Plants can spruce up any outdoor space, and in the case of pools, they prevent them from looking bland, boring, and uninviting.
Whether it’s lofty trees, colorful flowers, or architectural foliage, a container garden can instantly transform your poolside from dull to fabulous.
On top of the aesthetic appeal that plants provide, they also present other advantages, such as creating some shade for relaxation and natural privacy screens for more defined spaces.
We’ve gathered some of the best container plants that are perfect for your poolside planting scheme.
Take a look!
1. Join the Lines
This large planter is a perfect way to decorate a bare space at your poolside. The showy Cycas revoluta (sago palm) is a focal point of thrillers with its mix of brown and green leaves. This slow-growing, long-lived small tree native to Asia isn’t necessarily a palm but is more accurately described as a conifer.
Nonetheless, it will still give you the appearance of a palm tree. Here, it looks exceptionally beautiful when set against a wooden fence or wall. The container garden makes every minute spent in this pool even more attractive.
2. Provide a Backdrop
A planter in a granite finish is a timeless choice, but the cylindrical shape and small cutouts on the brim of this container give it a distinctly clean, geometric, and modern feel.
The Yucca elephantipes (yucca palm) provides plenty of architectural drama through its tough, strappy green leaves that emerge from an alluring, textured trunk. The planter’s neutral tone and texture help bring out the unique natural beauty of the plant’s foliage.
3. Consider a Textural Look
You only need a simple-to-follow formula to replicate the drama in this poolside container garden. The key to pulling off this design is to place a vining plant that you can train upwards in the middle, which, in this case, is the Mandevilla with its trumpet-shaped white flowers.
Fill the empty spaces with clusters of caladium and a modicum of petunias. For the final attention grabber, include some ornamental grasses and let them spill over the sides to help conceal the container.
4. Border the Pool Steps
This container garden idea is a beautiful way to add subtle style to your contemporary poolside landscape. The design features a pair of low-grown evergreen shrubs that evoke a continuous look and an element of symmetry.
The hedges are planted in relatively long wooden boxes, whose design adds intrigue and creates a quintessential feature to the otherwise formal look.
5. Keep it Constrained
This sleek, geometric design does most of the heavy lifting and puts the foliage in the spotlight. The black planter, adorned with treillage detailing, hosts the ever-creeping Hedera helix (English ivy).
The design focuses entirely on containing the trailing nature of the plant for a more divergent look. Notice how the planter frames the obelisk and trellis wall in the background, giving the garden even more emphasis.
6. Complement the Landscape
Using black planters for your poolside container garden is a great way to let your plants be the foundation of your design. This poolside container garden begins with the silvery foliage of an olive tree and bush. The foliage complements the gravel and pavers, as well as the lush lawn, for a cohesive look.
Another planter with Yucca gloriosa on the other side of the pool complements the olive tree and bush, providing a different kind of texture that adds visual interest. Grouping some of your container planters and leaving others on their own can help create a homey, mini-garden vibe at the poolside.
7. Match the Plants
Create a fantastic summer container garden with pops of color using sun-loving perennials. Pink petunias stand tall in the trio of planters, combining with the yellow impatiens and red begonias to brighten this somewhat shady corner with hundreds of blooms.
Purple vining plants spill on the front of the planters for a balanced look, helping tie the outdoor space together. The chic water fountains bring a sense of harmony to this poolside container garden.
8. Embrace Simple Things
Add charm to your poolside container garden with a neutral wooden box planter. Here, a simple promenade square planter showcases a classic arrangement of spiky red-purple cordyline and green hostas.
The gray planter nicely complements the foliage’s soft and muted green colors, giving it a modern and fresh feel.
9. Take Your Surroundings into Account
Nothing beats container planters in the full glory of the sun. Here, low-maintenance, high-drama containers spotlight Bougainvillea glabra in the bright sun.
The red flowers are set in polished ceramic containers, whose bright white finish contrasts with the flowers while complementing the paver pool deck. This idea is an excellent example of how to achieve a simple container garden aesthetic.
10. Take it Up
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Are you dreaming of a prominent container garden but want to maintain a simple look? This container garden idea skips the vibrant flowers but still carries abundant charm and lots of tropical flair.
The matching containers and plants create a cohesive look, with the varied heights for each adding depth. You’ll love this Ficus benjamina towering next to the walls by your poolside. Add a few palms to protrude from the sides for an assorted look.
11. Inspire with a Jungle Look
Add a touch of tropical greenery and refinement to your poolside corner container garden with the popular tropical plant Strelitzia reginae (bird of paradise). Here, the large leaves of the majestic plant pair with other plants, such as philodendrons, pothos, and dracaenas, to complete this tropical-inspired corner garden.
Additional hanging planters with staghorn ferns complement the lush green leaves of the potted plants, creating a great harmony of color. The woven planters combine with the paneled wood fence to further enhance the tropical ambiance.
