Just like hanging art on the walls of your home, adding the warmth, texture, and interest of potted plantings to your exterior hardscapes makes them feel complete.
Maybe you want to soften hardscape or visually break up large walls…
Or create a beautiful and welcoming entry…
Or perhaps you want an outdoor living space to have more warmth and style…
All of these are reasons to add plants with interesting colors and textures to your outdoor hardscaped spaces. Again, like art, some of these plants can be investment/statement pieces. My favorite statement plants to use on patios are: Yucca Rostrata (the plant with a trunk in the top photo). This plant can be very hard to find and can also get quite expensive but it really is a stunning specimen plant that needs almost zero care. Another great statement plant is Aloe ‘Hercules’ pictured directly above in the tallest planter. Two other AMAZING almost zero water plants to add to your potted plant collection (I buy them every time I see them because they can be really hard to find) are Kalanchoe Beharensis (thats also pictured directly above with the big furry leaves) and Kalanchoe “copper spoons” (top photo… the one that has…copper spoon like leaves ;) )
My Tips:
Use a neutral palette for your pots (whites, greys, blacks or terracotta (it’s making a huge comeback!). Let the plant do the talking.
If you’re doing groupings of pots choose 1 tall, 1 medium, and 1 saucer like and keep them all in the same color palette.
Think about choosing plants that will be focal points (tall, bushy) as well as plants that will spread or spill over the sides of containers. Also think about texture and mix it up - mix spikey with soft and furry, thin grassy blades with thick dense leaves.
Choose plants that require VERY little water like the ones I’ve listed above. No matter how good your intentions are about watering, you’re probably not going to do as good a job as you hoped. Or you’ll go on vacation :)
Don’t forget to make sure there is a drain hole in your outdoor pots (the opposite for indoor pots), and put some drainage gravel at the bottom of the pot to keep the drainage hole clear so your low water pot wont drown.
