Pro Flower Container Ideas and Tips

Growing flowers in containers

Pro Flower Container Ideas and Tips:

I hope these flower container ideas and tips spark your imagination. Let’s start by covering some basics. Flowers typically fall into two categories; annuals and perennials. Large outdoor planters are the perfect way to grow these living bouquets! Many are easy to grow from seed, meaning that you can experiment with a variety of different types of flowers very economically, and even save your own seed. Annuals are often purchased as pre-planted flowering pots. Countless varieties are available at hardware stores, supermarkets, and garden centers. These plants can add instant color to a container garden, and are an excellent way to quickly replace an under-performing plant in an otherwise stunning display. However, because they have usually begun flowering well before we buy them, they do not bloom for as long as plants grown from seed nor are they as hardy.

In order to extend the life of your flower displays, keep the spent flowers trimmed off. This is called “deadheading.” Removing the flowers before they can set seed encourages the plant to produce even more flowers. Flowers make excellent displays on their own, or can be combined with herbs and vegetables for a stunning and edible display! Edible flowers, like nasturtiums and pansies, make a fantastic addition to summer salads. Because annuals live only one season, you can choose a new look for your container each year. When you design your annual container, keep in mind these flower container ideas and tips:

  • Consider foliage plants with interesting shapes, colors, or textures as the “background” of your composition.
  • Keep the color wheel in mind: If you want the colors to pop, choose colors from opposite sides of the wheel—like purple and yellow. If you want a more soothing look, choose analogous colors—those that are next to each other—like shades of pink and pastel oranges.
  • Shapes of flowers add interest to the arrangement. Use a variety for best results.
  • If plants get leggy or overgrow the container, trim them back. When they are truly spent, did them up gently and replace them.
  • Plant more flowers than you would normally plant in a garden. You want to keep the bloom dramatic.

Good choices for containers in sunny spots are marigolds, geraniums, sunflowers and petunias. In part-shade, alyssum, lobelia, nemesia and nicotiana all bloom well. In very shady areas, try impatiens, pansies and violas. Perennial foliage plants like yucca and lamb’s ear, or attractive herbs like lavender, mint and thyme, make excellent foliage plants as the “background” to a composition.

Popular Flower Choices

Below is a list of 25 popular choices suitable for container gardening:

flower container ideas

Share Your Flower Container Ideas

I hope this article sparked some flower container ideas and I would love nothing more than for you to share them with us. Nothing sparks creativity like inspiring images of beautiful arrangements. Please use the form below to share your creations with the rest of our community. Thank you for stopping by.

Edible Flowers List: Tasty Colorful Blooms For Your Garden

edible flowers

Edible Flowers’ List: Tasty Colorful Blooms For Your Garden:

Flowers are the perfect complement to container gardens. We hope our edible flowers list makes it easier for you to incorporate them. Brightly colored and sweetly scented, they liven up any green space, especially patios and balconies. But a culinary delicacy as well? Why not? Some special blooms can also liven up salads, cakes and punch bowls.

The Edible Flowers List of Precautions

Like wild mushrooms, you wouldn’t want to start munching down on any old flower. Do your research before tasting any unknown blossoms, because they’re certainly not all edible. And do make sure your breakfast bouquet hasn’t been sprayed by chemical pesticides or fertilizers.

Preparation

Edible flowers can be enjoyed raw, cooked and candied straight from the garden. The blossoms should be used soon after harvesting to preserve their taste and appearance. Wash the blooms gently and remove the stems, stamens, pistils and sepals of the flowers before serving. These can lend a bitter taste to otherwise sweet blossoms. Don’t remove the sepals from johnny-jump-ups, violas and pansies, or the flavours in these particular flowers won’t fully blossom.

The Edible Flowers List : Our top 5

5. Nasturtium (Tropaeolum Majus)

Kicking off our edible flowers list is the vibrant nasturtium flower. Popping up in bright shades of red, orange and yellow, these blooms add a peppery bite to salads. Plant them in direct sunlight to achieve maximum blossom potential. Don’t use fertilizers in these outdoor gardens. They’ll cause nasturtiums to grow many leaves but few flowers. Use fertilizers sparingly in indoor gardens.

4. Violet (Viola Odorata)

Care for a side of flower with your afternoon tea? These perky, sweet tasting perennials can be eaten fresh or candied and come in at number 4 on our edible flowers list.  Blooming from April to May, violets prosper in moist, well-drained soil in sunny to partly shady locales. Despite the name, violets are available in a wide variety of colors.

3. Anise Hyssop (Agastache Foeniculum)

Put away the twizzlers and go au naturel with this tasty treat coming in the middle of our edible flowers list. The lovely purple blossoms of anise hyssop taste sweetly of licorice and–as the name suggests – anise. Self-seeding, this perennial will come back year after year in your container garden. The anise hyssop prefers well drained soil and sunny locations with some shade.  Flowers appear in July and continue blooming until the first frost of the season.

2. Pansy (Viola x Wittrockiana)

Coffee breath preventing you from getting to close to anyone? Skip the Tic-Tacs and give a pansy a try. These delicate annuals have a wintergreen flavor when eaten whole. Short in stature, pansies can be great choice for an elevated garden.  Pansies blossom from May to July. They should be planted in rich soil in cooler locales. Cooler weather = cool, minty breath.

1. Bee Balm (Monarda Didyma)

This spunky bloom ranks #1 on our edible flowers list because it’s beautiful and tasty, and it might also bring a little wildlife to your container garden. This cheerful plant comes in a variety of colors and has been known to attract hummingbirds, butterflies and–as the name suggests–bees. Given the great bee and butterfly decline, planting bee balm is the least we can do to keep the species alive. And with a delightful citrus and minty taste, bee balm can also be used in salads and made into tea. Bee balm does well in a container garden, and prefers a well lit, sunny spot with rich soil. Blooms appear in July and August.

Any suggestions for our edible flowers list? We’d love to hear from you so please post your favorite bloom to snack on below.