- Container gardens offer instant impact and color flexibility in any space.
- Experiment with perennials and annuals to create dynamic color palettes.
- Crocosmia is a fantastic perennial bulb for adding fiery or sunny accents to summer containers.
- Combining plants with contrasting or complementary colors creates striking “bi-color” or multi-color effects.
- Simple techniques like choosing the right container size and fertilizing can boost bloom power.
Welcome to The Little Garden, where we believe that every space, no matter how small, deserves a burst of vibrant color. If you’re looking to add some pizzazz to your patio, deck, or entryway this summer, consider diving into the world of container gardening, specifically focusing on creating dazzling displays with bi-color summer container flowers and plant combinations. Containers are like mini canvases, allowing you to play with textures, heights, and, most importantly, captivating color palettes with relatively little investment. They offer the perfect opportunity to experiment with striking pairings that might be harder to achieve in a larger garden bed. One plant that truly shines as a focal point in summer containers is the magnificent Crocosmia.
Crocosmia is celebrated for its sword-like foliage and arching stems laden with fiery red, orange, or sunny yellow blooms. While you can plant Crocosmia bulbs directly into containers, using nursery-grown plants often provides that instant fullness and green foliage you crave right away. This allows you to build your stunning container design around a central ‘thriller’ plant from day one.
Building a successful container design often involves selecting complementary plants that thrive in similar conditions, typically full sun for these vibrant summer beauties. Clumping or trailing annuals work wonderfully to fill out the pot and spill over the edges, creating a lush, layered look. By selecting plants that bloom at different times or offer interesting foliage, you ensure your container remains visually appealing throughout the season, leading up to and accompanying the main event like Crocosmia‘s mid-summer spectacle.
Two contrasting summer container gardens featuring Crocosmia and companion plants
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Crafting “Bi-Color” Container Masterpieces
Creating a “bi-color” effect in a container doesn’t necessarily mean every flower has two colors, but rather that the combination of plants in the pot creates a dominant two-color scheme or striking contrast. Think hot and cool, complementary opposites, or different shades of the same color family. Here are two contrasting examples:
Container Combo: Some Like It Hot
Sometimes, stepping outside your usual color comfort zone yields the most exciting results. A “hot” themed container, bursting with reds, oranges, and yellows, can be incredibly dynamic and truly capture the essence of summer heat.
For a vibrant hot container, starting with a pot at least 15″ wide provides enough space for multiple plants to grow and create that desired “instant gratification” look. A 17″ wide pot is even better.
Hot colored container garden with Crocosmia, Sedum, Coleus, and Calibrachoa Superbells
A successful “hot” recipe might involve just four types of plants, repeated for fullness. Using larger plants (like those from 1-gallon or 2-quart containers) means you might only need one of each. If using 4-inch pots, plan on at least three of each variety.
Plants for a “Some Like It Hot” Container:
- Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’
- Scientific Name: Crocosmia masoniorum ‘Lucifer’
- Common Name: Lucifer Crocosmia, Montbretia
- Zone: 5-9 (can vary)
- Light: Full Sun
- Water: Moderate, well-drained soil
- Calibrachoa ‘Superbells Dreamsicle’
- Scientific Name: Calibrachoa hybrid
- Common Name: Million Bells
- Zone: 9-11 (usually grown as annual)
- Light: Full Sun
- Water: Moderate, well-drained soil
- Sedum ‘Firestorm’
- Scientific Name: Sedum adolphii ‘Firestorm’
- Common Name: Golden Sedum, Coppertone Stonecrop
- Zone: 10-11 (often grown as annual or overwintered indoors)
- Light: Full Sun
- Water: Low, well-drained soil (drought tolerant once established)
- Coleus ‘Colorblaze Sedona Sunset’
- Scientific Name: Plectranthus scutellarioides (syn. Solenostemon scutellarioides)
- Common Name: Coleus, Painted Nettle
- Zone: 10-11 (usually grown as annual)
- Light: Full Sun to Partial Shade (prefers sun for best color)
- Water: Moderate, consistent moisture
For placement, position trailing plants like Calibrachoa and Sedum towards the front two-thirds of the container so they can spill over the edges. Place the taller, upright plants like Coleus and Crocosmia in the back third to create a backdrop and grow upwards. The green Crocosmia foliage provides a cool contrast to the warm colors before the fiery red ‘Lucifer’ blooms emerge, at which point the reds and oranges in the Sedum and Coleus echo and intensify the heat.
