require minimal care. But most of all, they're gorgeous—they're available in colors including white, salmon, pink, orange, apricot, and red. Pair them with other spring bloomers with similar conditions, such as grape hyacinth. The grape hyacinth will grow between six inches and a foot tall, leaving the daffodils to soar above. Some bulbs may need to be pre-chilled in the refrigerator, so check the label before planting.

Try Hybrid Petunias

Landscape petunias—new hybrid petunias well suited to growing conditions in the South—are a great choice if you want to include these flowers in your container gardens. All petunias need good drainage, which growing in a pot (with at least one hole in the bottom) provides. Be sure to use a cascading variety for a luxurious planting.

Whether your petunias are mounding or trailing, you'll have dense flowers. In most places—and the South—they'll bloom from early in the spring until late in the fall.

Use A Soft Palette

These beautiful containers can make every step up your stairs a lovely experience. If you choose similarly colored containers, you will let the flowers do all the talking. The containers are in soft neutrals for this beautiful arrangement, while the blooms bring the heat. The 'Caliente Pink' geraniums, 'Surfinia Rose Veined' petunias, and 'Techno Heat Light Blue' lobelias create a soft and feminine color palette for this doorstep welcome. Geraniums, petunias, and lobelias will thrive in similar conditions, so caring for this container garden will be simple.

Place Impatiens By The Pool

Impatiens are one of the best flowers that can take heat and humidity, making them the perfect choice for container gardens in the South. Although they love the shade, as long as you keep impatiens well watered, they can manage some sun. Some hybrids like the 'New Guinea Hybrid' will tolerate bright light. This design uses lush mounds of potted impatiens to fill large, low containers. Kept pinched back, your impatiens will remain full and bushy, and their blossoms can last until the first frost.

Fashion Classic Boxwood Topiaries

Get out the wire patterns and get ready to make some fantastic shapes because once you have boxwoods in your container garden, you will want to give them their own unique identities. Boxwood's willingness to be clipped, shaped, and trained makes it the perfect candidate for a classic topiary. There are guides for learning tips and tricks to achieve the ideal topiary design. With skill and patience, you'll soon have your boxwood topiaries in tip-top shape.

Use Heat-Resistant Calibrachoa

Calibrachoa (Calibrachoa x hybrida) looks like a miniature petunia. Forming a trailing mound, it's perfect for pots and hanging baskets. Ensure your calibrachoas have good drainage because they require it—thriving more in containers than garden beds. You'll love the names of your calibrachoas, too. The Million Bells, Mini Famous, Cabaret, Can-Can, and the positively powerful Superbells are just a few of your choices. So whether you want to ring a ton of bells, have a little fame, do a little dance, or see a show, these are the solution for your summer container garden.

Supplement With Sedges

Sedges and succulents have excellent textural contrast in a container garden. 'Amazon Mist' sedge grass (Carex comans)—not grass at all, but from a different plant family—combines wonderfully with creeping sedum and purple echeveria for a container planting that varies. Here, the echeveria brings in tones of red, orange, and purple, all of which pick up and play off similar tones in the sedge. The low and full succulents also contrast the sedge's light, airy, and wavy texture.

Elevate A Plastic Container

A container that looks immaculate does not mean sourcing an antique or making an expensive purchase—although you may want to look at some beautiful, historical containers.

For a simple approach that only looks like it costs a pretty penny, there is always a way to update your standard plastic planter. A gel stain applied to this pot creates a more rich finish. It's filled with a selection of ivies, ferns, impatiens, and caladiums for a bold, multilevel, elegant, and affordable container design.

Group Caladiums

There are three classes of caladiums—fancy leaf, strap leaf, and dwarf—and all three will work in containers. Once established and meeting their basic needs for water and fertilizer, they should thrive. The colorful foliage of caladiums has tons of drama. Pots containing three different caladiums add color and variety to this entry in summer. From left to right: 'June Bride,' 'Pink Gem,' and 'Aaron.' You can probably find a wide range of caladiums at your local garden center. Still, if you need to find a more comprehensive selection than what may be locally available, caladiums are also available online.

Decorate Your Outbuildings

Despite their name, window boxes needn't be hung only below windows. This charming barn gets even more character from being accented by window box plantings. Using whites and silvers for neutrals, the homeowner then accents with bold and bright pops of color, including selections from each of the primary colors—red, yellow, and blue.

Statement Succulent

If you are in the correct zone for this type of planting, stick with easy-care options in containers to prevent you from spending all of your time watering. Succulents and bougainvilleas need little care. You can choose succulents that grow to create a sense of scale and drama, such as agave or aloe. Depending on your choice of succulents, some may grow as tall as 10 feet high, so know their potential when planning your container garden. Then, prepare for a beautiful sight.

Plant Twinspurs For Cool Weather

By the end of winter, people are ready for spring. March weather is unpredictable, so try the prolific pink blooms of 'Strawberry Sundae' twinspurs (Diascia hybrid) for those cool days. Twinspur loves this weather so much that it goes dormant in the summer heat. Hardy violas and kale will make spring seem like it has sprung, as each of these plants will work together to maintain their shape and color. They will keep looking great even when temperatures fluctuate.

