One of the great things about growing plants in pots is that you can use them just about anywhere no matter how big or small your garden. Planted with flowers, vegetables or herbs, they add color to a deck or patio. A pair of pots flanking the front door is a warm welcome for visitors. And, for apartment and condo-dwellers with a balcony, a few pots or window boxes set on the floor help soften iron railings and brick walls and create that garden feeling.

Think of containers as accessories for your garden and outdoor living space. In small areas, they can be grouped together and staged for a sensational display. Because very few perennials bloom for more than a few weeks, I like to place large pots filled with annuals, such as red fountain grass, petunias, calibrachoa, nasturtiums, lantana and sweet potato vines in my long perennial border. There, they attract butterflies and hummingbirds and add interest until the first fall frost.

Add pots to your shade garden for color

In my shade garden, most of the plants are green—epimediums, hostas and hellebores, for example. They all tend to carpet the ground at the same height, which can be monotonous. To draw the eyes upward, I set a few large resin urns filled with red flowering annuals like Dragon Wing begonias that serve as focal points. Red is a complementary color to green and when they are paired together, the combination is striking, especially in shade. On our patio, two shrubby panicle hydrangeas (Hydrangea paniculata ‘Limelight’) thrive in very large, lightweight “foam” pots. They can be left out all year, even though we are in zone 5 where winter temperatures can dip below zero. The hydrangeas have thrived for more than three years in the pots. Soon I’ll move them into one of my borders and replace them with something new.

Essentials of garden pot design

It’s easy to design and plant a pot with stunning results if you follow a few essentials. First, choose pots that have holes in the bottom for drainage. That is critical. The containers need to shed excess water from the soil, otherwise the waterlogged roots will rot and the plants will die.

Let’s say you are on a garden walk and searching for inspiration, I look for containers that complement the style of the house. For example, a classic iron urn looks great with a Victorian home. Alternatively, a tall, contemporary glazed pot can enhance sleek architectural lines. For me, this is a simple design principle that pulls the house and garden together. Another trick is using containers that are all made of the same material or the same style or the same color. It creates unity and consistency throughout the garden.