When fall starts creeping in, it’s hard not to notice colorful pots of mums and annuals for sale outside of nearly every grocery store. While they’re certainly fast and convenient, it’s easy to create your own container at home with all of your favorite fall flowers! Plus, they’re a great opportunity to incorporate plants that are native to Wisconsin, supporting our local pollinators well into autumn.
Choose Your Container
Any planter design starts with a container. While smaller pots are often less expensive and easier to haul around, they don’t leave much room for plants to establish their roots.2 Try to find a deep container that provides ample space for your new plants to grow into. If you have difficulty hauling heavy objects, consider opting for a large, light weight planter instead of one made out of something like concrete or ceramic material.
It’s also incredibly important that your container has a drainage hole. This is true for indoor containers, but even more so for outdoor containers because of their exposure to the elements. Stagnant water often causes root health issues because of the lack of available oxygen. Root rot can be fatal and is incredibly hard for a plant to recover from.3
If your dream container has no drainage, it might be best to double pot. This works well with smaller containers, and makes it easy to change plants out from season to season. Simply nest a pot liner with drainage holes above some loose gravel within your decorative outer pot. This allows water to drain out, keeping your plant’s roots healthy. Just make sure to keep an eye on water levels after something like a big rainstorm.3
Mix Your Medium
The next step is finding your growing medium! Potting mixture is different than garden soil, and is optimized to make nutrients available to your plants, provide ample breathing room, and create structure for roots to grow in. Once you know what plants are going in your container, do some research on what their needs are to best determine what growing media mixture they need.4
Pick Your Plants
Now comes everyone’s favorite part, plants! Garden mums are a staple fall flower, but it’s important to seek out hardy mums that will be able to withstand the cool chill of autumn nights. Our go-to here at the Garden are Frosty Igloo hardy garden mums. Their crisp white blooms contrast the typical warm hues of fall. Plus, they’re short and dense, perfect for a doorstep planter or garden accent.
For taller interest, black-eyed Susans add stunning pops of golden color. Besides their beauty, they’re also Wisconsin natives, supporting pollinators and wildlife all season long. With long lasting blooms and resistance to common pests and diseases, American Gold Rush black-eyed Susans are a great pick.5
If you’re looking for more texture and lasting color, grasses might be the perfect fit! For a planter, it’s important to pay attention to heights. While big bluestem is beautiful, few containers can stand up to the 4 to 8-foot-long blades it boasts.1 For most pots, a shorter plant like Japanese blood grass will be a better option.
Low-growing sedum can also help to fill in the empty spots in your container. Sedum makes the perfect ground cover, and it won’t shade out your beautiful blooms!
The list of plants goes on and on, and that’s the beauty of creating your dream container. With just a little bit of research, some spare change, and a good bit of elbow grease, you’ll have a beautiful planter in no time.
Need more inspiration? Check out our how-tos on the Gardening Tips web page. There are also containers throughout the Garden, and the Horticulture Team has been nice enough to label each one with a list of the plants it contains. So, just stroll through the Garden and jot down the secret ingredients to whatever container catches your eye. Happy planting!
Sources
- “Andropogon Gerardii.” Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center . Accessed August 6, 2024. https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=ange.
- Cantrell, Abby. “Container Garden Basics from a Plant Lady.” The North Carolina Arboretum, August 14, 2023. https://www.ncarboretum.org/2023/08/14/container-garden-basics-from-a-plant-lady/.
- “Container Drainage Options.” Illinois Extension Container Gardens. Accessed August 6, 2024. https://extension.illinois.edu/container-gardens/container-drainage-options.
- “Growing Media (Potting Soil) for Containers.” University of Maryland Extension, February 20, 2023. https://extension.umd.edu/resource/growing-media-potting-soil-containers/.
- “‘American Gold Rush’ Black-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia).” Great Garden Plants. Accessed August 6, 2024. https://www.greatgardenplants.com/products/american-gold-rush-black-eyed-susan-rudbeckia?srsltid=AfmBOop1T4l-lEWaU7Y2NDcH61nWJzonXEwpamRAMCl5_m7ZJx_PxA1h.
