Bench with Container Gardens

Container Garden Combinations

Container gardens are one of the best and easiest ways to bring color to your garden. Easy to care for and small enough to move around, containers can be replanted whenever you desire with new color, blooms and foliage to keep a fresh element in your garden or on your deck or patio. The greatest challenge is selecting just a few plants when there are so many available!

To create containers that will wow every time, use our “thrill, spill and fill” formula. This works for sun and shade containers, with plants for pollinators or with any other type of container you wish to create.

What is Thrill, Spill, Fill?

When planting a container, select one or more plants that fill these categories to make sure you have a well balanced design. The number of plants you choose depends on the size of the container. If there is only room for one of each, that is fine.

Thrill plants provide height to your container.

Spill plants cascade over the side of the pot.

Fill Plants fill in the spaces in the middle of the pot.

Plant Combinations for Sun

Opt for a container in shades of vivid purple with Salvia as your thriller, Heuchera and Lamb’s Ear as your fillers, and calibrachoa as your spiller.

Tropical Container with Coleus, Elephant Ears, Calibrachoa and Verbena

Colocasia serves as the thriller plant in this fantastic container, with coleus, calibrachoa and verbena just a few of the plants filling the bottom of the container and spilling over the edge.

Summer Container with Bougainvillea, Bacopa and Lobelia

Bouganvillea, Bacopa and Lobelia combine to create a stunning container in pink and white.

Plant Combinations for Shade

Perennial Shade Container: Hosta, Japanese Holly Fern, Jacob's Ladder, Foam Flower, Heuchera & Annual Begonia,

Shade doesn’t mean you can’t have blooms! This container is packed with plants, including Jacob’s Ladder and foam flower as thrillers, Japanese Holly Fern, Heuchera and hosta as fillers, and begonia as the spiller.

Shade Container: Purple Heart, Deadnettle (Lamium) and Foxtail Fern

Foxtail fern makes a fantastic thrill plant in this container, contrasting with the purple foliage of the purple heart and small purple blooms of the deadnettle.

Shade Container with Begonia, Fern and Heuchera

Ferns serve as the thriller in this shade container with begonia as the filler, and heuchera and carex grass cascading gracefully over the sides.