The Creative Mind of Landscapes

To get started, choose a few large pots that are at least 18 to 24 inches tall, which will give plants plenty of room to thrive. Fill your pots two-thirds of the way with potting soil—a lightweight mix will hold moisture well. Next, plant. Consider a single showstopping plant, such as a blooming shrub rose. For a lush look, fill in around it with smaller plants, leaving room for a couple of trailing plants to spill over the sides. Water well and you’re done. Here are more tips to help you dive into your very own container garden.

Let beautiful plants stand alone. Instead of combining several plants in one pot, try putting just one in each of several pots and staging them in a striking arrangement. Choose plants that have complementary colors and textures for dramatic effect. Here, Bonfire begonia is juxtaposed with the shimmering silver foliage of licorice plant.

Photo: Courtesy of Tesselaar Plants

Group plants of various heights. Here’s a good recipe for containers: Start with a thriller, add fillers and then spillers. In the green pot, Flower Carpet Yellow rose (thriller) is planted with bronze sweet-potato vine (filler) and apricot million-bells (spiller). In the smaller pot, Tropicanna canna lily is the thriller and the spiller is golden-leaf Lysimachia.