Need some new inspiration for your garden? Our Gardening Angels have come up with some winning plant combination ideas for container gardens. Who says you can’t have the best plant arrangements for spring, summer, autumn, and winter?! 

It’s great fun to mix and match colourful annuals, perennials, and tropical plants in containers, and once you begin you’ll soon be hooked. If you’re just starting out with container gardening, then it pays to be creative with your planters, as that way you’ll get the most out of them. Here are our top tips.

1. Cottage Containers

Recommended Blooms: Queen Mum Agapanthus, Weeping White Lantana, and Trailing Rosemary

A favourite of ours that blooms well over spring and summer months. The key to this container arrangement is to keep it somewhere where it gets a mixture of full sun and part shade. The various plants work to both fill the container with flowers, and also provide a striking centerpiece. 

2. Symmetrical Splendour

Recommended Blooms: Japanese Bird Nest Fern, Begonia, and Ivy

This combination does brilliantly in a shady space, either indoors or outdoors. As long as it doesn’t receive direct and intense sunlight all day long, it’ll be fine. The spread of the fern, coupled with a few central Begonia blooms, can look great if you’re a fan of symmetrical arrangements.

3. Shady Spots

Recommended Blooms: Caladiums. 

Caladiums tend to thrive in the shade (but check the labels when you buy them, as there are some exceptions). They do best in warm weather and rich, damp soil, and their large patterned leaves can quickly turn a shady spot into a rainbow. They grow up to 3 feet tall, but there are also dwarf varieties that don’t top 12 inches if you’re short on space! Great for pots, planters, or window boxes.

4. Simple Charm

Recommended Blooms: Petchoas or Petunias

Who needs to combine different types of plant, when petchoas (or petunias) come in enough different colours to carry off a container all on their own? You’ll be able to enjoy the blooms throughout the summer, and can keep the colour fresh by simply clipping the plants back when they’re looking a little subdued. Both flower types like at least 6 hours of direct sunlight each day and benefit from regular fertiliser.

5.  Luxurious Layers

Recommended Blooms: Coleus, Calibrachoa and Jenny.

Plants with very different shapes can create a distinctive tapestry effect when they’re put together in a container. These three plants are able to grow quite happily in either sun or partial shade, so they’re pretty versatile. The only thing to really keep an eye out for is the Coleus taking over the pot, as it’s quite an aggressive grower, so trim it back if you need to.

6.  Summer Smoulder

Recommended Blooms: Easy Wave Velour Petunias and Cordyline.

Fiery scarlet blooms that, as you’d expect, love hot summer weather. Keep an eye on the soil around them, as it’ll need watering whenever it starts to feel dry. This container combination is another one that benefits from fertilising too, although you can get away with doing it as infrequently as once every few weeks.

7.  Magical Medley

Recommended Blooms: Yellow Gerbera Daisy, Lavender Verbena, Raspberry Calibrachoa, and Golden Creeping Jenny. 

These colourful plants do equally as well in the full sun or partial shade; the key thing to watch out for here is to prioritise a slightly moist soil. You'll probably find that the gerbera flowers slow down as summer waxes, but that’s when you can rely on the calibrachoa to pick up the slack and make sure your container stays full!

8.  Flower Tower

Recommended Blooms: Delphinium, Calibrachoa, Antirrhinum, Asparagus Fern, Golden Creeping Jenny, Dianthus, Cordyline, and Majesty Palm.

Some plants naturally tend to grow tall, and you can emphasise that aesthetic by choosing a tall, narrow container to make a “tower” of flowers. The assortment of annuals, perennials, and tropicals makes this one of our favourite combinations. Why not use a few separate vertical planters to frame a doorway, or even create the boundaries of a private space?

9. Complementary Tones

Recommended Blooms: Sapphire Blue Petunia, Dusty Miller, and Sansevieria.

When you’re planning out your container garden, it’s often best to avoid planting a mixture of colours. Some people like it, sure, but for most it’s best to stick with 2-3 complementary tones. That way, you can more easily keep a theme running through your wider garden, and allow every different flower to have its moment to shine.

What is your favorite plant to grow in containers? Let us know your comments, and remember that we’re open and ready to deliver all of the gardening supplies that you need straight to your door. There’s still our great selection of summer deals running too, so don’t miss out.