How to Design and Plant a Fall Container

Decorating your porch, patio and walkway for fall isn’t just about pumpkins, scarecrows and straw bales. Just as you would in the spring and summer, decorating your outdoor landscape with flowering fall containers celebrates the new season and complements your fall décor in a unique and natural way. If you’re thinking about utilizing your containers to elevate your outside fall look, read below for our tips and tricks to designing an inspiring fall container. 

Choose Your Fall Inspiration 

With a plethora of options from bright, yellow Superbells to textured Graceful Grasses, you can create and design your container to fit your unique fall aesthetic for your home. We suggest getting inspired by the things you love about fall when you’re choosing your ingredients. Maybe you love pumpkin spice lattes, the reds and yellows of the leaves, or the spookiness of Halloween. Whatever your preference, think about the colors and textures that can recreate this ambiance.  

For example, we were inspired by Halloween and the reds and oranges of fall leaves. We used a mix of perennials, annuals and shrubs to celebrate this blend by choosing colors that both complement each other and give a nod to the things we love about fall. Read more to find out what we chose for our container. 

Use the Thriller, Filler and Spiller Technique 

Once we decided on our fall inspiration, keeping in mind some colors we want to include, we turned to the tried-and-true Thriller, Filler, and Spiller design technique. When creating a fall container, you want to make sure you are adding plants that have different heights, textures, colors, and dimensions. This will create movement and depth in your fall container, keeping it interesting, unique, and outstanding. If you want to learn more about this container design technique, check out this blog.  

Thrillers

For a thriller, we wanted a plant that brings height accompanied by bright colors. That is why we went with Pyromania® 'Rocket's Red Glare' Red Hot Poker. This perennial grows up to 30-36 inches tall and has red spikey flowers over grass-like foliage, perfect for fall. We also planted Color Coded® 'Frankly Scarlet' Coneflower as a second thriller again for its height and bright orange and red flowers.  

Fillers

Next, we suggest including plants that will fill out the middle of the container with different textures and densities. We chose Sweet Romance® Lavender and At Last® Rose as our fillers. We wanted to lighten the colors with the soft purples of the lavender and soft oranges of the rose (both a nod to our love for Halloween). What we also loved about these choices was their airiness, which would add movement and depth to our container overall.  

Spillers

Lastly, you’ll want to choose those flowers and foliages that will spill out of your container, cascading over the edges to create drama and interest. Supertunias are perfect to achieve this effect, and so we chose Supertunia® Latte™ for its trailing habit and creamy flowers etched with dark centers. We also added Sweet Caroline Medusa™ Green Ornamental Sweet Potato Vine for more Halloween inspiration and to tie in the purples of the lavender and Supertunia.  

Add Versatile Flowers for Fall Planting 

Planting up fall containers gives you an opportunity to display perennials and shrubs in different areas of your yard throughout the growing season. At the end of fall, you can dig up these plants and add them to your landscape to enjoy for many years to come. What is more, fall is a great time to introduce new flowers and foliages into your garden, as it gives plenty of time to establish their roots and blossom the following spring and summer.  

That is why we chose quite a few perennials and shrubs to add to our fall container. We knew we would get added value to these plants by using them to decorate for both fall and the seasons beyond. For more information on fall planting, check out our blog, "Why Fall is the Best Time to Plant Perennials and Shrubs."

Fall can be an exciting time for home gardeners since it gives you an opportunity to let your creativity soar before the winter season. When you are ready to plant your fall containers, it is most important to feel inspired by the things you love and go with plants that simply make you happy. Use the Thriller, Filler, and Spiller technique to guide you, but ultimately, this is your time to create a stunning decoration to adorn your porch or driveway. Be sure to show us your fall creations on Facebook or Instagram as we can’t wait to see what you come up with!