Spring Flowers for Your Colorado Container Garden
Ready, Set, Grow: Essential Plants to Kickstart Your Spring Container Garden
Spring is a season celebrated for its symbolism of new beginnings, pops of color from freshly blossomed flowers, and warming weather. Now is the perfect time for adding some color back into your landscape with potted plants and container gardens. Check out some tips and tricks from the horticulture professionals at Designscapes Colorado to ensure that your spring gardening endeavor is a successful one.
Plants Perfect for Spring Planting
Gardening in Colorado presents a unique blend of challenges and opportunities, shaped by the state's diverse microclimates and high-altitude conditions. Perennials are particularly well-suited for planting in Colorado due to their ability to withstand the state's diverse and sometimes harsh climate conditions. Perennials, with their deep root systems, can often better tolerate these conditions compared to annual plants. By incorporating perennials into gardens in Colorado, gardeners can create beautiful displays that thrive despite the challenges of the local climate.
- Pansies: Pansies are beloved for their cheerful blooms that come in a wide range of colors, including shades of purple, yellow, orange, red, white, and blue.They have a compact growth pattern and are often used in beds, borders, containers, and hanging baskets. They bloom profusely in spring, and with deadheading, they can continue to flower well into early summer.
- Daffodils: Daffodils are iconic spring-blooming bulbs known for their trumpet-shaped flowers and bright yellow, white, or orange hues. They are among the earliest flowers to bloom in spring, often appearing as early as late winter, depending on the variety and location. Daffodils are excellent for mass plantings, borders, rock gardens, and naturalizing in meadows or woodland areas.
- Muscari: Muscari, commonly known as grape hyacinths, are petite spring-flowering bulbs prized for their clusters of tiny, bell-shaped flowers resembling grapes. Muscari are early bloomers, typically appearing in early to mid-spring alongside other spring bulbs. These bulbs are deer-resistant and naturalize easily, spreading slowly over time to form colorful carpets in the garden.
- Tulips: Tulips are classic spring-blooming bulbs prized for their elegant, cup-shaped flowers and wide range of colors, including red, pink, purple, yellow, orange, white, and bi-colors. They bloom in mid to late spring, depending on the variety and location, and are available in various shapes and sizes, from single-flowered to double-flowered forms.
Cold-Season Vegetables that Taste as Good as They Look
Flowers aren’t the only thing you can plant this spring. Cold-season vegetables are a great and delicious addition to any container garden. Some vegetables grow with beautiful colors, shapes, and textures - adding visual interest to a garden or landscape.
- Lettuce: Varieties such as leaf lettuce, romaine, and butterhead lettuce can be sown directly into the garden as soon as the soil can be worked. They prefer cooler temperatures and can tolerate light frosts.
- Spinach: Spinach is a cold-hardy green that thrives in cooler temperatures. It can be planted early in spring and will produce tender leaves for salads and cooking.
- Kale: Kale is incredibly cold-tolerant and can be planted as soon as the soil is workable. It's a nutritious leafy green that can be harvested throughout the spring season.
- Swiss Chard: Swiss chard is another leafy green that can tolerate cooler temperatures. It's easy to grow and adds color and flavor to salads and stir-fries.
How to Artfully Curate a Container
Creating a successful container garden involves more than just filling a pot with soil and sticking a plant in it. The "Thriller, Filler, Spiller" method is a popular technique used in container gardening to create visually appealing and well-balanced arrangements. It involves incorporating three types of plants into a single container to add height, fullness, and cascading elements. Here's a breakdown of each component:
- Thriller: The "thriller" is the focal point of the arrangement, typically a tall or upright plant that adds height and drama to the container. This plant is usually placed in the center or towards the back of the pot to create a striking visual impact. Thrillers can include upright grasses, tall flowering plants, or architectural foliage plants with interesting shapes or textures.
- Filler: The "filler" plants are medium-sized plants that fill in the space around the thriller, adding fullness and texture to the arrangement. These plants are placed in the middle or mid-level of the container to create a lush and balanced look. Fillers can include compact flowering plants, foliage plants with interesting colors or patterns, or herbs and annuals with bushy growth habits.
- Spiller: The "spiller" plants are trailing or cascading plants that spill over the edges of the container, softening the edges and adding a sense of movement and depth to the arrangement. These plants are typically placed around the edges of the pot or towards the front, allowing their stems to drape gracefully over the sides. Spillers can include trailing vines, cascading flowers, or low-growing ground covers. There aren’t many spillers that are cold tolerant, but in recent years, trailing pansies have been popular to add that spilling effect.
As spring unfolds in Colorado, container gardening emerges as a delightful way to embrace the season's beauty and overcome the challenges of the state's climate. Through careful selection of plants, attention to watering and fertilizing needs, and strategic placement of containers to maximize sunlight exposure, gardeners can create vibrant and thriving displays that brighten patios, balconies, and outdoor spaces. For all of your landscaping needs, allow Designscapes Colorado to assist you in creating your best back yard yet.