Once the last frost date rolls past, it’s prime time to start freshening up the garden. One of my favorite spring tasks is trying out beautiful new ideas and combinations for my containers and planters. These are the parts of the garden closest to my living spaces, so I don’t mind splurging a bit. I know that they will receive plenty of care, so I don’t mind splurging a bit. 

In addition to beautiful flowering plants, I like to fill my containers with other eye-catchers and useful things. Adding some edibles creates a cottage garden vibe, and herbs are both aromatic and beautiful. Lower-water options are perfect for those containers that you won’t pay as much attention to but still want to look nice. 

Sometimes, it’s fun to walk around the nursery and look for inspiration for your containers. If you don’t have time to do that or prefer to plan ahead, we have some wonderful examples for you. Here are some beautiful ideas for creating showstopping containers this spring. 

Bulb Garden

Chill bulbs to mimic winter and grow tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, grape hyacinths, and snowdrops.

One of the nicest things about spring is the beautiful blooming bulbs that love the cool soil and air of the season. Creating a bulb garden in your containers may be a short-term solution, but these plants truly embody the joy of spring blooms. 

The nice thing about creating a bulb arrangement is that you can grow things that may not otherwise thrive in your climate. Some bulbs need a significant period of cold weather to initiate blooming, but you can do this artificially and store your bulbs over the summer to plant again next year. 

Combine flowers like cheery yellow daffodils with sweet-smelling hyacinths. Don’t forget to add some warm and lovely tulips to the mix. Sprinkle in some grape hyacinth or snowdrops as a filler with personality and charm. 

Pots For Pollinators

Attract pollinators by planting nectar-rich flowers like daisies, dianthus, geraniums, and salvia in pots or beds.

Your in-ground pollinator garden is probably not popping quite yet. Many of the flowering perennials that feed our flying friends don’t start to bloom until summer. If you want to help those bees and butterflies get a healthy start to the year, planting nectar and pollen plants in your containers is a great idea. 

It makes me so happy to see those first butterflies and to know when the hummingbirds are back in town. Bringing these friends closer to the house means that I get to see them much earlier in the year. Adding native species will help to support butterfly and native bee populations. 

Fill your pots or a raised bed with flowering plants that produce a lot of nectar and pollen to attract pollinators. Anything in the daisy family will do the trick. Sweet-smelling dianthus appreciates cool weather and draws bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Geraniums and salvia are early bloomers that make good additions as well. 

Bountiful Baskets

Use trailing plants like calibrachoa, petunias, lobelia, and dichondra for beautiful, cascading basket displays.

Hanging baskets are great for bringing the beauty of plants up to eye level. They fill higher spots and can make a space feel more polished and lived-in. Fill your hanging baskets with heavily flowering annuals for extra color and beauty. 

Things that look nice in baskets are those with a trailing habit. You want those beautiful blooms to cascade over the sides dramatically. Vines are nice as well. Calibrachoa and petunias are great in baskets. Lobelia is a beautiful trailer. Mix in some dichondra to add silvery foliage.  

Window Box Meadow

Create a natural meadow look by layering tall grasses, trailing plants, and bright flowering varieties together.

If you long for the look of a meadow outside your windows but don’t have the space to create one in the ground, use a window box! Window boxes are a great solution for apartment dwellers, as they bring those pretty plants right up close, blocking out any less desirable views. 

You can go as organized or as wild as you want. Creating a wilder, meadow-like appearance is easy. Just add layers. Make sure you have some tall, grassy elements and some trailing elements. Add lots of flowers to bring the butterflies to your tiny meadow. Mix colors and textures for a look that is both natural and intentional. 

Strawberry Fields

Train strawberries to trail over edges and mix with flowers to attract pollinators and increase fruit.

Want to fill your containers with something beautiful and delicious? Strawberries are a perfect choice. Strawberries can be challenging to grow in the garden because we aren’t the only ones who like to eat these tasty treats. By keeping them in containers, you have more control and can keep more pests away.

Choosing which herbs to grow should depend on what you like to eat, as well as which ones you love to look at and smell. It’s nice to make this portable because herbs tend to be demanding when it comes to sunlight. They need plenty of it. 

Tons of Tulips

Tulips shine in pots grouped together; mix different colors or go monochrome for a bold effect.

All spring-blooming bulbs are wonderful, but tulips are truly special and can hold their own in a mass planting. Group together a number of terracotta pots and fill them with tulips in many colors, or stick with a monochromatic look. You may not be able to fill a field with them as the Dutch do, but you can create the look of a mass planting with a collection of containers. 

Potted Pansies

Pansies need cool weather and shade when it’s hot to keep blooming through the summer months.

Pansies and violas are spring container favorites, and many combination ideas can brighten up your patio. They are such delicate and pretty little things. Pansies are also edible and make wonderful decorations for spring baked goods. Nothing will dress up your brunches like a batch of shortbread or a frosted cake with sugared pansies for decoration. 

Pansies are in the violet family, and they prefer cool weather. It’s hard to keep them going all summer if you can’t move them into some shade as the days get longer and hotter. Keeping them in a container makes it much easier, as you can relocate them to a cooler spot. 

Bowl of Beauty

Place bowl-shaped pots up high to show their curves and layer mounding and trailing plants together.

I love a container that looks like a repurposed object. Bowl-shaped pots offer a new line to your space. The curved bottom softens harder lines, and they are perfection, with blooming beauties spilling over the side.

Set your bowl-shaped pots up high so you can enjoy their curved lines and wonderful rounded shape. Choose layers of different plants, some of which will form a well-balanced mound on top and others that will spill gracefully over the edges. 

Spring Succulents

Succulents are great for window boxes because they handle heat and dry conditions and need little watering.

Succulents are another excellent idea for spring window containers that are less accessible. They are perfect for spots that you often overlook when watering, and if you want your arrangement to last through the summer, succulents are ideal. Just make sure your succulent containers have excellent drainage. 

I love combining different types of succulents and cacti. There are so many interesting colors, textures, and forms that you can get especially creative with them. Many succulents and cacti bloom in the spring, as well, so this is the ideal time to acquire them!

Bountiful Blooms

Plant a mix of flowers in large or small pots to create colorful, creative garden displays.

Spring is the time for flowers, flowers, and more flowers! Whether you’re working with a single, large planter or a grouping of smaller ones, a wide array of colorful blooms is a sight that you just can’t beat.

This is a great way to get creative and meld together all the different flowers you long for. You don’t have to limit yourself to certain color palettes, but you can. If you want to add the full spectrum of colors, this is a great way to do it. 

I’m tickled by the idea of different-sized pots filled with an array of different flowers. You can move them around and enjoy many beautiful combinations. 

Gorgeous Geraniums

Geraniums love cool weather and look amazing grouped by color or mixed for a vibrant display.

Geraniums, like tulips, are another cool weather lover that can truly hold their own in a large group. With their stunning, aromatic foliage and extra floriferous stems, it’s hard to ignore a grouping of geraniums. 

You can combine colors here, the same as with tulips, to form a gorgeous ombre effect. Or, for extra dramatic flair, fill a large container with many geraniums in the same shade. A large container of geraniums is classically elegant and still has a warm, sweet, nostalgic vibe.