Designer Tina Dixon, owner of Plants à la Cart in Bothell, Washington, really likes to crowd her pots. The one shown here in April offers proof that her method works beautifully. Dixon planted the combination last October for Howard and Lynn Behar's garden on Mercer Island.

The 23-inch-diameter container holds 10 tulips (Tulipa kaufmanniana 'Stresa'), 10 daffodils (almost out of bloom in this photo), 7 pansies, a pair of sedges, 2 Euphorbia purpurea, and gallon-size plants of Hypericum 'Albury Purple' and Leucothoe fontanesiana 'Rainbow'. Dixon sets in the largest plants first, buries daffodil and tulip bulbs 6 inches deep, then overplants them with pansies.