Container gardening offers a lot of options. There’s a variety of styles, pots, and plants that can be used and featured. While lots of options are great, they can also be incredibly overwhelming. Not all plants can thrive in a container garden and it can be hard to know where to start, what to do, or what to use. Here are easy plants to start with for your container garden.
Pictured: Left - Autumn Fire Sedum, right - Mixed Sedum Mat
1. Sedum is a great, classy option for your container garden. They are both colorful, have a lot of texture, and interest. If you want green foliage, the Lemon Drop Sedum is a vibrant green with little yellow blossoms on the tips. The Angelina Sedum also has green foliage but also includes beautiful reds and oranges right in with the green. If you’re looking for subtle blossoms, sedum has those too!
Pictured: Blondy Wintercreeper
2. Euonymus is another great foliage plant for your container garden. Emerald Gaiety Wintercreeper Euonymus has, as the name suggests, rich emerald green foliage that can complement any number of other plants. If you want some extra interest, the Blondy Wintercreeper has yellow and green variegated leaves. Want some fall interest? Euonymus can supply that too! The Winged Euonymus Burning Bush becomes a fiery red with the coming of fall.
Pictured: Left-Color Guard Yucca, right-Little Bluestem Grass
3. Don’t forget height in your container garden! Grasses and Yucca can give you some visual length in your container garden. Shenandoah Red Switchgrass isn’t too full, but is definitely tall and has both green, and a deep red switchgrass color, as well as tassels. If you need something a bit fuller, Little Bluestem Grass is a fluffier grass that has a subtle blue-green color. For something a bit edgier, try the spiky Color Guard Yucca with it’s variegated leaves. This yucca has enough personality for summer and fall.
Pictured: Left-Rozanne Geranium, right-Tiny Monster Geranium
4. If you’re looking for some filler that still has color, take a look at geraniums. Nothing says quaint and pretty like geraniums. The leafy foliage is complemented by light-colored blossoms. Container gardening doesn’t just have to be something in the summer. Come fall, geranium leaves turn a beautiful red to compliment the coming of fall.
Pictured: May Night Salvia
5. Salvia has both height and flowers. Take a look at May Night Salvia. With a similar color to lavender, as well as a similar style, May Night Salvia adds color and height to your container garden.
What’s great about all these plants is unlike annuals they can be removed from your container and planted in your garden or landscape. This way they can be enjoyed for years to come, but be sure to plant them before the frost hits the ground. You’ll want to be sure the roots establish themselves for the cold winters hit.
Now that you have a few ideas to get started on your own container garden, shop our plants online for in-store pickup, local truck delivery or FedEx. If you live near Oshkosh or Oregon, WI stop in at one of our retail garden centers, for plants and landscape supplies (keep in mind our hours change during the seasons.