by Matt Gibson
Looking for flower options that work well in containers? Not everyone has time to plant and tend to a full outdoor ground plot for their gardens. Cultivating beautiful blooms outdoors in flower beds can be a lot of work and a lot of maintenance—it’s pretty much a year-round job. In today’s fast-paced society, many of us already work more than one job.
Container gardening is a wonderful way tolearn about plants and hone your gardening skills without becoming overwhelmedby having to manage too much space. Curating a container garden full of flowersis a wonderful way to brighten up any patio, porch, or windowsill with naturalvibrance and beauty. Flowers you grow in containers are also portable, givingyou the option to bring your plants indoors to add flashes of color and a touchof elegance to your dining area or to create a fragrant bouquet to grace yourfront foyer.
While there are plenty of flowers you canchoose from that are well suited to containers and could have easily beenincluded here on this list, we decided to focus on container-friendly flowersthat will repay your energy and attention by continuing to produce blossoms forextended growing periods. Flower-filled containers are much easier to work withthan garden beds—no bending down low or digging into rock-hard ground requiredhere. When you’re armed with just a bit of information and devote some care andattention to your plants, you can have a glorious garden of luscious bloomspopping up in no time. We’ve compiled a list of our top picks of flowers togrow in containers, provided some pro tips to help you get started on the rightfoot, and even threw in links to some videos that will give you a more in-depthtutorial on how to grow and care for each flower we selected.
Pro Tips for Getting The Most outof Your Container Flower Garden
The most important thing you can make sure of to ensure your container garden is successful is to use containers with sufficient drainage. Make sure there is a hole in the bottom of your pot so that you don’t drown the root system when watering your plants. Different types of flower have different care needs and instructions, but all of them will need some sunlight exposure and well-draining soil to thrive.
Another key to maintaining a top-of-the-line flower garden is to feed your flowers the nutrients they need to keep on producing bloom after bloom throughout the growing season. Though regular potting soil should be fine for most of the flowers in your container garden, it doesn’t usually come with any added nutrients. That means it will be up to you to add a slow-release fertilizer before planting seeds or your plants and to dose your plants once per week with a liquid fertilizer.
Regular watering is an important ritual, assufficient hydration is, of course, essential to keep roots from drying out ifyou want to get the most out of your plants each blooming season. Anotherparamount practice to add to your daily duties is called deadheading—pinchingoff dead or dying flowerheads to encourage new blooms to grow in theirplaces.
Container Flower Designs
When it comes to container flower designs you can make yourself,there are endless options. The main three categories most of these options fallinto are the single accent design, a multicolored design, or the mixed-bagdesign. Try your hand at creating a mix of all three of the different styles inyour flower garden, then decide which combinations you like the best.
The single accent is just as straightforward as it sounds— single container, filled exclusively with a particular flower, all of the same variety. This approach creates an eye-catching boost of color wherever it’s placed. Try a out a pot filled with a single variety of deep purple angelonias to bring a gorgeous pop of beauty to a nice sunny garden grove. Fill a pot with brilliant cranberry nemesias and another with remarkable orange begonias. Then let them lounge near each other on a shady porch or balcony. Fill a hanging basket with your favorite shade of Calibrachoa, more commonly known as million bells, which seems to flow out of its container, covered in stunning rose-like blooms.
The multicolored design can be accomplished by using different shades of the same flower or by mixing multiple species of flowers in the same pot. This method is commonly referred to as companion planting. It is very important, when you’re selecting flowers to pair together, that your groups all share the same soil and sunlight preferences as well as water and fertilizer needs. You can also get creative with how colors combine in your design, by pairing up different types of blooms and foliage.
The mixed-bag container design can be acatastrophe if constructed haphazardly, but it can also be a work of art if youhave an eye for elaborate arrangements and a creative flair. Experimentation isthe key to the mixed-bag approach. You want to play with the variances anddifferences in not only the color of your selections and the different types ofblooms and foliage, but also the height, width, and growing direction of theplants you select for the container. You will want some tall and skinnyflowers, some wider, bushier species, and even a border of trailing flowers orflowering vines to tie the whole thing together.
