Flowering Thrillers

Learn about plants that make great thrillers in combination planters.

Gardening in containers is ubiquitous and for good reason. We can all find a spot to place a planter of some kind. When creating patio planters, having tall, flowering thrillers in the middle or back of your planter is one of the best ways to add drama and height with thriller plants for containers. It is also a great way to get the height needed to really balance out the container that holds the plants. Thrillers or tall plants for containers are sometimes almost an afterthought in combination planters, but they deserve to have the spotlight all to themselves too, as container garden thriller plants. This season we are introducing 10 awesome new container garden thrillers to the market. Not only do these plants thrive in containers, they are great in landscapes as well. I think you're going to love them!

First up are the Angelface^® Angelonia. We have added one upgraded color - Angelface^® Perfectly Pink. This plant has large flowers, dense branching and a raspberry-pink color with dark buds and new stems. The color is like nothing I've ever seen on an Angelonia and the blooms are larger than what you are used to seeing too. Angelface^® are heat tolerant, low water use, tough plants that are well suited to most gardens and work well as tall flowering plants for containers. In addition to being great thrillers they are wonderful in landscapes, which is probably my favorite use for them as best thriller plants for planters. From left to right, below: Breathtaking, Angelface^® Perfectly Pink

The tropical look is still popular everywhere, no matter where you live. Canna Lilies have long been a stalwart in gardens all over. They are sturdy plants with bright colors and a tropical feel and make excellent thriller plants for containers. The bonus? Hummingbirds adore them! They grow quickly and are a great summer plant where the hotter it is, the happier they are as tall flowering plants for containers. Most Cannas are 5 feet or taller, and our new Toucan^® Canna series is relatively compact, with a final height around 4 feet, which means you can grow them in landscapes and very large container combinations. I tend to use them in containers by themselves, but grouped with other planters to give the effect of a combination planter, and this approach gives the Canna plenty of elbow room. They can tolerate some dry soils and will do well with wet soils as well. This new collection comes in four colors (from left to right, below) Toucan^® Coral, Toucan^® Scarlet and Toucan^® Yellow, all perfect tall plants for containers.

When it comes to container garden thrillers, Graceful Grasses^® King Tut^® Cyperus is hard to beat as container garden thriller plants. This variety reaches 5 or more feet tall in one season, and looks like a plant Dr. Seuss would have created - it is an awesome plant. But sometimes King Tut^® is just too much plant, yet you need something just as cool, but a whole lot smaller. Well, we have the plant for you - Graceful Grasses^® Prince Tut^™, which tops out at about 30 inches tall and works well as the best thriller plants for planters. Prince Tut^™ is short and sturdy and works in the landscape, in containers by itself or in very large combination planters. It can take normal soil conditions, but will also happily grow in water gardens. In fact, I usually grow the Tuts in containers with no drainage holes and treat them as if they are their own mini-water gardens. This plant has something for everyone. The two photos below show the difference in height between Prince Tut^™, on the left, and King Tut^® on the right.

Graceful Grasses^® Prince Tut^™ is also a great container plant, of course, as these photos show.