Spring Container Ideas

March 27, 2023 | CLFornari | Container gardening

Celebrate the Season With Flowers

Nothing lifts our spirits more than the arrival of spring flowers. Be they a clump of daffodils blooming by the mailbox, or the cool season annuals that flood into the garden center, the colorful blooms are just what we need as winter slowly recedes. A favorite way to use spring flowers is to plant containers that can be placed on the front porch or back deck. Here are some ideas for creating spring pots or boxes.

Plant a Mixed Container

Use cold tolerant plants such as pansies, primroses, spring bulbs, Dianthus, and Heuchera. Later in the spring you can plant the Heuchera and Dianthus into the garden. These are reliable perennials and they’ll reward you with color for years to come. At Hyannis Country Garden, we have a good selection cold-hardy annuals and perennials that can be planted together right now on Cape Cod.

I planted a spring celebration in urns last year. These urns contained pansies, English daisies (Bellis perennis) Heuchera and Dianthus. The Dianthus (aka pinks) and the colorful foliaged Heuchera were planted into the garden when the plants in these urns were transitioned to summer plantings.

Plant Tulips Where The Bunnies Won’t Eat Them

We have pots of assorted spring bulbs right now that can be planted in taller containers where the rabbits and deer can’t get to them. After the tulips are finished, you can either plant them into your yard and hope for the best in the future, or toss into the compost with other cool-weather annuals. Any daffodils, hyacinths or crocus can be planted into the landscape.

Choose A Pretty Pot For The Front Porch

Spring is a great time to pick a new, colorful container for displaying plants. These can be placed on the front of your home, but don’t forget the back deck or patio that you see from inside your house. Having a pot of spring color in those areas will make you smile every time you look out your kitchen window or sliding glass doors.

Blue and white pots are cheerful outside, either singly or in a group with solid blue containers. This pot is filled with pansies, oak-leaf primroses, Dianthus, and daffodils. If you choose pots of bulbs that aren’t quite flowering, you’ll have the pleasure of watching the stems grow taller and the blooms open over time.

White pots stand out and work with any color of flowers.

Pansies For Parties

If you’re having guests this spring, consider filling a container with pots of pansies. Whether you’re hosting friends for a meal, a baby or bridal shower, or having family come for Easter or Passover, you can fill a container with the pots of pansies to decorate the porch, and then give everyone a potted pansy when they leave. It’s a way to share the joy that spring is hear with friends and family.

This trough was filled with pansies that were left in their square, 4″ pots, allowing a host to hand them to guests as they leave.

Plant Perennials In Pots, Then Move To The Garden

There are many spring plants that will provide cheerful color in your pots and window boxes now, and they can be planted in the garden in late May so that they might return next spring. Most of the double-flowered primroses, like the ones in this pot, are reliable perennials for a shade garden.

The yellow, double-flowered primroses in this pot are perennial. Plant them in a moist, part-shade location and you’ll enjoy their return every spring for several years. The blue Hyacinths in this pot will also return if planted in the garden in late-May. Moving any spring bulb directly from the container into the garden works better than trying to save a bare bulb until next fall.

Fill spring containers completely…don’t be afraid to pack in the plants…and they’ll reward you with lush, color through May.

Posted in Container gardening