Container Flower Gardening Design Tips & Ideas

Container flower gardening is a popular way to add beauty and color to your outdoor space. But some people really struggle with choosing plants and arranging flowers in a container garden. So I’m going to make it super easy for you! This post is all about flower pot gardening for beginners.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of All-America Selections. All opinions and text are my own.

Container flower gardening is fun, and a great way to add beauty and color anywhere you want. But choosing the best flowers for containers, and putting together good combos is very difficult for some people.

I totally get it. Walking down isle after isle of flowers at the garden center can be intimidating and overwhelming.

But guess what… your summer plants in flower pots are not permanent. If you don’t love the combinations you put together this year, you can create something completely different next year! So have some have fun with it, and don’t be afraid of color!

Below I’m going to give you tons of tips and ideas for container gardening with flowers. In the end, you’ll have the knowledge and confidence you need to get started.

Enough with the boring green dracaena spike and a few red geraniums carelessly tossed together in an ugly pot. Let’s build some amazing flower pots that will WOW our neighbors this year!

Planning Your Container Flower Garden

Before you go shopping for container plants, take some time to think about a few things. First, where will your flower garden pots be sitting? Will they be in full sun, shade, or somewhere in between. That will really help to narrow down your options.

Next, how do you want your flowering containers to look? It really helps to think about the mood you want to create, and have an idea of what colors you want to use.

Do you want eye-popping arrangements that stand out, or something a little more subtle and calming? If you want something that stands out, look for flowers with bright and bold contrasting colors. If subtle and calming are more your style, then choose flowers with muted colors, and ones that are the same or similar colors.

One last thing to think about for flower gardening in containers is the size and color of your planter. Make sure the flowers you buy will compliment both the color and the size of your pot, and look amazing.

If your container is tall, then a tall plant would work for the focal point. Short and wide planters could have more than one focal point, but the plants should also be shorter to match the proportion of the pot.

‘Celosia Asian Garden’ flower pot thriller plant

Designing Your Outdoor Flower Containers

You’ve probably heard the terms thrillers, fillers and spillers. This is a great little rhyme that will help you create gorgeous flower pot gardens.

If you keep this saying in mind when you’re choosing plants for container flower gardening, then you can’t go wrong!

• Thrillers – You can think of the “thriller” as your focus plant. This will be the tallest plant, and should command attention. A good rule of thumb is that your thriller should be 1 to 1.5 times the height of the pot, but never more than twice as tall.

• Fillers – As the name suggests, “filler” plants will fill up the middle area of your container (I like to think of it as filling in the gaps). Look for flowering plants that are shorter than your thriller plant, and have a wide and sprawling growth habit.

• Spillers – The “spillers” are trailing or vining plants that will spill over the top of the container, growing long and full. Sometimes they’ll even be long enough to vine all the way to the ground.

‘Geranium Brocade Fire’ flower container filler plant

Ideas For Container Flowering Plants

Now that you have some container flower gardening ideas in mind, we can move on to the fun part… choosing your plants! And who doesn’t love shopping for flowers?

Below are some ideas to help make it super easy for you. I’ve even included a few of my top picks!

Plants for adding height (thrillers) – Remember, this is your superstar, so you want to find a tall, showy plant. Canna lilies, elephant ears, ornamental grasses, banana plants, and penstemon are all great examples.

My top “thriller” plant picks: Celosia Asian Garden, Penstemon Arabesque™ Red F1 and Canna South Pacific Scarlet F1.

‘Canna South Pacific Scarlet’ potted flower garden thriller plant

Broad filler plants – It doesn’t matter if you choose your fillers before your thriller plant, or the other way around. Just make sure that your filler flowers are shorter than your thriller so that one can really stand out.

I like to keep my fillers about half the height of my thrillers, give or take. Examples of great filler flower plants in pots are geraniums, begonias, verbena, osteospermum, coleus and vincas.

My top “filler” plant picks: Geranium Brocade Cherry Night, Geranium Brocade Fire, Osteospermum Akila® Daisy White F1 and Geranium Calliope® Medium Dark Red.

