14 Ideas for Flowering Container Gardens

Forcing spring bulbs in terra cotta pots is a no brainer: after all, you must move these pots into a sheltered area like a garage or unheated shed to prevent cracking and breaking from freeze-thaw cycles. Add your soil and bulbs like hyacinths and tulips in the fall before storage, and move outdoors in the spring, when green shoots appear. 

Invest in one afternoon planting some annual transplants and seed packets, and put your feet up in this blooming retreat a few months later. Petunias, geraniums, and zinnias will yield similar results to this flower patch. A chartreuse coleus glows against the periwinkle Adirondack chair.  

Is your side yard a neglected passageway through which you occasionally trudge with a wheelbarrow? No more, when you fill it with cheerful tulips, pansies, and forget-me-nots. Switch to low maintenance wax begonias in the summer months, which tolerate the shady conditions many side yards experiences. 

A modest front yard turns into something magnificent with the addition of oversized pots and urns. Use the money you saved by growing inexpensive blooms like these impatiens and begonias to invest in high quality freeze-proof and rodent-proof containers made of metal or stone. Fiberglass and wood are less durable, but still weather resistant. Ceramic or terracotta pots are safe choices if you live in frost-free areas.

When you find yourself overwhelmed with a hodgepodge of small flowerpots, arrange them in a tier to coax design out of mayhem. Hundreds of tiny flowers from plants like lobelia, fleabane daisy, or verbena yield a cloud-like effect.

Vertical gardening is a hot trend that doesn't show any signs of slowing, especially as the tiny house movement demands the companionship of space-saving landscapes. Inexpensive brackets and plastic window boxes look stylish and modern when arranged on a privacy fence. 

The charm of flowering shoe planters will never lose its appeal. Check your thrift store for rain boots, work boots, or cowboy boots that have lost their comfort but not their utility. Don't forget to drill a few drainage holes. 

A solid recipe for any successful container garden includes a tall plant, a mounding plant, and a trailing plant. Flowering vines can stand in for tall specimens, given a trellis or a tepee of bamboo twigs to cling to. Plant small annual vines that won't grow out of bounds, like 'Minibar Rose' morning glory. 

If you've had problems getting your orchids to rebloom, solve the problem by giving them an outdoor vacation. The humidity and bright filtered sunlight might be just what the plant doctor ordered to trigger a new blooming cycle.  

Giving new life to an old wheelbarrow by turning it into a flowering container has several benefits: keeping the wheelbarrow out of the landfill, moving the garden to catch the most sun, moving it into shelter avoid early or late frosts, and moving it away from nocturnal pests like deer and rabbits. 

It's difficult to find the beauty in a stack of cheap plastic pots, but turning them into a plantable scarecrow is one sure way to extract some life from these big box store staples.  

To follow the rustic garden trend, utilize all kinds of wood containers, like these whiskey barrels. Wood crates and shipping pallets are also in demand in the rustic garden. Wood has a shorter life than ceramic or metal containers, but you can extend the life of your wood by employing risers underneath the containers, to speed drying and prevent rot. 

A container garden may be the only option for thriving flowers in a coastal community where soil may be scarce or non-existent. Choose flowers that tolerate salt spray and wind, like blanket flower, lantana, rugosa rose, or portulaca.