Keep your container gardens looking great, even when the rest of the garden sleeps. Use our favorite tricks to dress up your winter garden planter or window box for the snowy season.
Salvage winter stalwarts.
If you have plants that still look good, incorporate them into your winter arrangement. Ornamental grasses look wonderful even when dormant. Trim any battered bits from perennials you’re overwintering in the planter.
If you already have evergreens in your box—whether tiny topiary boxwood or shade-loving hellebores—make them the star of your winterscape.
Make it lush.
Wonderful winter arrangements overflow with texture and color. If you can’t create a lavish look with living plant materials, don’t be shy about using cut materials.
The trick to arranging a winter garden planter is to combine different textures. Mix spiky spruce or fir clippings with the softer textures of wispy pine and feathery cypress. Broad-leafed evergreens like boxwood or holly lend more structure. Stick clippings straight into the soil to make them stand up, or bundle them and lay them over the soil.
Add rose hips, barberry clippings, or snips of winterberry for splashes of red, or use pine cones as chunky focal points. You can make a gorgeous arrangement with just materials you cut in your own garden.
Use human-made materials for contrast.
Once you’ve filled out the box with greens or plants, nestle some ornaments into your scheme. They reflect light shining from the windows, and the textural contrast makes the greens look even more lush. We use second-hand ornaments to keep our environmental impact low.
Lighting your arrangement for long winter evenings increases its impact. The wires from battery-powered fairy lights are easy to shape around stems. Or use the spotlights already in your garden to showcase your winter pot.
Keep it looking great.
If you’ve stuck cut evergreens into the soil, water your winter garden planter once a week until the pot freezes solid to keep the greens looking fresh. After the holidays, remove Christmas ornaments. Add some fresh greens, glittery twigs, or outdoor-safe floral picks to spruce up the look.
Your windowboxes and planters can be a fantastic accent to your home for the holidays and throughout the winter. So have some fun, and make your house sparkle. Or contact Spotts Garden Service, and we’ll do it for you!