Container and Window Box Ideas

One of the best ways of being creative in the landscape is to plant containers filled with flowering annuals, succulents, shrubs or trees.  You can create a garden in pots on the deck, soften hard spaces such as driveways and walls, or fill window boxes with cheerful color that lasts all summer.  Here are some ideas and tips for success.

• Use fresh soil and be sure your container has drainage holes. Don’t put rocks, shards, mulch or other debris in the bottom of the pots: soil only!
• Mix in a combination of Osmocote time release fertilizer and Plant-tone fertilizer before you plant. Use 1 Tablespoon of each for every 12″ of window box or pot diameter.
• Fill containers fairly full of plants…the season is short so it’s good to have them look fairly full from the start. You may find that some plants will take off and tend to dominate the container over time; this is OK because the strongest plants will carry the arrangement.
  

  These Proven Winners filled the pots on a front porch with citrus colors. Vermillionaire® Cuphea, Honey and Citrus Supterunias, Bright Lights™ Yellow – African Daisy, and Wedgewood blue Angelonia were used here. 

  

  King Tut papyrus, a purple foliaged cordyline, Mecardonia Gold Dust (hanging over edge) and bright coleus from Proven Winners fill out this tall and colorful pot that softens a large driveway.

  

  This cheerful combination is made with Persian Shield, red petunias, lime green licorice (helichrysum), a dracaena spikes and a red foliaged Alternanthera (small plant on the left side). 

  

  Begonias are perfect for a part-sun window box. Here they are combined with variegated Vinca minor, purple trailing verbena and blue ageratum.

  

  A cool green and white combo is both stylish and refreshing. This one has sweet potato vine, lamium, bacopa, white Gaura, petunias and stipa grass. 

  

  Sometimes an object placed in a window box transforms it from ordinary to artistic! Plants include impatiens, trailing lamium, and asparagus fern.

  

  This box in part shade is planted with Encanto Orange begonias, a variegated fuscia, yellow calibrachoa, blue lobelia and ivy.

  

  Prince Tut is a shorter papyrus than it’s cousin, the King. Planted here with Snow Princess Lobularia, Citrus Superpetunia, and Diascia.

  

  You can create an entire garden on a back deck or patio! Come into the store and see the assortment of shrubs, annuals and even small trees that will create a colorful oasis in your yard.