Foliage-Focused Container Garden Ideas for Summer
Here are 7 garden containers that use foliage plants to supply color and interest for sun and shade all summer
Flowering annuals have always been a staple for pots, planters and hanging baskets, but foliage plants deserve this spotlight too.
Whether they’re joined by companions or flying solo, leafy perennials provide consistent interest throughout the growing season. Their foliage, whether solid or variegated, contributes eye-catching color as well as texture. They can complement or contrast with other kinds of foliage and with flowers.
Foliage plant recommendations for sun & shade
While the large, lush leaves of shade-loving plants may spring to mind as "foliage plants" first, there are sun-loving options too. Chuck Pavlich, director of new product development for grower Terra Nova Nurseries, recommends stonecrops, sedums and dark-leaved coral bells (Heuchera), like 'Forever Purple’, for sunny planters.
In shade, he suggests lighter heucheras, like ‘Lime Marmalade’, as well as Tiarella, hybrid Heucherella and many other shade-garden favorites, including Japanese forestgrass (Hakonechloa macra), lungworts (Pulmonaria) and even larger plants like bugbane (Actaea ‘Black Negligee’), Rodgersia ‘Bronze Peacock’ and the shrubby Fatsia ‘Spider’s Web’.
Related Article: Bold Foliage Plants for Colorful Garden Combinations
Don’t underestimate the impact of a specimen container
These bigger plants are natural choices to occupy a planter alone, but Chuck suggests considering smaller perennials for a solo as well, noting that “well-grown specimens can make a bold and elegant statement.” Combining different plants within one container gets more complicated visually and practically, so he offers a few reminders:
“Investigate the growth habit of the chosen plants for a container. Do they all take sun? Do they all need shade?” he says. “How big will they get over the summer? Does one like a dry container and the other need more moisture? Just make sure they are horticulturally compatible.”
Related Article: Create Annual Planters that Are Dramatic and Full of Color
3 Ways to Maintain Healthy, Beautiful Foliage in Containers
Plants admired for their foliage can require less attention in pots than alternatives do—especially flowering annuals, which may need frequent feeding and deadheading. That said, all plants need care. Here are a few pointers:
- Getting started: Chuck Pavlich reminds gardeners to begin with a well-designed container and a quality growing mix blended for pots. “Make certain the container has adequate drain holes,” he says. “Soggy soil goes into an anaerobic state. It lacks oxygen, smells sour and harbors harmful bacteria and disease.”
- Keep growing: Chuck recommends treating container perennials with one application of a slow-release fertilizer “to avoid excess, soft growth,” but he adds that a punch of quick-release liquid feed may be used later on lagging plants. As with all pots and planters, check the soil moisture daily.
- At the end of the summer: In cold climates, the simplest way to address hardy perennials or shrubs is to transplant them into the garden four to six weeks before the expected first frost. Tender plants can be moved, pot and all, into a cool, dry space where they can sit dormant until spring. Tropicals can be wintered within the living space as houseplants.
Related Article: Overwintering Tropical Plants in Containers
Foliage-Focused Container Combinations for Sun
Accent a flowering shrub with annual and perennial foliage
Coarse-leaved perennials anchor the base of this drought-tolerant mixed container (pictured above), showcasing the airy stems of a bronze-leaved beautyberry shrub (Callicarpa x ‘Pearl Glam’). Mottled in purple, the succulent, starburst-shaped Mangave ‘Inkblot’ echoes the color of the beautyberry. It is balanced on its left side by ornamental oregano (Origanum x hybrida ‘Kirigami’) with its leaflike tiered flower bracts, and on its right by purple sage (Salvia officinalis ‘Purpurea’), brushing shoulders with a cool-hued, trailing stonecrop (Sedum reflexum ‘Blue Spruce’).
At the center of the pot, Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia) provides fine-textured contrast with its feathery silver leaves. Its late-summer purple flowers are a bonus in this pot.
Add tender shrubs for interesting foliage-focused containers
A large container makes the perfect home for a unique plant like this honeybush (Melianthus major; above). A fleshy-stemmed tender shrub (USDA Zones 8 and warmer), it’s usually treated like a perennial with a hard cutting back in early spring. This creates a more compact plant, the better to show off the glaucous, toothed leaflets that make up the compound leaves. The pot also prevents unwanted spread, which honeybush can commit in the ground.
Here, flowering annuals—trailing black-eyed Susan vine (Thunbergia alata) and Begonia Sparks Will Fly (‘Brothglow’)—add bright color while covering the base of the stems.
Related Article: 5 Flowering Vines to Grow from Seed
Houseplants shine in summer containers
Foliage houseplants can take their talents outdoors for summer, like this variegated rubber plant (Ficus elastica ‘Variegata’; pictured above). Trailing companions include purple-leaved Joseph’s coat (Alternanthera brasiliana ‘Purple Prince’), an annual, and silvery Tradescantia sillamontana ‘White Velvet’, which can also be kept as a houseplant. ‘Profusion White’ zinnias add floral interest.
Foliage-Focused Containers for Shade
Elephant ear adds bold leaves to shade containers
A refined color palette and one splash of fine texture among bold leaves set this container apart (pictured above). A dark elephant ear (Colocasia esculenta ‘Black Magic’) serves as the centerpiece, with a bugleweed (Ajuga reptans ‘Black Scallop’) to repeat its color. Green-veined Siberian bugloss (Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’) and a silver deadnettle (Lamium maculatum ‘Beacon Silver’) continue the theme of heart-shaped leaves, with grassy Lomandra longifolia ‘Platinum Beauty’ adding excitement.
Related Article: Tropical Fusion | How To Use Nonhardy Plants in Temperate Gardens
Try a monochromatic color scheme for foliage containers
Green shades planted in layers emphasize the power of foliage plants. Above, the fronds of a tree fern arch over the deep green, unusual Hosta ‘Praying Hands’. White-edged, minty Sedum spurium ‘Tricolor’ and chartreuse spikemoss (Selaginella kraussiana) spill over the edge of the container.
Mix houseplants with annuals for texture and color
Coleus (Plectranthus scutellarioides) is a no-brainer for consistent bright color in shady pots. Above, a red-leaved variety finds leafy support in two houseplants: Boston fern (Nephrolepis exaltata), whose fronds complement the coleus’s leaf shape, and a golden dracaena, whose hue picks up the lime edge of the coleus foliage.