‘Geranium Calliope’ filler flower for outdoor containers

Trailing spiller plants – Your trailing plants don’t have to grow all the way down to the ground, and sometimes you don’t want them to cover up your beautiful flower pots.

So try to visualize the look of the flowers growing in a pot before you choose your spillers. Plants like sweet potato vine, creeping jenny, asparagus fern, calibrachoa, and petunias make great spiller plants.

My top “spiller” plant picks: Petunia Tidal Wave® Red Velour F1 and Petunia Evening Scentsation F1.

‘Petunia Tidal Wave® Red Velour’ spiller plant for potted flower gardens

3 Flowering Container Plant Recipes

I know that choosing plants for your flower pots garden can be very overwhelming. So to help you out, I put together a few container flower gardening recipe ideas to get your creative juices flowing.

Patriotic red, white and blue container recipe* – Create a fun and patriotic flowers container for the summer using red, white and blue plants. This combo would look great in a patriotic themed pot, a matching red, white or blue container, or in a terracotta pot. Full sun to part-shade.

• Thriller: 1 Penstemon Arabesque™ Red F1 plant
• Filler: 2-3 Osteospermum Akila® Daisy White F1 plants
• Spiller: 1-2 Petunia Evening Scentsation F1 plants

Dramatic red velvet container recipe* – If you’re looking to add some drama, or create formal flower garden container arrangements, try this recipe. This combo would look amazing in a large bronze colored urn, or in a black or charcoal gray container. Full sun.

• Thriller: 1 Canna South Pacific Scarlet F1 plant
• Filler: 2-3 Geranium Brocade Cherry Night plants (you could use Geranium Brocade Fire instead if you want to add a pop of brighter color! Yum!)
• Spiller: 1-2 Petunia Tidal Wave® Red Velour F1 plants

Pretty pastels container recipe* – If drama is not your thing, then this pretty pastel flower container garden combo might suit you better. This combo would look lovely in a light gray, white, yellow or pink container. Sun to partial shade.

• Thriller: 1 Celosia Asian Garden plant
• Filler: 2-3 Osteospermum Akila® Daisy White F1 plants
• Spiller: 1-2 Petunia Evening Scentsation F1 plants

* The exact number of plants you use will depend on how large your container is, the numbers I gave here are only suggestions for each recipe.

More Container Flower Gardening Design Tips

• Use at least one of each type of plant (thriller, filler and spiller) per container. I tend to use one thriller plant, 2-4 fillers, and 1-3 spillers, depending on the size of my container, and the plants that I’m using.

• Always make sure the container you use has drainage holes. Putting rocks or other fillers in the bottom of outdoor plants in flower pots is not enough to keep them from drowning.

• When shopping for containers, look for planters and pots that match the space that you plan to put them in. That way the pots will be a gorgeous part of the arrangement.

• If your pot is a bright color, think about choosing flowers with contrasting colors to really add pop.

• The taller your pot, the taller your thriller should be. Growing short plants in large planters can work, but many times they end up looking out of place. On the flip side, super tall thriller plants look awkward and clumsy in a small pot.

What Makes AAS Winners So Special?

Choosing All-America Selections (AAS) winners takes the guess work out of buying plants. AAS’ trained, professional judges put plants to the test. They award the AAS designation to only those that perform the best for flower container gardening.

When you buy AAS winners you can be confident that you’re getting great plants that will perform well in your containers. For more plant suggestions, and to get updates about the latest AAS winners, follow them them on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and Instagram.

Container flower gardening is fun, and a great way to add color to boring spaces. Choosing plants for flower gardening in pots doesn’t have to be scary or overwhelming. Just remember the phrase “thrillers, fillers and spillers” when shopping for outside flowers in pots, and you’ll be good to go.

More Posts About Container Gardening

• Choosing The Best Potting Soil Mix For Container Gardening
• Easy DIY Garden Drip Irrigation System For Potted Plants
• How To Fertilize Outdoor Potted Plants & Containers
• How To Make Potting Soil For Containers (with recipe!)

Share your container flower gardening tips and ideas in the comments section below.

All of the photos used in this post were provided by All-America Selections and used here with permission.