7 Spring Container Combinations That Look Planted By a Pro

Spring container combinations accent homes, offering better curb appeal. You can use these to improve the look of your home to passers-by, or to spruce up a backyard seating area. And it’s easy to attain a professional look when the basic elements of container design are a part of your process.  

Thrillers act as the focal point in arrangements, while spillers flow out of them, providing dimension and a feeling of abundance. Fillers take over empty spaces and unify the composition. If you don’t know where to start, use these three tenets to guide you. 

However, some of the most artistic container designs abandon these principles of design. While you can use the structure they provide to develop something magical, you certainly don’t have to. These seven arrangements will show you that careful selection and intentional plantings work just as well. 

The Goth Garden Bundle

Dwarf Hinoki Cypress

All Kinds and Forms Mixed Cacti

All Kinds and Forms Mixed Cacti Seeds

Terracotta Goth Garden

Dark purple and orange are a great combination.

It’s not fall yet, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a goth garden! This design employs a ‘Sweet Caroline Sweetheart Jet Black’™ sweet potato vine, along with purple oxalis as the darker end of the goth color palette. Variegated vinca vines spill out, and bright orange begonias top the planters, and grasses planted here and there thrill the eye. 

With terracotta planters arranged in a tiered fashion bordering the sides of a patio, the ambience is maximized. This is among those fun and heat-tolerant spring container combinations that goths and less gothy gardeners will enjoy. 

Pedestal Planter

Raise your containers to make them more visible.

If you have bare pedestals, spring is a great time to top them off with planters simply bursting with greenery and flowers. In this design, a wide copper planter balances atop a stone pillar. ‘Sweet Caroline’ sweet potato vines are once again employed as spillers, echoing the coloration of new spring leaves. 

Calibrachoa in reds and pinks fills in the middle section, while fuchsia-colored scented geraniums and petunias sit at the top. This combination is perfect for any spring garden, and it can handle the heat in areas where summer comes before spring really ends.  

Stone Thrillers and Spillers

Textured planters pair well with colorful fillers.

A stunning red celosia takes the thriller role in this rectangular concrete planter, along with yet another sweet potato vine. To add to the drought-tolerance these plants provide – which is essential in a stone planter – silver ponyfoot spillers and accents of prairie grasses weather almost any hot summer. 

This is one of those simple and easily executable spring container combinations that growers all over can emulate. Place the planter in an area that needs some greenery, or situate it among others to add to the display. 

Whiskey Barrel Evergreen

Conifers are ideal for taller planters.

If you’re unsure about garden design, how about a pairing of a dwarf evergreen and ageratum in an old whiskey barrel? This couple shows that good plantings don’t have to be as multifaceted as many of them are. Instead, choose two plants with different dimensions that play well together. 

There are many dwarf conifers to choose from, with ‘Hinoki’ cypress offering a rounder look than a more conical lemon cypress. Surround the container with puffy pom pom blooms of ageratum, floss flower, or mist flower to accent the roundness or pointed tips of your chosen conifer.  

Spring Bulb Profusion

Bulbs are the perfect option for spring container combinations.

Early spring is the time for showcasing bulbs, as seen in this large glazed container filled with tulips, daffodils, and violas. Spring container combinations like these are perfect in areas where it stays cold to cool for a long time at the start of the season. 

Orange lily-flowered tulips pop among smatterings of round, ‘Outright Orange’ daffodils. Filling in the ground below are tiny, cold-tolerant ‘Johnny Jump Ups’. The yellow and purple of their petals both accent and offset the coloration of the spring bulbs.    

Rustic Cacti Garden

Cacti are low-maintenance and look good year-round.

Spring container combinations aren’t just for gardeners in temperate areas. Desert growers can enjoy arrangements of cacti and succulents year-round. Choose rustic containers, made of hand-formed clay or terracotta, to offset the light greens and bluish hues of the plants. 

Almost any curated list of plants will do. Use barrel and columnar cacti to anchor the design. Then fill in with trailing Othonna succulents and add some attractive gravel to the soil surface. Voila! A desert paradise.  

Sphagnum Hanging Basket

Hanging baskets are ideal for patios and balconies.

A little goes a long way, and this composition proves it. Here we have a simple pairing of ‘Baby Yellow’ nasturtium and double-petaled petunias. Placed in a hanging basket with a sphagnum moss liner, the greenery and wild blooms are balanced nicely. The round foliage of the nasturtium blends perfectly with the soft, round leaves of the petunia. 

There are so many different variations on this design that would be more appropriate in other contexts. Try a flipped color combo with ‘Purple Emperor’ nasturtium and ‘Shock Wave®’ yellow petunias. Or mix it up with whatever colors you choose. Note that complementary colors make the biggest impact, while analogous ones provide uniformity.