How to plant a Rainbow Container Garden

We selected our current apartment while we were still living in Denmark. Because we hadn’t seen it in person before we moved in, we didn’t quite know what we had to work with. A garden wasn’t necessarily on my list of things I “had to have”, but I was so pleasantly surprised to find that I had a little bit of garden to work with once I got here. Our landlords do a phenomenal job at keeping it up, but they said I could add in some of my own flower selections. That was 5 years ago. I have since been bit by the gardening bug and consider it one of my most (and few!) hobbies that I have outside of work.

This year I wanted to make it more colorful than years past and in honor of Craft the Rainbow our new book and this little board book that I read to Jasper nearly every day (here) , I created a rainbow container garden for the front porch. I only added them in a couple of weeks ago so they haven’t had time to flourish yet, but I thought I’d post about it so you can get started to and then we can watch them grow together and keep each other updated.

Here are some things I’ve done to get it going and a list of flower divided by color that you can add to your garden:
First off, I bought this flower stand a few years back at a vintage store here in town and I love it! It’s a simple iron frame with spots for 8 different pots so it’s rather simple to see the range of colors. I usually love planting geraniums in them because I love how they drip over the pots and become really full. In general, I grow “spillers” in these as opposed “fillers” or “thrillers” because of height issues. 

I love using classic clay pots because of the range of sizes and I love their feel. I have a few in taller and wider shapes and that’s where I have planted the “thrillers” and “fillers”. I first planted a few flower arrangements two years ago with delphiniums and they have grown back each year. It’s pretty incredible! That blue is amazing.

I interrupt this message to show you a picture of my peonies which are in bloom THIS WEEK! They are insane! I’ll be writing a post about them soon but here’s a little snack for now:

I thought it might be helpful to know which ones I used in case you’d like to add some rainbow colors to your garden. Of course, everything varies according to where you live and what type of soil you have so you’ll have to do a bit of research. These are ones that I find particularly helpful in container gardens

Here’s what I planted in my rainbow container garden:

1. Geraniums
2. as
3. as
4. Delphiums
5. Foxglove
6. as

Pinks flowers for container gardens:

• geraniums
• zinnia
• pink roses (and especially wild roses)
• pink poppies
• snapdragon
• peony
• bleeding heart

Reds flowers for container gardens:

• red tulips
• geraniums
• red rose
• poppies
• begonia
• snapdragon
• penstemon

Orange flowers for container gardens:

• orange tiger lilies
• orange tulips
• geraniums

Yellow flowers for container gardens:

• yellow daffodils
• marigold
• daisies
• snapdragon
• mums

Green flowers for container gardens:

• hellebore
• bells of Ireland
• hydrangeas
• herbs
• dianthus

Blue flowers for container gardens:

• forget-me-nots
• delphinums
• blue hyacinth
• bearded iris
• morning glory (these are more like vines so they’ll drip down)
• cornflower
• hydrangeas
• clematis
• blue bells
• pansy

Purple flowers for container gardens:

• bearded iris
• purple crocus
• phlox
• aster
• snapdragon
• clematis
• lavender
• salvia
• pansy
• petunia

White flowers for container gardens:

• daisies
• geraniums
• lily of the valley

Black flowers for container gardens:

• petunia
• gladiolus
• some roses

Flowers that contain all the colors of the rainbow:

• zinnia
• geraniums
• cosmos
• roses
•  columbines
• lilies
• snapdragon
• gladiolus
  

Photography by Jane Merritt