Create a lush planter glowing with color using your favorite annual plants and flowers. Mix different heights with wider and fuller plants for a well-balanced design. Add creeping annual vines to tumble down the sides of the planter and into the garden. Use taller annual flowers in the back of the planter for contrast to the rest of the container. Don't forget to use smaller and low-growing annuals to help fill in the tight corners and awkward spaces.

Cool Season Annuals

Use cool season annuals to create a vibrant container to spruce up your outdoor landscape with color and vibrancy. Colorful primroses mixed with the ever-vibrant pansies will bloom through fall and last until the first frost. Add an ornamental cabbage to fill in the base of the planter. Their unusual shape and purple and green petals add an unexpected touch to the space. A particularly vibrant and colorful addition is the calendula. The gold and red blooms billow out of the planter to reach a height up to 24 inches. The dark green foliage creates contrast to the colorful blooms and helps to create a well-balanced planter. Another lovely cool season annual is the forget-me-not. With its tiny pale blue flowers, this lovely and low-growing annual helps to fill in hard-to-reach spaces of the container.

Herbs

Grow fresh annual herbs inside the container for a lush and fragrant planter design. Use dill in the back of the container for height. With its tall structure, as high as 4 feet in height, and feathery soft leaves, the dill will become the go to herb to use in your planter. Another lovely annual herb is the ever-useful basil plant. Used in a wide range of recipes and ability to grow tall and full, basil is the ideal herb for planting on the sides of the planter. Don't forget to add the bright green and vibrant parsley plant. This annual herb with its flat or curly leaves grows in large clumps and are perfect for filling out a planter.

Ornamental Grass

Annual fountain grasses add height and create a stunning focal point to a garden planter. Ornamental grasses are fast-growing and create a large upright and arching-shaped design to the space. A lovely green- and red-leaved ornamental grass is the red fountain grass. It grows in a large clump and will produce red leaves and flower blooms throughout the fall season. Another vibrant annual grass is the ornamental wheat grass. This annual grass has tall straight stems with feathery cream-colored blooms. Hardy and tall, ornamental wheat grass looks stunning when planted alone. Don't forget the irresistible bunny tail grass. This ornamental grass has soft and fluffy puffball-like blooms that you'll love to touch. Fill the planter with this cheerful and unexpected blooms and watch the garden come to life.