Have you seen some of the lovely container plantings springing up around town and here at Colonial Nursery and Garden Center? Have you ever considered building your own container plantings, with plants, flowers and a color palette tailor-made for your home?

Some of you are very artistic, and some of you--like me--are not. So, let's get to the secret of making a captivating container for your deck or porch. I've been smart enough to watch carefully and figure out how these talented ladies here at Colonial manage it. It's really very simple. (I think...)

Start with a thriller plant, one that shouts "look at me!"--preferably this will be a taller plant. Then find a spiller plant, one that will drape or cascade down your container. Last, you just need to find a filler plant; this can be a plant that is all foliage or a plant that flowers, but it should not have a tendency to take over the whole container. Pretty simple so far!

Now we’re down to color selection. First, you should choose colors that complement your container. Then decide if you want your container garden to be monochromatic (a big word for using the same shades of a color) or complementary (which are colors that oppose each other on a color wheel). There are also neutral colors: white, black, silver, green and shades of brown. These can be used to tone down your color palette to make your container garden "pop."

Of course, if you'd rather leave the planting to us, we have a wide selection of beautiful container plantings ready for you to take home.