Best Flowers to Grow in Containers
Begonias
Begonias look great in a container by themselves or nestled into a mix of other types of flowers. Ranging in color from stark white to a unique pastel orange and varying widely in appearance, with bloom types that range from a loose bell-shaped blossom to a dense, rose-like flower head, there is a begonia that is perfect for every personality type and taste out there. Most of the varieties you can find will do very well in containers. As long as you don’t let the roots get too wet, begonias will thrive.
Nasturtium Flowers
Nasturtiums are a long-blooming annuals thatwork extremely well in container gardens. These showy, tuba-shaped beautiescome in white, red, pink, orange, yellow, and peach, with unusual circularfoliage that is either solid green or light green touched with splashes ofcream. Bred widely because of its easy care and genetic versatility, nasturtiumis now available in bush, mound, and vine varieties.
Verbena Flowers
Verbena offers gardeners over 250 varieties to choose from in the species. The plants can be just a few inches tall or grow up to four feet, depending on the genus. Available in shades of blue, pink, purple, red, and white with blue-green leaves and a wonderful fragrance. If you live in a warm climate area, look for the six to 10-inch tall trailing or moss varieties. Verbena plants produce a ton of clustered flowers that look great in all kinds of containers.
Angelonia Flowers
The summer snapdragon, also referred to morecommonly as angelonia, has very delicate-looking and thin clusters of petalsthat spread vertically on each stem. Its fragile blooms need a bit ofprotection from the wind, so angelonia containers should be placed next to awall, then brought indoors during thunderstorms and other extreme weatherconditions, making this plant a perfect choice for pots and containers. Otherthan a bit of wind protection, Angelonia is actually pretty hardy. Thesummer-blooming beauty is heat tolerant, somewhat drought resistant, anddoesn’t need to be deadheaded to produce new flowerheads throughout the growingseason.
Million Bells Flowers
Great for hanging baskets, million bells areavailable in every shade you can think of. Each color you peruse is as vibrantand spectacular as the last, making it hard to pick, that is, until you layyour eyes on the “Trailing Blue” hybrid which, despite its name, producesblooms with lovely deep purple petals.No matter what color you pick, the showy, poignant blooming bells willspread out their violet blooms, adding vibrance to your garden that will lastthroughout the entire summer. The trailing hybrids are especially suited tohanging baskets, which we recommend placing around eye level, as the bells’blooms are not only fragrant but are known to come with a bit of a show duringthe summer months, attracting hummingbirds and butterflies.
Coleus Flowers
Coleus comes in a lot of different colors and styles. The flowers themselves actually look more like foliage than blooms, and they cover the entire plant. The leaf-like petals come in reddish green, bronze, gold, blue, and various shades of yellow and orange, but coleus flowers tend to produce more earthy tones than most flowers. They are a natural complement when paired with more traditional-looking flowers in large containers.
Nemesia Flowers
Nemesia is a dainty little annual, with smallflower clusters that rise upward on the stem in bright colors, such as yellow,pink and cranberry. Nemesia plantw are great additions to mixed containers,adding an interesting variety of bloom types and textures.
Euphorbia Flowers
Euphorbia’s frilly, delicate tiny flowers lookso starkly different from most of the other flowers that you will most likelybe growing in your container garden that they are a must-have just for thevisual contrast they will bring to your flower garden. (Euphorbia blooms remindmany gardeners of lace patterns.) They will be especially gorgeous whenjuxtaposed against larger, more pronounced blooms in a mixed-bag type ofcontainer design. The Glitz and Diamond Frost varieties are especially showy.Drought and heat tolerant, Euphorbia enjoys full sun to partial shade.
Videos About Growing Flowers in Containers
Here’s a list of quick tutorial videos to help you get started growing each of the flowers we recommended for growing in containers:
Begonia:
Nasturtium:
Verbena:
Angelonia:
Million Bells:
Coleus:
Nemesia:
Want to Learn More About GrowingFlowers in Containers?
Balcony Container Gardening covers 25 Flowers for Container Gardens
Country Living covers 10 Best Plants for Container Gardening
HGTV covers Best Flowers for Container Gardens
Today’s Homeowner covers Flower Containers for Beginners
