Create Outdoor Mini Gardens with Potted Spring Flowers

It never fails. Spring rolls around and you realize you forgot to plant tulip and daffodils last fall. Never fear! Create outdoor mini gardens with containers of your favorite spring blooms. Place them near your front door or any place you wish you had remembered to plant flowers in the fall.

 

Tulips are usually the number one choice for the spring season. They’re available in an array of colors and bloom at various times throughout the season so you can enjoy a showy bloom of colors for months.

Photo by Greenhaven Landscapes Inc.

 

 

When creating your outdoor mini gardens in pots, experiment with flower types and colors. Tulips look great with grape hyacinth, also known as muscari. The varying height of the flowers creates added depth and interest.

 

Of course, planting a single type of flower creates great visual impact too. I have grape hyacinth in my front yard by the boardwalk and love the way it naturally spreads each season. But it looks great in a container too!

 

Get creative with your outdoor mini gardens and mix a few spring bulbs together. Hyacinth and tulips are always a great combination. Hyacinth have a wonderful fragrance so if you can place them near an open window, you’ll be able to enjoy their sweet scent from inside the house.

TIP: Purple hyacinths have a stronger scent than other colors of hyacinths.

 

Mini daffodils are another spring flower that pairs well with others in containers and in the garden. They add height to an arrangement of companion plants like pansies, primrose, and English daisies.

 

How sweet is this arrangement of potted spring flowers? This would look great on your front porch or back deck. Anywhere that you spend time outdoors so you can enjoy it.

 

Violas are cold-weather flowers that you can set outside in early spring. They have a tendency to wilt in heat so many folks prefer to plant them in pots. They’re easily moved to a shadier, cooler location in the yard when summer is in full blast.

 

As a kid, I always loved the sweet little faces of violets and pansies. It was always such a delight seeing violets blooming wild in fields. I’d pick bunches of them for my mom. So how do you know if you’re looking at a violet or pansy which are from the same genus? Pansies have four petals facing up and one facing down. Violets, on the other hand, have three petals facing up and two facing down.

 

Saxifrage is another charming flower that looks adorable potted up as mini gardens. It blooms from March through April and is available in various colors. Saxifrage also makes a great ground cover, too.

 

Don’t forget about snowdrop anemones! Here, they’re tucked into a little white crate. Just like saxifrage, it makes a great ground cover that rewards you with dainty, nodding blooms in spring.

 

In addition to pots and crates, consider planting spring flowers like English daisies in unique containers like this enamel welcome basket you can hang on a door or fence post.

 

There’s so much you can do to create mini outdoor gardens during the spring season. If you don’t want to pot bulbs and flowers on your own, check out your local garden center. Many have potted blooms ready to go!