• slide
  • slide
  • slide
  • slide
  • slide
  • slide
  • slide

Creative Uses of Containers in the Landscape

Brighten your landscape, create an inviting entryway, or add vertical interest to one of your garden beds with a container.

Now don't stop with petunias or geraniums. Mix it up a bit. Use vines, tropicals or trees and shrubs for vertical accents. Try color echoing, its the repetition of one color in one plant to that same color repeated in the flowers or foliage of others, it unifies the arrangement.

And look for new or unusual plants to try. I like to grow one or two specimens of new plant varieties in container first to see how they perform. Then I can move my favorites into the landscape and try something new next season.

Stack your containers for added impact. The added height brings drama and the mass of plants is perfect for creating a focal point, softening a wall and screening a view.

A bit more information: Not sure where to start. Use the simple formula of thriller, filler and spiller. The thrillers are vertical plants like spike, Swiss chard, fennel, fountain grass and cannas. These plants help keep the planting in scale with the pot, provide vertical interest and create a focal point. The spillers are trailing plants like golden moneywort, silver falls dichondra, vinca and licorice vine that soften the container as they spill over the edge. The fillers help tie the thriller and spillers together while adding color and texture in the spaces between them. Classic zinnias, diamond frost euphorbia, greens, coleus, ageratum and begonias are a few plants often used as fillers.

Upcoming Live Events
& Webinars


Feb. 7-9, 2025
PBS Wisconsin's
Garden & Green Living Expo

Madison, WI

Feb. 12, 2025
FREE WEBINAR:
Organic Insect Pest Management for Vegetable and Flower Gardens

Register here

Feb. 14-16, 2025
NARI Milwaukee Spring Home Improvement Show
West Allis, WI

Feb. 19, 2025
FREE WEBINAR:
Strategies for Managing Invasive Plants

Register here

Feb. 26, 2025
FREE WEBINAR:
Create a Beautiful Shade Garden

Register here

Feb. 27, 2025
FREE WEBINAR:
How to Select Rain Garden Plants

Register here

March 12, 2025
FREE WEBINAR:
Grow Pollinator-friendly Spring and Summer Flowering Bulbs

Register here

March 19, 2025
FREE WEBINAR:
Be a Waterwise Gardener
Register here


March 22, 23, 29, 30, 2025
REALTORS Home & Garden Show
West Allis, WI

March 26, 2025
FREE WEBINAR:
Succession Planting & Crop Rotation

Register here

March 27, 2025
FREE WEBINAR:
Rain Garden Q & A

Register here

April 2, 2025
FREE WEBINAR:
Container Gardens for Sun & Shade
Register here


April 10, 2025
FREE WEBINAR:
Reinvigorate Your Rain Garden
Register here


May 7, 2025
FREE WEBINAR:
Vertical Gardening
Register here


May 15, 2025
FREE WEBINAR:
7 Steps to Managing Water on Your Property

Register here

June 4, 2025
FREE WEBINAR:
Attracting Hummingbirds

Register here

WATCH ON-DEMAND WEBINARS

Learn More

Book an Appearance

Learn More

Enter to Win 3 Collections of Longfield Gardens
Dahlia Bulbs

ENTER NOW