Container Garden Combinations
Container gardens are the perfect way to add a pop of color to a dull spot in the landscape. Whether you have a bright, sunny location or a cool, shady yard a perfectly combined container garden can add pizzazz to any landscape. It’s easy to pick out the colors and textures you like…or don’t like, but deciding what works best together can be a daunting task. Here are a few of our favorite container garden combinations:
MADE FOR THE SHADE (for partial to full shade locations):
1. Shady Wanderers
Caladiums – Beautiful foliage plant that is great for containers and beds. Large leaves come in a variety of variegated colors and sizes. Most varieties prefer shade but there are some sun loving types.
Tuberous Begonias – Spectacular 2” rosette flowers all summer long. Perfect for containers, baskets, and window boxes. Prefers part sun – part shade. Allow to dry between waterings. Beautiful planted in mass. Grows 10” – 14” tall.
Bacopa – Large single flowers add color to baskets and containers. A spreading/trailing annual that grows 4-8” Tall and prefers part shade but can tolerate partial sun.
Setcreasea – An easy-to-grow, no fuss plant with purple-green foliage. Works well in containers or in perennial borders. Trails and spreads with mounding foliage growing 8” – 12” H in sun- part shade. Blooms in Summer.
2. New Ideas for Houseplants (perfect for a porch or area covered with an overhang)
Cordyline – Easy care, yet very stylish accent plant that works well with bright colors like violet, purple, blue, or yellow. Grows 18” tall by 8” wide. Prefers part sun to shade.
Colocasia/Elephant Ear – The bold tropical foliage of this plant provides a wonderful specimen in the garden. Dig up bulb before the first frost and store for the winter.
Anthurium – Beautiful tropical plant that prefers indirect light. Loves humidity, moist soil and has heart shaped flowers.
Tuberous Begonia – Spectacular 2” rosette flowers all summer long. Perfect for containers, baskets, and window boxes. Prefers part sun – part shade. Allow to dry between
waterings. Beautiful planted in mass. Grows 10” – 14” tall.
Ivy – This fast-growing vigorous vine works well as a climber, in containers, as a topiary or as a groundcover. Prefers Part Shade – Shade, is evergreen and Deer Resistant
3. Shades of Chocolate
Chocolate Lysimachia – Deep chocolate-purple foliage and bright yellow flowers make this groundcover a colorful choice for light to heavy shaded areas, for hills, side gardens and containers.
Upright Fuchsia – This lovely plant will add a burst of color to shadier spots in your yard. It features a lovely upright growth habit adorned with orange blooms.
Bacopa – Large single flowers add color to baskets and containers. A spreading/trailing annual that grows 4-8” Tall and prefers part shade but can tolerate partial sun.
Torenia – This lovely plant does well in morning sun and afternoon shade. You can expect flowers to last until first frost. Upright & trailing varieties available.
ON THE SUNNY SIDE (for full to part sun locations):
1. Chartreuse Shennanigans
Mexican Heather – A versatile, finely textured plant with small deep green leaves and purple flowers. A perfect filler for a container garden but also a tough as nails annual in the landscape.
Bougainvillea – This sub tropical vine is a riot of color when in bloom. Rapid growth rate in the summer months. Fantastic foliage with colorful bracts and flowers. Great in hanging baskets and containers.
Creeping Jenny – Wonderful groundcover or container accent for any situation. Also great in moist woodland areas, at water’s edge, or cascading over walls and containers. Part sun – part shade.
2. Wings, Globes and Fans
Golden Globes Lysimachia – Trailing, variegated yellow and green leaves on stems that bend upward at tips. Branches end in clusters of bright yellow flowers.
Angel Wing Begonia (bronze leaf red) – This dark leaf begonia is a an excellent contrast to its bright red blooms. Can be grown in both containers and in the landscape.
Scaevola – Beautiful fan-shaped purple or white flowers on thick trailing stems are great in containers or hanging baskets.
3. It’s a Scorcher
Sunpatiens – This new impatiens is unlike other traditional varieties, as it thrives in hot sunny conditions. Ideal for the garden border or for a mixed container. Pinching this plant back is not recommended.
Blue Daze – Bright blue flowers that thrive in hot weather. Drought tolerant once established boasting a compact habit and increased blooms.
Lotus Vine – An excellent drought tolerant annual. Loves to show off its red, ‘parrots beak’ like flowers all summer that contrast nicely with finely textured blue-green foliage. Excellent for ‘blistering’ sun conditions.
These are just a few of our favorite spring and summer container garden combinations. The possibilities of colors, texture, shapes and sizes are endless. Feel free to shop from our variety of one of kind flowers to pick out your own combination or pick out a pot and let the experts at Fairview create a custom container garden for you!