Those refreshing days of spring are here, and to celebrate, we’re ready to fill our doorstep planters with some bright new color and texture. But chilly temperatures aren’t entirely behind us, so what can we plant? Our Container Design team has the answer. Here we share our best tips for using bright pansies, faux florals, and natural twigs and branches to welcome spring color back to your doorstep.
Early Spring Elements
The weather this time of year is a little of everything – pleasantly warm one day, below freezing the next. That’s why pansies are the king of early spring containers – they’re full of brilliant spring color but tough as nails against cool temperatures. Together with other cold-tolerant plants like liriope and creeping wire vine, plus height provided by a variety of natural twigs and faux blooming branches, our doorsteps can celebrate the season long before warmer days arrive for good.
Start with a Fiber Pot + the Right Potting Mix
A fiber pot is the easiest way to begin. Ours come in a range of sizes to drop right into your decorative outdoor container, so you don’t have to fill the entire thing with soil. They’re light-weight and easy to change out for each new season too. Plus, they allow you to plant inside where it’s warm, then take your completed project outside when you’re done. Once you have your fiber pot, the next step is to fill it with a moistened all-purpose potting soil – we like to use Fafard Professional Potting Mix – to about one inch below the rim.
Add a Grassy Centerpiece
Then, right in the center of the soil, try adding liriope, a grass-like plant with strappy, arching foliage that provides a perfect pop of bright green in spring containers. In small planters, one pot of liriope looks great in the middle. In large pots, you can group several liriope plants in the center or place them in different spots throughout the design too.
Add Height
At the store, we use bundles of natural twigs – like curly willow or yellow twig dogwood – for attention-grabbing height in early spring container designs. Mixed in with the twigs, we add several faux flowering branches too – such as yellow or white forsythia, pussy willow, or cherry blossom. The combination of blooming and bare branches creates a brilliant display of cold-tolerant color and texture that makes an impact even when viewed from a distance. For our planters, we poke the branches into the soil in the center – in and around the liriope – and at slight angles, so the branches fan out in a natural silhouette. If your planter sets up against a wall and is viewed mostly from the front, you may choose to group the twigs toward the back of the container to create a three-sided look.
Choose Your Favorite Pansies
Once your branches and twigs are in place, it’s time for the pansies – those first colorful blooms we’ve waited a whole winter to see. For a vibrant combination of golden-yellow, rich burgundy, deep blue, and bright white, you might love our Matrix Blotch Mix. Or if a monochromatic blend is more your style, look for Matrix Tanzanite Mix – a cool gathering of blues and purples from soothing cornflower blue and lavender to the deepest eggplant and crisp white. Of course you can create a new combination of your own too. In our pansy collection, you’ll find a range of colors with everything from white to red, yellow, bright orange, deep violet, and even blue.
To plant a pansy, first remove it from its six-pack container by tipping it over and gently squeezing the plastic to loosen the roots. When it pops out, take a look at the root ball – if the roots are densely packed, tease them apart a bit before settling the pansy into the soil in your container.
As you plant, you may choose to space your pansies out and let them fill in as they grow. Or, for an instant display of full, seamless color, you can plant them right next to each other too. Our jumbo six-pack pansies – with individual plants almost the size of a 4” annual – are another way to get a jump-start on your color too.
Add More Texture + Color
For more added texture and color in early spring, try adding your favorite version of heuchera to match your vision. In our collection, you’ll find lots of cultivars with a range of colors including golden orange, deep burgundy, and patterns with contrasting white, plum, and green.
Drop it at Your Doorstep!
Lead the neighborhood in celebrating the new season with a colorful early-spring planter on your doorstep. Stop in or shop online at Mulhall’s To-Go for drive-through pickup, and find all the elements you need – pansies, twigs, faux floral branches, and other cold-friendly elements for your outdoor containers. No time to DIY? No problem. We have pre-made designs with pansies and more in three beautiful color themes to take home and drop in your planters too. And as always, if you need suggestions, just ask – we’re as happy as you are to get planting.