Stack Colorful Succulents

Forgiving succulents are heat and drought-tolerant, so they'll look great all summer. There are many novel ways to plant succulent containers, mainly since they are resilient. Terracotta pots work particularly well since they transfer moisture well and help succulents retain water. They also share a desert color palette with succulents, making the two an ideal match. You may group a variety of succulents or create a container for your garden filled with a single type. Water carefully and selectively. These resilient plants will reward you with a beautiful container garden.

Make Use Of Evergreen Foliage

Using evergreen plants in a container means you will always have a base that will look good for years. Once establishing this element of your container, you can fill it in with beautiful plants that may need more attention, but that will be easy.

Choose something like a cast-iron plant, and then add some caladiums, impatiens, and even a creeping fig. This arrangement will give you the classics to thrill, fill, and spill. Any shade-loving combination that works well in a container can add color to an entry. If you need more structure or balance, create an additional container of the same size and materials, or complement the group with a smaller plant.

Go For Gold

You'll feel the power of gold when you combine the beauty of these three containers in your garden. These bright blooms of 'Ogon' golden sweet flag, 'Matrix Yellow Blotch' pansies, and 'Penny Clear Yellow' violas will make your pots and flowerbeds glow.

Choose containers of similar materials but varying heights to create visual interest, and then tie everything together through the use of the shared tones of your plants. You will love how bright and bold these flowers are. You can add height by including grasses in one of the plants or mixing in some filler.

Make Tiny Topiaries

Combine several English ivy topiaries and a clipped lemon cypress to accent a garden table. You'll be able to sit down yet feel as if you are strolling through a classic parterre garden. Mix spirals, globes, columns, and lollipop shapes of varying heights—you'll love how simple it is to help these topiaries maintain their beautiful forms. Unify the look by planting everything in terracotta pots.

Eat Your Greens (And Reds)

You can have fresh salad daily if you carefully plant lettuce in your container garden. Plant colorful red and green 'Wildfire' mix lettuces in a sunny spot near the kitchen, and you will be mixing up everything from a classic Caesar or Nicoise salad and everything in between.

These containers will make it easy to prepare salads with your fresh harvest. Pair this with other leafy edibles, and you can have a container garden filled with freshness right in your backyard. This arrangement is an easy way to eat locally—you can't get much more local than in your own home.

Try Tough-As-Nails Perennials

Tough-as-nails perennials are great when you want plants that can endure difficult backyard conditions. Yellow acorus, lime green euphorbia, purple viola, variegated ivy, and pink Lenten rose to make this container pop. Try a seasoned approach if you want containers to look their best for the longest. Combine winter-blooming Lenten roses with these three great plants (hostas, daffodils, and black mondo grass), and you will achieve maximum curb appeal with fantastic durability.

Beat The Heat

Sometimes a single container can be all it takes to transform an outdoor space from dull to divine. This container, filled with 'Baby Tut' dwarf papyrus, elephant's ear, sweet potato vine, and 'Vogue Audrey' mandevilla, is the ideal focal point or space filler in an area that receives full to partial sun. Any variety of these plants will work wonderfully well together. Focus on color, texture, and shape to create an outstanding arrangement in your preferred container. They all do well together, and their beauty will beat the heat.

Plant An Herb Garden

Surrounded by a skirt of dwarf mondo grass, this ornate planter filled with an assortment of herbs provides a striking focal point in the middle of the diverging walks. This approach is remarkable because you can select your preferred herbs to fill the container—choose ones that grow well in similar conditions. Prepare to enjoy just-picked tastes and aromas from herbs directly from the garden to your favorite dishes.

The scale of this container contrasts beautifully with what it contains, so fill it full and let them grow. Then, pick these fresh herbs frequently, and savor every delicious bite.

Follow These Tips For Beautiful Baskets

Hanging baskets follow the same recipe as containers for plant care. Instead of an upright thriller plant, you want more spillers and fillers.

If you are planting your own hanging basket, choose mounding and trailing plants that can fill out fast and overflow the container quickly. Some good choices include Wave petunias, calibrachoas (which look like miniature petunias), begonias, impatiens, lantana, and verbena. Place a liner in your basket and fill it with high-quality potting soil. Make sure to plant trailing plants on the outer edges and mounding plants in the center. Consider planting by color or mix the varieties, depending on your design plan and personal preference. Either way, your hanging baskets will be attention-grabbers.

Get All Fired Up

Take glorious fall color to your door by mixing the blazing tones of orange and yellow with cool shades of purple and blue. First, encircle a copper container with a bittersweet wreath (fresh or faux). To contrast with the orange berries, add 'Lemon Ball' sedum and the regal hues of purple cabbage. Spice up the center with 'Calypso Orange' ornamental peppers and 'Cosmic Yellow' cosmos. Crown the look with a halo of Mexican bush sage. Stack pumpkins on the steps for additional color. Provide full sun and moderate water, and the display will flourish through the fall. Plant the sedum in your yard to continue the growth when it's time to transplant.

Use Long-Lasting Blooms

The coming of fall doesn't mean the end of container garden beauty. It simply means planting with attention to detail and location. Lantanas and sweet potato vines will last until the first frost, allowing you to enjoy long-lasting color well into the fall. Thriller plants like fountain grass are sun-loving and forgiving, and many grasses transform into reds and golds in the fall. Use bright pops of color to keep the show going until winter.