Thriller, filler, and spiller. Three important words when talking about dressing up your container pots for spring and summer! These three words are what we use here at the garden center to create beautiful, custom potting arrangements for clients, as well as for ourselves at our own homes!
When deciding what plants to use to fill your container pots this spring, you need to be looking for a thriller first and foremost. This is the tallest piece at the center of your pot. All other plants compliment this piece. It can be all greenery (such as a spike, boxwood, or small ornamental grass) or it can be showy like Mandevilla on a small trellis. It also needs to be in proportion to the size of the pot you use, so keep that in mind.
After you've chosen your thriller, next up are the fillers. These are typically annuals that "fill" the sides of the container all the way around. Some great examples would be vinca, lantana, begonias, or impatiens. There are 100s more! You can mix and match these plants as fillers, or use one variety of flower as the filler (or, not to give you more choices, but you could pick one color and use a few different varieties of flowers, however they would all be the same color to unify the look... can you tell we get a wee bit excited about plants around here?). There are many options, but as long as you're happy with the colors you are choosing (and keep in mind your pot color, also!), anything you choose will be beautiful!
Last but not least, choose your spiller/s. You can choose greenery such as ivy, creeping Jenny (one of our favorites and a perennial; shown above!), sweet potato vine, or you can have flowers spill out such as wave petunias (in the above example also!). Or both! You can mix greenery and flowers that naturally cascade out of a pot. Again, many choices, and it depends on the size of the pot you're working with.
Following these three steps will help you create the beautiful pots you see handcrafted here at the nursery! If you'd rather leave it up to us, we happily offer custom potting using your own pots or new ones here at the nursery. Call us at 615-468-2008 and ask to speak to Lynn or Carolyn for all the details.