Container Gardening Secrets

Building your own patio planters can be a daunting task to those unfamiliar with the tricks of the trade. If you're not sure how to begin, read this short primer and build yourself a gorgeous container your friends and acquaintances will be envious of!

Choose a theme! A theme can be any idea, but here a few to think about:

Each container is made up of three main elements:

Thrillers

Upright, tall, spiky plants that serve as the focal point or central feature of a planter. They are usually planted in the center or off to one side of a planter.

Fillers

Smaller, less dominant accent plants that compliment the thriller. Usually several fillers are used with an emphasis on bushy, heavy flowering plants or plants with interesting foliage colours. They are normally planted around the central thriller. Odd numbers of plants work best, ie 3,5 or 7 depending on the size of the pot.

Spillers

Spillers are low growing, trailing or cascading plants. They are planted around the edge of the container to allow their foliage to spill over the edge of the pot.

Be creative! Pick varieties with different textures shaped and colours. A great starting point is to choose a cool or hot colour palette. Cool colours recede from the eye and create a feeling of calm and serenity. They include pinks, blues, violets and purples. Hot colours are vibrant and catch the eyes attention. They include reds, oranges and yellows. Accent your planters with the neutrals colours as well (white, black).

Sample Planter #1
This simple planter uses Carex 'Cappucino' as its central thriller, heuchera as a filler. It also uses Calibrachoa (million bells) and Wire Vine as spillers.

Sample Planter #2
This low colourful planter uses Mexican Feather grass as a thriller, red annual geraniums and upright lobellia as fillers and bacopa as well as gazania as spillers.

Great Plants For Containers

While the list of plants for containers is endless, some of the more common options are listed below. Come on in and chat with one of our experienced horticulturists for more ideas and inspiration!

Thrillers	Fillers	Spillers
Ornamental Grasses Phormium Canna Lily Ferns* Hebe Yews* Cordyline Lavender Cyperus Gaura Angelonia Salvia Calocasia	Heucheras* Fancy Geraniums Ivy Geraniums Colourful Annuals Osteospermum Impatiens* Coleus* Violas & Pansies Heliotrope Nicotiana Begonia Mimulus	Ivy* Wire Vine StoneCrop / Sedum Bacopa Lysimachia Ipomoea Lobellia Torenia Helichrysum Oxalis Mini-Petunias Calibrachoa Verbena Lamium Scaevola

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(*) An asterisk indicates a shade loving or shade tolerant plant