Native Plant Container Ideas for Fall

Nuts for Natives
Sep 24
3 min read

Updated: Sep 24

So many plants ... so many possibilities.

plants in containers on patio — Containers with Natives

You can create fabulous containers with native plants that can later grow in your garden, attract pollinators and feed birds for years to come! All you have to do is grab a container, some potting mix and a perennial native plant or two! These ideas really just scratch the surface. There are literally so many potential combinations. You can even shop your own garden as I did for some of these.

Simple and Elegant

yellow flowers in citron colored container

This urn is such a striking shape and color that it can really stand on its own. The small delicate flowers of this cultivar of tickseed is all this planter needs. Tickseed 'Moonbeam' (Anacis verticillata 'Moonbeam' formerly coreopsis) grows in full sun and blooms from mid summer through fall. Matching a flower color to the color of your container is a very easy way to go.

Evergreen

For a planter that keeps on going through winter, choose an inkberry (Ilex glabra) shrub. This is the cultivar 'Strongbox®' (Ilex glabra 'ILEXFARROWTRACEY'). It is a rounder, smaller inkberry. The straight species would work just as well. Inkberry grows best in sun though can grow in part sun. This will need regular watering.

Year Round

These matching planters are interesting all year long. These are American arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis) topiaries. There are many, many cultivars of arborvitae available. To make sure you are getting the American species native to parts of the eastern U.S., look for the latin name 'occidentalis.' 'Standishi' is the Asian variety and 'plicata' is native to the northwest U.S.

To avoid the higher cost of topiary, you can buy a small American arborvitae and limb it up by pruning off the lower branches. Please note it's best to only prune up to a third of any plant at one time. Any more than that and you risk irreparably weakening the plant.

These topiary are underplanted with a cultivar, heuchera 'Caramel' (Heuchera villosa 'Caramel'), the straight species of heuchera, American alumroot (Heuchera americana), and wild violet (Viola). Side note: no need to buy a wild violet if these appear in your garden from time to time. You can dig it up and, once placed in potting soil with regular watering, it will quickly grow in size.

Each of these perennials does bloom but the flowers are not the reason to plant these. The interesting shapes and colors of the foliage are. With an evergreen to carry through the winter, these containers work year round. All of these plants do well in part sun to part shade.

Quintessential Fall

yellow flowers, purple leaved plant and blue grass in round pot

Black-eyed susans (Rudbeckia hirta), a maroon cultivar of heuchera (Heuchera 'Palace Purple') and blue wood sedge (Carex flaccosperma) come together to create this autumnal color palette. All of these perennials are widely available at garden centers, are easy growers and adaptable to a range of conditions out in the garden. This container can grow in full sun with regular water and in part shade.

For the Berries

This container features a red chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolia) shrub with berries for the birds. Tickseed 'Moonbeam®' and a cultivar of rudbeckia 'Prairie Sun' (Rubeckia hirta 'Prairie Sun') to round it out. Red chokeberry has the most pleasing fall colors. Leaves will alternate between pale oranges and reds. A female winterberry (Ilex verticillata) would also be an excellent choice for red berries.

This cultivar of rudbeckia is popular in garden centers this time of year. The flowers are larger and emerge with green centers and eventually turn brown as the flower ages. The straight species of rudbeckia hirta is typically a short lived perennial. It may last only a few years but readily self seeds. This cultivar is often sold as an annual because it tends to be very short lived, particularly in our area.

Planting containers with perennials is a great way to try plants new to you or get creative, or both. As always, once you feel like the season is over or you will not be able to regularly water your containers, pop those plants out in your garden and they should live on, bringing years of joy!

Happy Gardening.

4 Comments

Guest

Sep 25

At a native plant garden tour a week ago, I picked up six plants and thought of quickly planting them in containers until I can decide on their permanent homes. My question is, what kind of soil should go in the container, if these are native plants and don’t require great soils?

shari

Replying to

For containers, it is always recommended to use a potting mix. Garden soil is very dense and doesn't provide the drainage plants need to do well in containers. You can make your own potting mix. Penn State extension provides this info: https://extension.psu.edu/homemade-potting-media. Many recipes on-line call for peat which is mined from bogs and environmentally unsustainable. Compost and Leaf Gro would be good substitutes for the peat. All that said, if this is a temporary home for your plants, say a week or two, garden soil would be fine.

Donna

Shari: Thank you for pointing out variations in “cultivar vs straight” — sometimes there are benefits for each😉

So true .... for those who may not be aware - cultivars of native plants are native plants that have been bred with another plant to get a different trait such as more height or a different leaf color or flower shape. The science to date indicates that cultivars of native plants that change the flower shape or foliage color do not provide the same ecological benefit as the naturally occurring plant also called the straight species.