Container Flower Garden Ideas

A container garden is an excellent way to garden if you are limited on space, or repurposed gardening. We’re sharing some awesome flower pot garden ideas to help get you started!

Flower Pot Garden Ideas

Having a full garden in your backyard can be an amazing and fun experience for any seasoned gardener. With a pot, or even a barrel full of flowers can instantly add curb appeal to your front porch, but you can use your container garden plants for so much more!

You can grow herbs such as basil and chives in a container, or even flowers for your balcony in a container garden. If you are looking to make your own container flower garden, here are some tips and ideas to get you started!

Container Preparation

Containers will become pretty heavy once they have soil in them, so you must decide where you want them to go before you fill and plant your container. Ideally, you’ll want to find a location with morning sun and shade during the hottest part of day to make sure that they don’t dry out. Make sure that you also have plenty of drainage holes for your pots, but you don’t need to cover the holes before you add your potting mix. 

For container gardening, you will want to either use houseplant soil or a coarse soilless planting mixture depending on what size container you choose. If you are planning to plant a mixed container, then you don’t need to pay attention to spacing requirements and can prune your plants once they’ve filled in. Just make sure you leave enough space to water them!

Container Garden Plants

When you start to plan your garden plants, you want to make sure that you are paying attention to three things: thrill, fill, and spill. These will help make sure that you have organized flower pot garden ideas that result in robust and healthy container flower garden. 

It is important to know when to plant which is based on your growing zone. If you’re not sure what zone you are in, use the USDA Hardiness Zone Finder here.

Some of the best plants to put in a container flower garden are also the Best Plants for Window Boxes.

Thrill

Thrill refers to the tall center of your container. You will need to use a plant with plenty of height for the thrill. You can also think of this as the eye candy of your plant. This is the showpiece or center of your flower arrangement. Some good thrill suggestions are

• caladium
• dracaena
• salvia
• dahlia (my moms favorites!
• snapdragons
• purple fountain grass
• angelonia

Fill 

Your fill is the layer of flowers or plants that is shorter than your thrill plants. These should be taller than the spill plants but shouldn’t take away from the thrill. Fill plants ideas are exactly what it sounds like. These are the flowers you will use to fill the rest of your container. You can be as creative with your combinations as you want, make sure that your flowers all require the same care since they will be in the same container. Some good flowering plants include:

• begonias
• petunias
• verbena
• pansey
• geraniums
• gerbera daisies

Spill

Your spill is known as the outer layer of your planter and what will go over your container’s edge. The spill is your finishing touch in your container flower garden and will more than likely cascade out from your container. You want to use trailing plants that have nice foliage, such as:

• trailing rosemary
• sweet potato vines
• ivy
• alyssum
• trailing lobelia
• calibrachoa (my personal favorite!)

Making a beautiful container flower garden is pretty easy! While it may require a little work to get everything set up in the beginning, you will be able to enjoy the fruits of your labor for months to come in your beautiful container flower garden!

More Gardening Ideas

• Rustic Herb Garden Planter
• Homemade Planters
• How to Make a Succulent Terrarium