As fall weather gets cooler, creatively minded gardeners are often left with a pivotal design choice: lean into the chill or warm things up?
Thankfully, our friend Melanie, owner of Red Garden Basket Design in Athens, Georgia, has created a dynamic duo of porch planter designs to make that choice a little easier! Acclaimed for her dazzling floral arrangements that highlight and uplift, she uses flowers grown at her own micro-cut flower farm. Melanie crafts container gardens full of personality and plenty of Southern charm! Her latest creations, fall planters anchored by a “Fire and Ice” theme, celebrate contrast and balance, with fiery autumn tones or cool purples and frosty whites.
Ready to get the look of these super-cool or flame-hued (your pick!) porch stars? Read on for Melanie’s how-tos:
Setting the Stage: Your Home’s Palette
Before you plant, consider your home’s backdrop. For instance, if your exterior paint is a warm yellow or creamy beige, you have a perfect canvas to push the “Fire” palette, letting those warm golds and reds truly pop against the siding. If your home features crisp white trim or cool gray tones, an elegant “Ice” palette will really shine!
The “Fire” Palette: Warmth and Intensity
The goal of a “Fire” palette is to capture the last radiance of summer energy with plants that will retain those hues through the cooler season. Think rich, warm colors that stand out in the softer autumn light! This palette uses saturated colors that feel energetic, plus light and airy foliage that sways in the breeze for a flickering flame-like effect.
Fiery Fall Combo:
This vibrant arrangement balances a foundational structure with replaceable, hot-hued annuals for a seamless seasonal transition.
The anchor plant for the Fiery Fall Combo, designed by Melanie, is Platinum Beauty® Lomandra. “Platinum Beauty Lomandra adds height and the perfect touch of whimsy,” Melanie explains. “Plus, it’s an easy-care evergreen that can be moved from this container to the landscape when the season changes.”
For soft texture and seasonal blush, incorporate Blush Pink™ Nandina. This evergreen selection offers consistent, low-maintenance color that deepens beautifully as temperatures drop.
“I love how easy it is to transition these planters from one season to the next,” says Melanie. “You can pop in fresh color with annuals like mums, thyme, Swiss chard, ornamental peppers, or kale, and they all pair perfectly with pumpkins and gourds for fall.”
Icy Container Colorway:
Melanie’s “Icy” planter palette is all about achieving cool, sophisticated elegance through structure and moody color. This design centers on soft textures, deep evergreens, and silvery blues, creating a graceful, weeping profile of plants that perform reliably in the cooler weather.
Platinum Beauty® Lomandra is the container’s “thriller” element, adding height and fine, graceful texture. Its silvery feathery foliage provides consistent structure and frames the container combination. Blue ornamental kale and cabbage lend a distinctively frosty-toned color. Their silvery-blue and pale-green centers provide a crisp, cool contrast.
While deep purple leans toward the dramatic, it functions here as a deep, cool anchor with Purple Pixie® Dwarf Weeping Loropetalum. Dense, near-black foliage contrasts sharply with the blues and whites, lending a deep, elegant jewel tone to the base of the design. English Ivy will soften the container’s edge with its classic dark-green, lobed foliage.
“Purple Pixie really stands out for its color and graceful weeping branches,” says Melanie. “It can switch easily from the planter into the landscape, plus its compact size makes it perfect for small-space containers.”
A dianthus like ColorPop Pickables™ Dianthus is the final touch to add a delicate pop of color that can handle cool dips better than many annuals. Reaching just 10-12” high when mature, this dianthus also offers a soft, low-growing color contrast with silvery-green semievergreen foliage as well as blooms through the fall.
Whether you choose Fire or Ice, the “spiller, thriller, filler” adage is one to remember:
- Thriller: Use tall, upright plants to give the container presence and thrilling height.
- Filler: Ensure you have low, mounding, compact elements (like Blush Pink™ Nandina or dianthus) that stay tight to the soil line, adding volume, color, and a backdrop for smaller annuals.
- Spiller: Incorporate weeping elements (like Purple Pixie® Dwarf Weeping Loropetalum or trailing ivies) that spill over the edge, softening the structure.
For Melanie, fall designs are all about uplifting the vibrant colors we find in the garden this time of year. Her Fire and Ice planters prove that with the right mix of color and texture, any porch can feel welcoming and full of life all season long.