Do you have full or hot afternoon sun beating down on your best spot for baskets or containers? Great! It’s prime real estate for lots of colorful annual flowers. You really have a ton of choices but I’ll try to whittle it down a bit so you won’t be overwhelmed with decisions!Petunias
Petunias. You can’t beat petunias for sun and heat tolerance. There is so much to recommend them that they are generally just the best place to start when you’re designing. There are many types and colors from trailing to Waves to Proven Winners Supertunias. I won’t even try to give a number to the colors and combinations of colors. This is the flower you’ll want to start with. Pick a petunia and let it define the rest of your colors.Lantana
Lantana and Verbena share some similarities. Both are branching flowers that tend to stand forward of petunias or fillers. Lantana’s color range in the pinks, yellows, oranges, and orange-reds. If none of these colors work for you then you’ll want to turn to Verbena.Verbena
Like Lantana Verbena shows pinks and reds but this is where you might want to look for purples, blues, and white. Verbena grows a bit more vigorously than Lantana so if you aren’t completely stuck on Lantana’s color or look Verbena might be a good choice. It’s just as heat tolerant as a petunia and wants full sun to bloom well.Creeping Jenny
Creeping Jenny is a wonderful addition to any container garden. The small chartreuse leaves are so abundant that this plant almost has a chain-like look. It will spill out and down adding that wonderful bright green that showcases your flowers. Sweet potato vine (ipomoea) is another popular filler plant for a good reason. Just like Creeping Jenny, it grows in sun or shade and quickly makes a beeline for the ground meaning that you’ll get wonderful cascading leaves spilling out of your container.Plans for container designs using Petunias, Lantana or Verbena, and Creeping Jenny