Container gardens greet your guests, set the mood on the patio, and give us sunshine all season long – and we're ready for 'em! At Tonkadale, we are busy cooking up containers for your grab and go pleasure, but if you’d like to create your own, do it! We fill them full with an explosion of color. Mix and match different palettes of the same plant in a pattern that suits you. But first, let's talk container garden basics!

Drainage is an absolute must for all container gardens. If your container doesn’t have a hole, you can drill, poke, or cut one!

Another option is to use a "drop-in", which is a plastic pot that fits the depth and diameter of your container. The benefits of using a drop-in are many:

• Provides essential drainage if your decorative pot does not have any.
• Reduce the risk of damage to your pots due to freezing and thawing temperatures on the outskirts of the growing season.
• Drop-ins make it easy to change your containers from season to season. All you need to do is lift it out to swap with something new, and you are ready to start again for the next season.

Know your planting site, and choose the right plants for your light exposure.

• Full sun — Six or more hours of full sun, usually south or west facing.
• Part sun — Less than six hours of full sun, morning sun, usually east facing.
• Shade — Dappled light, filtered light, indirect light, less than four hours of sunlight, north facing or under a covered area.

Foliage first. Use foliage as the architecture for your container. Color and structure you can depend on if blooms fade in and out. Big and chunky, fun and funky - choose a few key elements to highlight in your containers. This creates more impact and drama. If you are stuck, start at the coleus tables - they will lead you in the right direction!

For a 12" drop-in pot, we like to use at least nine plants in a standard recipe. One centerpiece, and eight surrounding it on the sides. You can keep things symmetrical on each side, switch the orientation of the pattern on each side, or do nine completely different plants!

At Tonkadale we rely on a few quintessential recipe ingredients, which are a great place to start when you feel overwhelmed with all the options!

For shade: Fern, begonia, ivy, bromeliad, alocasia, caladium.

For sun: Cordyline or grass, geraniums, coleus, petunia, sweet potato vine.

Here's a fun recipe to try:

You gotta make it rain in your containers. In general, sun containers may need to be watered daily in the heat of the summer, while shady containers will not. For best results, fertilize once per week. We recommend using a bloom booster like this one! Your plants will perform their best when they are well fed.

Click here to read our detailed blog on how to care for container gardens (and hanging baskets).

If all else fails, we always have a plethora of sun and shade containers all planted up and ready for ya. Our atrium and arbor are a great place to draw additional inspiration or just grab and go!

We also offer custom design services if you'd like to leave the hard part up to us! We won’t tell your neighbors that you didn’t plant it ;)

If you would like assistance designing a combo pot, feel free to stop in and ask! Otherwise, email us at hello@tonkadale.com - we're here to help!