Tips from the Pros: Ideas for Gorgeous Fall Container Displays
Just because the growing season is winding down doesn’t mean you have to give up on your containers. Garden designer Susan Nock has been designing and planting them for more than 10 years and has lots of tips and ideas to share for creating gorgeous fall designs. Watch the Talk & Tour video above to get a garden design pro’s tips for creating beautiful fall containers and see how Susan brings her seasonal designs together.
Coordinate container colors with your home and garden
Before Susan starts planting, she looks at where the container will sit. Whether it’s in a border or along a path, her goal is to create a “color conversation” — a back and forth between the container and the area around it so the container fits in seamlessly.
In the photo above, she’s picked up color notes from the home’s door, trim and siding in the pots near the entry. There’s also a lacecap hydrangea near the foundation that is white in summer but develops a red-pink blush in fall, so she chose the classic orange, red and yellow fall color palette to coordinate with that standout shrub.
Susan finds that odd numbers in a grouping look best. In this group of three that you can see more clearly in the photo below, the large square pot is 20 inches square, the medium round one is 18 inches and the smallest is 12 inches. The largest pots usually have several different types of plants, but there’s just one in the smallest so the group doesn’t look too busy or confusing.
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Use containers to create visual clues for visitors
Another key role this fall entry grouping plays is to guide visitors along the path to the front door. Giving them an “oh, there’s something there so I should follow” kind of clue. Bright orange pumpkins and the showy croton foliage are sure attention-getters, drawing people along the path to the entry.
In other areas of the garden, Susan likes to create destinations. It might be an out-of-the-way patio or a bench tucked away in a side yard that could be hard to find unless you place a colorful container at the bend in a path or close to the journey’s end.
Beautify a fall border by adding containers
The great thing about containers is that they’re mobile, so you can move them wherever you need some help. Do you have a tired spot in the border where the perennials and shrubs are done blooming and the annuals are looking ragged? That’s an ideal spot for fall containers to add a visual pop.
Or maybe you have a fall border with plenty of low-growing but colorful garden mums in need of a little added height. Slip in a group of containers like the ones we’ve talked about here and you’ll have a beautiful display.
Susan uses this same approach for working containers in every season. While some of her clients want the traditional burnished red, orange and yellow colors for fall designs, others prefer cool shades — whatever the color scheme, she loves them all. Read on to get a look at some of the beautiful fall containers she created for her own home.
Love these fall containers? Get a PDF Download of Susan's container designs including plant lists here!
Tips for designing interesting fall containers
Susan is a big fan of foliage-focused containers, even in fall. They’re easy-care and look good until frost. A variety of leaf shapes, sizes and textures, as seen with the ‘Toffee Twist’ sedge, coral bells and dichondra in the planting above, ensures each plant stands out, providing a gorgeous design every time. Plus, a mix of small, medium and large leaves moves your eye through the planting, with the larger leaves providing a place to rest. Too many small- to medium-sized leaves create what Susan calls “a salad bowl container” that makes it hard to tell what’s what.
Choose the best containers
If you’re shopping for containers, large ones — 18 inches in diameter or larger — are definitely worth the investment. The size easily attracts attention; plants are healthier because there’s more room for roots to grow, and with more potting mix, it stays moist longer, so you water less. An added benefit is that you can plant larger specimens for instant impact. Buying bigger plants is an especially good idea for fall containers, as plants don’t put on a lot of new growth in cooler temperatures.
In Susan’s zone 6 garden, bigger pots mean she’s been able to overwinter evergreens, like the arborvitae in the photo above that’s a couple of years old. In spring, Susan will move this shrub to a separate pot and tuck it away in a corner of the garden to showcase again the following fall and winter.
All-weather materials
Her favorite all-weather pots are made of fiberstone and come from Campania. Most of the terra-cotta pots go indoors for the winter, but she still makes use of them for as long as possible.
Consider container height
How tall a container should be depends on the situation. Susan often lets the house or garden other structures dictate the size. At an entry, she likes the container to be about a third the size of the door. A 24-inch-tall pot with an arborvitae is just the right size to attract attention to the shed’s door. In the border, Susan looks for a fence, a shrub or even a tall perennial to relate the container to and ensure a proportional look.
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Seasonal container swap-out
This spot on the deck is a high visibility area that Susan walks by daily and can see from her kitchen window, so she creates seasonal displays to enjoy every year. The summer group (above) had lots of tender house plants, succulents and bromeliads that needed to go indoors once fall nights were getting chilly.
Fall display
So Susan swapped those out for cool-weather-loving garden mums, ornamental kale, heather and, of course, pumpkins you see above. The big arborvitae at the end of the bench and long concrete trough are too heavy to move, so they stay in place all year.
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