7 Easy Flower Combos For Fall Containers

It's an excellent time to plant. These cool season flowers are easy to find at nurseries and big box stores. I'm going to show you my favorite combinations so you can add them to your containers and have blooms through spring. Geraniums and alyssum are a classic combination. Put the geraniums in the middle and a couple of alyssums around the outside. The alyssums will trail along the outside of the container, fill in and be beautiful. It's tempting to use all of these alyssum but you don't need to over plant. Just two or three are enough to To fill in all of this space, put them with the roots angling towards the middle and the flowers towards the sides. Gazanias and violas come in lots of different colors. Choose coordinating ones and plant them together. The violas are going to fill along the outside. The gazanias will bloom up through the middle. When it gets hot, these will die back and it'll give that gazania all of the room in this pot. Petunias are an easy cool season flower. Give them their own container, you'll have lots of blooms. This is a little container. One plant will be plenty. Be careful with the roots. Sometimes you push it up from the bottom. Keep it intact there. Firm the soil around it. That will bloom and fill in this whole space. Don't be afraid to garden in small containers. They grow well through the cooler months of the year. And don't over plant. Give each plant enough room so that they can grow and bloom. Crowding too closely means your plants will stay smaller. Don't feel like you have to fill the whole pot now. It will take off and grow during this beautiful cool weather. A tall flower like snapdragons pairs well with a low mounding flower like alyssum. I'll put one snapdragon towards the back of this pot and then one alyssum at the front. The snapdragon will grow up tall and the alyssum will trail over the container. My favorite combination is Blue Salvia and Lobelia. There's something about those bright blue flowers as a pop of color in the garden that I love. I love Blue Salvia because once it's established it grows well even into the heat for a while. This is a plant that will live for a long time. Lobelia can be tricky because it doesn't like it too hot. If you plant it too soon it will die. It prefers a little bit of shady conditions. Don't plant this one when it's too hot. This is a larger container. I have an olla filled with water inside and I'm going to plant three of the blue salvias around the middle here. When you're getting the plants out sometimes if you squeeze those roots it helps them come out easier. You want to make sure you get all of the roots out of that container. Plant these three and this will fill in in no time. See these have already dried out a little bit in the nursery. I'm going to make sure to get those watered. They're a little bit temperamental but they're so beautiful once they get growing. So I'll plant one Lobelia in the middle of each of those. You can pair violas with other flowers but it's also beautiful planted just by itself in a smaller container. Stock and Lobelia are another great combination. The stock will smell amazing and that Lobelia will grow along the outside edge. These plants don't get very wide. You'll pull out the plant and leave all the roots and this is much more likely to die. Stock grows nice and tall, doesn't get really wide, so I'm going to put it put three right in the middle and some lobelia around that outside edge. Now I'll pair stock with dianthus and alyssum. When you're in the nursery look for flowers that coordinate and that you love the colors of. I'll put stock in the inside and then alternate the dianthus with the alyssum Our seasons are short so buying transplants that are already blooming is a nice way to add cool season color right away. I love blue flowers. I'm going to do this blue salvia with these blue violas. Sometimes it's a good idea to cut off these blooms so the plant can focus on getting established, but it's always so sad because I love to see the blooms. I'll tuck a dianthus into this pot all by itself. Some of those roots were dry. You want to make sure they don't dry out all the way. Get them watered so they can settle in. Probably have to water more often those first few days after planting. Once you start to see new growth, you'll know those plants have settled in and you can back off on the watering a little bit. But those root balls are pretty small, especially plants like the Lobelia. They do not like to dry out. Keep a close eye on them. You'll notice a difference in the containers. Some of the terracotta containers will dry out a little more quickly, but that also allows your roots to breathe. I love using terracotta for that reason. The fall and winter seasons are nice because just about any container will grow well. Filling your garden with cool season flowers is simple. Plant some today.