A slightly sloppy photo, but here’s a retrospective post about 2026’s first planters! We have three of these urns in front of our house and they’re the perfect way to liven up the grey brick and bring seasonal interest. Below, I’ll walk you through my design process.
We live in zone 6B and experience wild weather fluctuations in the Spring. Our March went from 70 and sunny to 18 and snowing within a week. I like putting out my spring planters early, so I take a cautious design approach. I elect to use spring ephemerals, hardy perennials, and frost tolerant annuals. This method works great and I end up with very little plant matter that goes into the yard waste bin!
Ingredients
For our 19″ diameter planters, I used:
- 1 bunch of birch branches – leftover from my winter planters
- 1 bunch of Pussy Willow branches
- 1 Lenten Rose – this is my primary filler and performs great in the planters.
- 2 pansies
- 2 violas
- Tulips – I use forced bulbs from the grocery store
- Daffodils – I use forced bulbs from the grocery store
- Purity Candytuft — perennial, semi-evergreen in zones 3-9
- English Ivy
- Miscellaneous evergreen branches – from winter planters, our “sacrificial” evergreen shrub in the back garden, and a neighbor’s overgrown hedge (with permission).
Trader Joe’s has been a great source for my spring planters. They sold lenten roses for $11.99 this past February. I cannot remember the exact variety – but the same lenten costs between $17.99 and $24.99 at big box stores and local garden centers. I also purchased my birch branches (winter) and pussy willow branches there – from the floral section. I used 1 bundle of each per planter, although many of the leftover birch branches broke or were rotted by spring. Finally, Trader Joes had forced tulips and daffodils for $2.99 for a small pot. There were probably 6-8 tulip and daffodil bulbs per pot.
I went to my local garden center for the candytuft, pansies, and violas. Because I have two pansies and violas per urn, so I was able to use six-pack flats and have no leftovers.
Reflections
All in all, I enjoyed this planter! Our neighbors gave sweet compliments and everything held up well despite our crazy weather. Next year, I would use white tulip bulbs – I thought I grabbed all white, but discovered Trader Joe’s tags bear no correspondence to the paper wrapping the pots. Further, I would swap the locations of the daffodils and tulips – it would be better for framing our front entryway. Finally, I would replace the ivy with more violas. The violas spilled out wonderfully, whilst the ivy stayed relatively scraggly.
As mentioned above, I had very little “waste” with this design. I stuck the birch poles and pussy willows in a small ceramic planter for a few weeks, until I put summer annuals I the back garden. I re-planted the violas in a small, low bowl planter in the back and they stayed attractive until we got warmer temperatures. I planted one lenten rose in our shady border, filling in a gap between some perennial ferns. and it has absolutely thrived. It provides great cut flowers for whimsical bouquets! The other lenten roses have been gifted and are also thriving, as is the purity candytuft. I saved the ivy for other potential planters – never plant ivy in-ground, as it is extremely invasive and quite bad for your house. It loves to creep into areas with degraded mortar on old, brick houses like ours.
Planting Diagram
Old Brick, New Bloom 