In Your Garden with Jenny Watts

Color Combinations for Flower Pots

How do you take a nice big pot, fill it full of plants and finish up with something that not
only looks great but grows great too? Think ‘Thriller’, ‘Filler’ and ‘Spiller’.
Thriller stands for the tall plant in the combination. It is often a spiky tall accent which can
be in the center or in the back of your combination.
Filler will be the center bulky or eye-catching special plant. It can be round or grassy, but
it’s the center of attention.
Spiller, of course, stands for the hanging plant that falls over the edge and continues the
line on down onto the container surface. If it is a basket, then you have lots of 'floppy' plants and
you might want to vary the look with different colors or textures.
Use plants with different textures of foliage or flowers. If all the plants have narrow long
leaves that is boring. The same with all big fat round foliage. Try to have different types.
For professional looking results, consider following a color theme. Use all one color, such
as all blue flowers, for a monochrome look. Pastel flowers provide soft colors that are most
effective in gentle light, shade or morning sun situations. Vivid bold colors look best in bright
sun. Red, yellow and orange flowers look great in terra-cotta planters.
Here are some ideas for colorful combinations. Let a colorful grass or New Zealand flax
arch from the center, flanked by pink and purple petunias and plum-colored Heuchera with rose
calibrachoa tumbling over the side of the pot.
Use Kong Coleus for the tall centerpiece, with a Figaro Dahlia, yellow or red, in the middle
and colorful portulaca draping over the sides.
Start with a bright-colored Gerbera daisy, plant Northern Sea Oats grass behind it and fill
in with yellow million bells to tumble over the front of the pot.
Another good summer mix is a combination of pink or purple petunias, with dusty miller,
and a heavy border of white sweet alyssum. Put the taller dusty miller towards the back, fill in
with the petunias, and finish with the white alyssum.
Use Victoria Blue salvia for the spiky plant, pink verbena for the spiller and a purple-leafed
Heuchera for the filler.
Zonal geraniums have bright, colorful leaves. They are perfect for the eye-catching filler
plant. For a lime-green effect, choose a yellow-leafed geranium, add some dark-leafed fibrous
begonias, and let yellow calibrachoa hang over the sides.
For a shady area, start with a green-and-white variegated Hosta. Add color with impatiens
and Non-Stop begonias.
Add some new life to your container garden display by exploring different color
combinations in your flower pots. You will be surprised at the very different effects you can
create.