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Beautiful Planters

Sarah Olmstead

Designing beautiful planters/containers is a real passion for me. I love the instant gratification you can get from putting a planter at your front door, back patio near the pool that reflects your personality. There are so many options for colors, texture, composition, and edible, and this can include all four seasons. The planters can have four different looks during the seasons in the Midwest, a Winter Interest, Spring, Summer and FALL looks. There are a few rules to container gardening to start with:

  1. Location for planter- Sun Exposure, Backdrop of the container (HOUSE, POOL, GARDEN), water availability.
  2. Thriller, Filler, and Spiller 
    • Thriller– A focal point or center point of the container- Some examples are ornamental grasses, elephant ears, Mandivilla vines, small evergreens.
    • Filler– These are plants that can fill in a lot of space and can handle similar requirements as the thriller and spiller plants have. Some examples are lantana, petunias, impatiens, zinnas, coleus.
    • Spiller– These are plants that spill out over the side of the planter- some examples are wave petunia, ivy’s, nasturtiums, sweet potato vines.

There are endless designs you can create in a planter, if you are like me I like having options and I have those for you!!!

Edible containers – lavender, basil, tomatoes, etc.– It just takes a little bit of research to see what plants grow better next to each other– This is called companion plants.

  1. Succulent Planters
  2. Tropical Planters
  3. Mosquito Repellent Planters