Close up of a hot container garden with developing Crocosmia flower buds
Even just a couple of weeks after planting, you can often see the promising start of the Crocosmia flower stalks forming. To encourage abundant blooms throughout the summer, consider using a bloom-boosting fertilizer about once a week when watering. Getting all these plants into the container might require a bit of strategic squishing, but don’t be afraid to gently compress root balls to fit one more plant in – the result is worth it!
Vibrant hot colored container garden thriving after two weeks
Regular watering is key for container plants, as they dry out faster than those in the ground. Checking the soil moisture frequently will ensure your vibrant display stays hydrated and happy.
Thriving summer container with a mix of foliage and early blooms
Container Combo: Chilled Lemonade
If hot colors aren’t your usual preference, perhaps a cooler palette featuring yellows, blues, and silvers is more your style. This combination offers a refreshing antidote to the summer heat, creating a serene and sophisticated look. Crocosmia with yellow blooms, like ‘George Davidson’, makes an excellent focal point here.
Cool toned container garden featuring yellow Crocosmia and blue/silver annuals
Again, a container around 17″ wide is ideal to accommodate a good number of plants for instant impact. For this cooler combination, you might use Crocosmia as the central “thriller,” surrounded by three other complementary annuals planted in an alternating pattern around the perimeter. These perimeter plants will fill in the base and trail down the sides.
Arranging plants for a cool toned container garden
Using four different varieties total and repeating the non-thriller plants creates a balanced yet diverse composition of color and texture. For a container this size, you might use around 11 four-inch plants to get a full look quickly.
Plants for a “Chilled Lemonade” Container:
- Crocosmia ‘George Davidson’
- Scientific Name: Crocosmia ‘George Davidson’
- Common Name: George Davidson Crocosmia, Montbretia
- Zone: 6-9 (can vary)
- Light: Full Sun
- Water: Moderate, well-drained soil
- Dwarf Morning Glory ‘Blue My Mind’
- Scientific Name: Evolvulus hybrid ‘Blue My Mind’
- Common Name: Dwarf Morning Glory
- Zone: 10-11 (usually grown as annual)
- Light: Full Sun
- Water: Moderate, well-drained soil (somewhat drought tolerant)
- Parrots Beak ‘Amazon Sunset’
- Scientific Name: Lotus berthelotii ‘Amazon Sunset’
- Common Name: Parrots Beak, Lotus Vine
- Zone: 10-11 (usually grown as annual)
- Light: Full Sun to Partial Shade
- Water: Moderate, allow soil to dry slightly between waterings
- New Look Dusty Miller
- Scientific Name: Senecio bicolor cineraria ‘New Look’ (syn. Centaurea cineraria)
- Common Name: Dusty Miller, Silver Ragwort
- Zone: 8-10 (often grown as annual)
- Light: Full Sun
- Water: Low to Moderate, drought tolerant
When planting, don’t be shy about packing the plants in. It’s okay if roots are a bit snug initially; they’ll quickly grow into the available space. The goal is a lush, full container from the start.
Cool toned container garden filled with blue, yellow, and silver foliage and blooms
Initially, you might see some soil, but within a week or two, the plants will grow and cover it completely, creating a seamless look. Just like with the hot container, fertilizing weekly with a bloom booster will encourage plenty of flowers on the Crocosmia and Dwarf Morning Glories. Keep an eye on growth – if any plant becomes too vigorous and starts to dominate, a simple trim can help maintain the balance of your design.
Close up view of a cool toned container garden
Container gardening allows for this kind of easy maintenance and tweaking, giving you control over the look and feel of your display throughout the season.
Completed hot color container design featuring plant breakdown
While we’ve explored using Crocosmia to anchor these bi-color summer container flowers arrangements, many other varieties are available, offering different bloom times and slight color variations. The ‘Some Like It Hot’ concept works well with most red or orange Crocosmia varieties, while the ‘Chilled Lemonade’ is best paired with yellow bloomers like ‘George Davidson’ or Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora ‘Meteore’. The beauty of containers is the endless possibility for color combinations and plant pairings.
Conclusion
Creating vibrant, sometimes “bi-color,” sometimes multi-color, summer container gardens is a rewarding way to bring color and life to your outdoor spaces. By choosing a strong focal plant like Crocosmia and pairing it with complementary or contrasting annuals and perennials, you can design stunning displays that provide visual interest all season long. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different color palettes – whether you lean towards fiery reds and oranges or cool blues and yellows, the process is half the fun!
We hope these ideas inspire you to get your hands dirty and plant some gorgeous containers this summer. Have you created a dazzling bi-color summer container flowers arrangement? Share your favorite plant combinations in the comments below! And be sure to explore other articles on Thelittle.garden for more gardening tips and inspiration.
