10 Pretty Container Gardens in Pastel Hues
Brighten up your porch, entryway or windowsill with potted arrangements in spring colors
Lauren Dunec Hoang
9 May 2021
Houzz Editor; landscape designer and former garden editor for Sunset Magazine and in-house designer for Sunset's Editorial Test Garden. Her garden designs have been featured in the Sunset Western Garden Book of Landscaping, Sunset Western Garden Book of Easy-Care Plantings (cover), Inhabitat, and POPSUGAR.
Houzz Editor; landscape designer and former garden editor for Sunset Magazine and... More
With a lovely springlike palette of rose pinks, lavender, blue, yellow and white, these containers capture the beauty and freshness of the season. Whether you’re hunting for ideas for seasonal decorating or just hoping to admire some beautiful spring blooms, take a look at these 10 ideas for potted arrangements. Tell us, which one is your favorite?
1. Romantic Entry
Clusters of pink tulips surrounded by a froth of purple, white and antique rose-colored blooms transform this Chicago entry into a spring vignette. The container design by David & Jennifer Hoxsie of
Greenhaven Landscapes also includes fragrant purple stock flowers (Matthiola sp.), purple African daisies (Osteospermum sp.), pansies (Viola sp.) and white sweet alyssum (Lobularia maritima).
Water requirement: Moderate to high
Light requirement: Full sun to partial shade
Clusters of pink tulips surrounded by a froth of purple, white and antique rose-colored blooms transform this Chicago entry into a spring vignette. The container design by David & Jennifer Hoxsie of
Greenhaven Landscapes also includes fragrant purple stock flowers (Matthiola sp.), purple African daisies (Osteospermum sp.), pansies (Viola sp.) and white sweet alyssum (Lobularia maritima).
Water requirement: Moderate to high
Light requirement: Full sun to partial shade
Kim Rooney Landscape Architecture
2. Cascade of Blooms
Two classical urns filled with delicate pastel blooms brighten up the porch of this Seattle home. Designed and planted by the homeowner, the arrangements include double pink impatiens, white gardenias and light blue lobelia. All plants could be started in spring and kept going through summer.
Water requirement: Moderate to high
Light requirement: Partial sun to partial shade; keep impatiens out of direct afternoon sun
Find garden urns in the Houzz Shop
2. Cascade of Blooms
Two classical urns filled with delicate pastel blooms brighten up the porch of this Seattle home. Designed and planted by the homeowner, the arrangements include double pink impatiens, white gardenias and light blue lobelia. All plants could be started in spring and kept going through summer.
Water requirement: Moderate to high
Light requirement: Partial sun to partial shade; keep impatiens out of direct afternoon sun
Find garden urns in the Houzz Shop
3. Sunny Yellows
Yellow flowers look like a ray of sunshine in the garden, even under gray skies. Here, yellow tulips with petals edged in orange pair with low-growing white grape hyacinths (Muscari sp.) for a cheery container display at the Dutch Keukenhof Garden, outside Amsterdam.
Water requirement: Moderate to high
Light requirement: Full sun to partial shade
Don’t have a sunny spot? 14 Beautiful Container Gardens for Shady Spots
Yellow flowers look like a ray of sunshine in the garden, even under gray skies. Here, yellow tulips with petals edged in orange pair with low-growing white grape hyacinths (Muscari sp.) for a cheery container display at the Dutch Keukenhof Garden, outside Amsterdam.
Water requirement: Moderate to high
Light requirement: Full sun to partial shade
Don’t have a sunny spot? 14 Beautiful Container Gardens for Shady Spots
4. Blues in a Sea of White
Cloud-like puffs of a blue hydrangea underplanted with white pansies and trailing ivy float above a bed of white tulips that are just beginning to bloom in this design by Scott Byron & Co. Keep in mind that greenhouse-grown bedding hydrangeas will grow into full-size shrubs in a few seasons if planted out in beds.
Water requirement: Moderate to high
Light requirement: Full sun to partial shade
Work with a landscape designer on your spring containers
Cloud-like puffs of a blue hydrangea underplanted with white pansies and trailing ivy float above a bed of white tulips that are just beginning to bloom in this design by Scott Byron & Co. Keep in mind that greenhouse-grown bedding hydrangeas will grow into full-size shrubs in a few seasons if planted out in beds.
Water requirement: Moderate to high
Light requirement: Full sun to partial shade
Work with a landscape designer on your spring containers
5. Spring Climbers
Trained white-flowering Arctic Queen clematis (Clematis ‘Evitwo’) vines clamber up both sides of this window, framing it with blossoms. The containers, designed by Westover Landscape Design, also include orange-and-purple violas tucked around the base to help hide the often bare bottom of a clematis vine.
Water requirement: Moderate to high
Light requirement: Full sun to light shade
Trained white-flowering Arctic Queen clematis (Clematis ‘Evitwo’) vines clamber up both sides of this window, framing it with blossoms. The containers, designed by Westover Landscape Design, also include orange-and-purple violas tucked around the base to help hide the often bare bottom of a clematis vine.
Water requirement: Moderate to high
Light requirement: Full sun to light shade
6. Pretty Up the Porch
In a second spring container display by Greenhaven Landscapes, a mix of pale and deeper pinks spread across multiple planters adds a welcome dose of color to the porch. Here, the design team used pink tulips, a Fire Light hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata), white ranunculuses, Pink Shades pansies, sweet-smelling white stock and sweet alyssum. Branches of pussy willow stuck into the container add height.
Water requirement: Moderate to high
Light requirement: Full sun to partial shade
In a second spring container display by Greenhaven Landscapes, a mix of pale and deeper pinks spread across multiple planters adds a welcome dose of color to the porch. Here, the design team used pink tulips, a Fire Light hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata), white ranunculuses, Pink Shades pansies, sweet-smelling white stock and sweet alyssum. Branches of pussy willow stuck into the container add height.
