Best Flowers for Containers: Sun and Shade Choices

A garden center bench in planting season can stop you in your tracks: hundreds of plants in bloom, all of them looking perfect. The best flowers for containers are not the prettiest ones on the bench, though. They are the ones that match the light on your patio and the weather of the months ahead.

Start with light, then narrow by season and climate. The lists below are sorted that way, with a note on how each plant grows and one thing to know about its care.

Sort by Light First

Know how many hours of direct sun your pots will get before you shop. Plant tags use the same terms you will see here: full sun means roughly six or more hours of direct sun, part sun and part shade mean less, and shade means very little. A plant in the wrong light rarely recovers by being watered or fed more.

If you are new to pots, the overview of container flower gardening for beginners explains how to judge a spot and choose a container.

Flowers for Sunny Containers

These are mostly warm-season, frost tender plants, grown as annuals in most places and set out after your last spring frost.

• Petunias and calibrachoa. Mounding to trailing plants covered in trumpet-shaped flowers; calibrachoa has smaller blooms. Both need a pot that drains well, and long stems can be trimmed back in midsummer to freshen them.
• Geraniums (pelargoniums). Upright plants with rounded flower heads. They tolerate drying a little between waterings better than many container flowers. Snap off spent flower stalks.
• Marigolds. Compact, upright mounds in yellow, orange and rust. They like warmth and sun; deadheading keeps them tidy. See the guide to growing marigolds for types and care.
• Compact zinnias. Upright, heat-loving annuals. Choose short varieties for pots and give them room for air to move between plants.
• Lantana. A mounding or spreading tender perennial with clustered flowers, usually grown as an annual where winters are cold. It wants heat and sun.
• Verbena. Spreading and trailing, with flat flower clusters. Good at pot edges; trim it if flowering slows.
• Sweet alyssum. A low, honey-scented edging plant that spills gently over a rim. It prefers cooler weather and may pause in high heat.
• Sweet potato vine. Grown for trailing foliage in lime green, bronze or near black. It loves heat and grows fast, so cut it back when it overwhelms its neighbors.

Flowers for Shade and Part Shade

• Impatiens. Mounding plants that flower steadily in shade. They are frost tender and wilt quickly when dry, so check their mix often.
• Begonias. Wax begonias form neat mounds and accept a range of light; tuberous types carry larger flowers and prefer shade and milder temperatures. Let the surface of the mix dry slightly between waterings.
• Fuchsia. Trailing stems hung with dangling two-tone flowers, a classic for hanging baskets. Fuchsias are happiest where summers are cool to mild.
• Coleus. A foliage plant with patterned leaves in red, lime, pink and burgundy. Pinching the stem tips keeps it bushy.
• Lobelia. A trailing plant with small blue, purple or white flowers. It shines in cool weather and often fades when summer turns hot.

At a Glance

Treat the table as a starting point. Varieties differ, and the tag on the plant in your hand is the better guide.

Heat, Humidity and Season Change the List

No single list suits every patio, because plants differ sharply in how they handle heat and humidity. Lobelia, fuchsia and pansies look their best in cool weather and tend to fade once days and nights turn hot. Lantana and annual vinca do the opposite: they sulk in a cold spring and come into their own in real heat.

That is why many gardeners plant by season instead of once a year. Cool-season pots of pansies, violas and sweet alyssum carry spring and fall. Warm-season pots take over for summer. In hot-summer, mild-winter climates the pattern shifts: cool-season flowers may be the winter display, and only true heat lovers last through midsummer.

Combining Plants in One Pot

The plants that share a container share its light and its water, so combine only those with the same needs. Geraniums that like to dry slightly make poor partners for thirsty impatiens, and a sun lover will stretch and stop blooming in a pot placed for shade plants.

Once needs match, mix habits: something upright, something mounding and something trailing fills a pot from center to rim. The step-by-step method is in how to plant a flower container.

Perennials and Small Grasses in Pots

Containers are not only for annuals. Compact perennials such as coral bells, hostas for shade and low sedums for sun give foliage and texture that last beyond a single flush of bloom, and small ornamental grasses add height and movement.

Check the hardiness zone on the tag for the specific variety, and remember that a perennial in a pot is less cold-hardy than the same plant in the ground, because its roots are more exposed. Heat and humidity at the warm end of a plant’s range matter as much as winter cold. In cold-winter regions, plan to shelter potted perennials over winter, move them into a bed in fall, or enjoy them as seasonal plants.