Simple Container Planting

The other day, I was talking to a friend who wanted to plant some containers for her landscape, but didn't know where to start. I let her in on my secret:

1. Go to a nursery and find containers planted with a combination of plants you like.
2. Look at the plastic plant identifiers in the pot.
3. Buy those plants and plant them in a container.
4. (You can probably take a picture of the nursery's container if you are afraid you will forget.)

That's basically what I did with the container I planted above. It is on our front porch in full shade. I purposefully picked plants with varied colors and textures of foliage, but not a lot of blooms. (You can see one tiny purple bloom on the far right. There are three of these trailing plants in the pot that will flower.) Impatiens work well in the shade if you prefer to put more flowers in your pots.

Don't be intimidated because you think you lack creativity - nurseries, garden magazines and your local newspapers can all give you insight on how to put together a nice display.