Water requirement: Moderate to high
Light requirement: Full sun to partial shade
7. Reigning Daffodils
The ‘King Alfred’ daffodil is often considered the gold standard for long-blooming, clear yellow trumpet Narcissus. Whether grown in a container or in the garden, it immediately draws the eye with large, bright yellow blooms. In this arrangement by Austin Ganim Landscape Design, ‘King Alfred’ sits tall in an urn, surrounded by regal ‘Purple Sensation’ hyacinths, a mix of purple and white pansies and a crush of tulips, yet to bloom.
Water requirement: Moderate to high
Light requirement: Full sun to partial shade
The ‘King Alfred’ daffodil is often considered the gold standard for long-blooming, clear yellow trumpet Narcissus. Whether grown in a container or in the garden, it immediately draws the eye with large, bright yellow blooms. In this arrangement by Austin Ganim Landscape Design, ‘King Alfred’ sits tall in an urn, surrounded by regal ‘Purple Sensation’ hyacinths, a mix of purple and white pansies and a crush of tulips, yet to bloom.
Water requirement: Moderate to high
Light requirement: Full sun to partial shade
8. Showy in Shade
Landscape designer Christine Darnell combined Eastern U.S. native plants for this gorgeous shade garden combination. She used a native pink azalea (Rhododendron periclymenoides), underplanted with heartleaf foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia var. collina) and purple-leaved alumroot (Heuchera micrantha ‘Palace Purple’).
If you’re unable to locate native heartleaf foamflower, Darnell recommends substituting ‘Brandywine’ foamflower (T. cordifolia ‘Brandywine’), a cultivar look-alike.
Water requirement: Moderate to high
Light requirement: Partial shade, keep sheltered from direct afternoon sun
Learn more about gardening with native plants
Landscape designer Christine Darnell combined Eastern U.S. native plants for this gorgeous shade garden combination. She used a native pink azalea (Rhododendron periclymenoides), underplanted with heartleaf foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia var. collina) and purple-leaved alumroot (Heuchera micrantha ‘Palace Purple’).
If you’re unable to locate native heartleaf foamflower, Darnell recommends substituting ‘Brandywine’ foamflower (T. cordifolia ‘Brandywine’), a cultivar look-alike.
Water requirement: Moderate to high
Light requirement: Partial shade, keep sheltered from direct afternoon sun
Learn more about gardening with native plants
9. Pot o’ Pansies
If you have a few extra strawberry pots around the garden, consider filling one with pastel pansies. This container by Craig Bergmann Landscape Design is charming on its own, or it could be used to add height to a trio of spring containers, the lower two filled with potted bulbs.
Water requirement: Moderate to high
Light requirement: Full sun to partial shade
If you have a few extra strawberry pots around the garden, consider filling one with pastel pansies. This container by Craig Bergmann Landscape Design is charming on its own, or it could be used to add height to a trio of spring containers, the lower two filled with potted bulbs.
Water requirement: Moderate to high
Light requirement: Full sun to partial shade
10. Bunnies and Blooms
This container in New England, designed by Heather O’Neill of Second Nature Landscape Design, includes a spray of yellow forsythia, white-flowering dwarf ‘Cavatine’ Japanese andromeda (Pieris japonica ‘Cavatine’), dusty pink hellebore (Helleborus sp.), wine-colored rhododendron (P.J.M. Group) — which will have bright pinkish-purple flowers later in spring — and a mix of miniature daffodils and pansies tucked around the base.
Water requirement: Moderate to high
Light requirement: Full sun
This container in New England, designed by Heather O’Neill of Second Nature Landscape Design, includes a spray of yellow forsythia, white-flowering dwarf ‘Cavatine’ Japanese andromeda (Pieris japonica ‘Cavatine’), dusty pink hellebore (Helleborus sp.), wine-colored rhododendron (P.J.M. Group) — which will have bright pinkish-purple flowers later in spring — and a mix of miniature daffodils and pansies tucked around the base.
Water requirement: Moderate to high
Light requirement: Full sun
JCRD Group
Tell us: Have you created spring container gardens this year? Share photos in the Comments.
More on Houzz
Get more container garden inspiration
Find a garden designer near you
Shop for outdoor pots and planters
Tell us: Have you created spring container gardens this year? Share photos in the Comments.
More on Houzz
Get more container garden inspiration
Find a garden designer near you
Shop for outdoor pots and planters
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check out #8 Showy in Shade. Hostas and Heuchera make lovely potted plants in shade gardens, and since their perennials, they come back every year. I add annuals like Wandering Jew for a pop of color.
I planted crocus bulbs in containers in December (I planted them in December because this is when I got the bulbs-maybe I should have planted them earlier?) on my North and East facing enclosed apartment terrace in zone 7 (but warmer because the terrace is enclosed-the temperature differential between indoors and outdoors depends on the temp, the wind and whether the sun is shining and probably the humidity. In other words quite variable). My sister had this brilliant idea to mimic nature and water them when it rained outside which I did. Those crocus bloomed in March! Taxi cab yellow and regal purple. I've never been happier for a sign of spring! I have dug up bulbs to plant again next year. All had increased in size except one which had rotted. I also would like to learn about outdoor container plants in shade, multi-plants or multi bulbs planted in a single container and about bulbs that are planted in spring. I also wonder if you would do something about sun rooms that are unheated. I LOVE TULIPS!
I just stuck a rosemary plant in a container on my front porch. The house faces west so it's a blast furnace there if the sun is shining. All of these suggestions require at least partial shade. I bought another pot but haven't figured out what to put in it yet. Maybe a tomato?