It’s still winter, but gardeners can fill window boxes, pots and other containers now

The end of February is time to rake your lawn, plant peas and sweet peas if your soil is well drained and continue to add bare-root fruit trees, berries and roses to your garden.

This also is the time of year when you no longer have to wait until May to fill up your empty window boxes, pots and containers. Our mild winter climate means that colorful and cold hardy annuals, perennials and foliage plants can be arranged into early spring displays right now, despite the frosty nights and cold spells ahead.

Container Inspiration

The Northwest Flower and Garden Festival runs Feb. 26 to March 1 in Seattle (gardenshow.com), and I will be hosting a live competition that pits two garden experts against one another to entertain, educate and showcase the great looking plants you can use in containers right now. The audience votes on the best container design at the end of the timed competition.

The expert designers have come up with some champion plant combinations over the years, and here is one of the recipes for success you can use at home to get a jump start on spring and start filling your containers now:

Choose a focal point plant (The Thriller)

The big crowd favorites are the beautiful blooms of the winter-blooming hellebores. The pink tinged variety called “Pink Frost” has long-lasting blooms that hold up well in early spring rain storms.

If you have large container or garden bed that needs year long color, go with a foliage plant that gives instant height to your design. The rusty red foliage of Nandina Heavenly Bamboo “Sienna” adds early color, and there are several types of Nandina that work great in pots, beds and borders. Don’t worry, the Nandina, or heavenly bamboo, is not a true bamboo, and it will not spread out in your garden bed or fill your pots with roots.

Frame with a trio of lower plants (The Filler)

Heuchera plants make great fillers to use around the pink or white hellebore in the center of your pot, and you can choose a foliage color to echo the color scheme or your thriller plant and frame the display.

You might also substitute winter-blooming heathers as your filler plants as there are dwarf heathers available in 4 inch pots perfect for slipping into containers now. In May, you can move the heathers into the landscape as you pop in summer annuals to take their place.

Add low or trailing plants (The Spillers)

Winter-hardy pansies and violas that are blooming now at nurseries and garden centers make great edging plants for a shaded container. Primroses also would work as low-growing edging plants, especially the more expensive (but worth it) perennial primroses with thicker, more slug-resistant foliage and double blooms that resemble tiny roses.

Another idea is to use plants that will spill over the edge of your container design. There are golden lamiums, fancy ivy with gold spots on the leaves, and winter pansies and cold-hardy primroses in sunshine hues. White and golden tones will stand out on cloudy spring days.

For more inspiration for container garden ideas, I’ll see you at “Container Wars” and the NWFG Festival this week.

“Container Wars”

▪ Marianne Binetti will play host at “Container Wars” every day of the Northwest Flower and Garden Festival at 11:30 a.m. The festival runs Feb. 26 to March 1 in Seattle. Come to learn the best design and plant ideas from experts competing in a live show. Info: gardenshow.com.

This story was originally published February 22, 2020 at 10:00 AM.