12. Go for One Color
Planting in clusters is an essential part of putting together this incredible poolside container garden. The square and rectangular planters in the container garden are beautifully layered with similar plant species, evoking a modern vibe.
The containers provide enough room to accommodate many plants and flowers at once, such as the oleanders in the above example, whose impact is an intriguing and elegant display. Consider matching your planters with the outdoor color scheme for a congruent look.
13. Find Amicable Solutions
Bowl planters work nicely in limited spaces and help increase the allure of your area in effortless yet unexpected ways. So, rather than overwhelming your poolside with numerous plantings, here is an excellent example of how to use containers to fill those bare-looking spots at your poolside.
Here, a collection of structural succulents such as echeveria, sedum, sempervivum, and aeonium take center stage in the simple bowl planters, giving the unique arrangement a fanciful internal architecture. A purple salvia plant punctuates the silvery gray foliage.
14. Beautify with Accents
With such a beautiful and simple design, you’ll want to have similar planters almost everywhere in your home, not just by the poolside. The Dracaena trifasciata (snake plant) provides a simple palette of green and yellow with its foliage, creating a melody of color and shape.
Blue marble rocks at the base of the plant create a contemplative moment of pause and intimacy, pulling you in for a closer look.
15. Consider Timeless Designs
If you’ve ever been in doubt that a plain and straightforward container garden can brighten up a poolside, then here’s your proof! These ceramic china planters complement the privet plants without going over the top.
The container planter’s intricate designs help create unexpected yet robust focal points and a beautiful feeling of flow throughout the poolside container garden. Striped white and blue fabrics on the sun loungers unify the space for a clean look.
16. Let It Spill
A container garden is a straightforward yet sophisticated way to soften a hardscape. Here, the container garden creates visual consistency throughout its arrangement, with a sago palm at the center, proving purpose and elegance exist in simplicity.
Delosperma cooperi ‘Variegata’ highlights and reinforces the color of the sago palm while illuminating the container garden with bright foliage and flowers. The planter bowl complements the paved pool deck, tying the entire look together.
17. Keep it Simple
This small concrete planter looks great when placed by the poolside, but it’s the floral arrangement that takes it to the next level. The key to achieving this look is combining contrasting textures. Here, the selection involves a showy celebration of Prince Tut grass, fiery scarlet red coleus, and puffy purple alyssum.
Asparagus densiflorus’ Sprengeri’ (common asparagus fern) acts as the filler and helps conceal the hard surface. Set against the concrete pool deck, the planter’s simple monochrome tone creates a sensational container garden for your poolside.
18. Make a Statement
Make tropical foliage the focal point for your planter for a poolside container garden that steals the show. This easy-care, bold planter uses vibrant red begonias to enhance its gleaming look and command attention from afar.
Purple Scaevola aemula and trailing sweet potato vine have been used as fillers in the space-saving planter, and they combine with the begonias for a dazzling color palette. Finally, Phoenix roebelenii (pygmy date palm) stands atop the arrangement, adding lush greenery while offering wonderful texture and movement.
19. Showcase Foliage
Stick with a simple planting scheme for a beautiful container garden that eliminates the hassle of gardening—your container garden doesn’t need to have every species or cultivar of plant imaginable.
Here, the Strelitzia reginae’s oversized leaves work magnificently by creating drama through scale. The white planter pots create a clean look, while the bird of paradise takes center stage in the bigger pot.
20. Offer the Plants Support
If you like architectural elements in your container garden, consider adding a trellis to elevate it for more of an impact. These lovely box planters are studded with purple alyssum and profusely blooming Trachelospermum jasminoides (star jasmine).
A trellis has been added to help train the star jasmine, which prevents overcrowding and ensures that each plant receives adequate light.
21. Impress with Your Planter
The ingenious arrangement of this container garden complements the sisal-like detailing of the planter. The handsome planter blends various florals, such as angelonia, scaevola, cascade geranium, and verbena, in hues from pink to deep purple, creating a lush look.
The mandevilla in the middle has been grown on a teepee to create a whimsical sense of height, giving the container garden a one-of-a-kind look. The rich blue tone of the planter complements the outdoor oasis.
22. Contrast with Foliage
Finding the right combination of beauty and durability using plants in your container garden can be challenging. Here, the bird of paradise and Cryptanthus bromeliad in bright green and pale brown shout a welcome in a calming way.
Contrasting black and white using the planters creates an elegant duo, with another pair of black planters with Dypsis lutescens (areca palm) in the distance, making the design distinctive yet harmonious. All these plants are tropical plants, making them perfect for grouping together.
23. Be Bold with Your Design
These romantic planters capture the feelings of mystery and magic through their bright colors and beautiful texture. The most prominent pot is the main focal point with its towering palm plant. The reddish-purple cordyline in the midsize container contributes more height, while pink petunias unify the garden for a powerful, single-note punch.
Pentas lanceolata and Portulaca grandiflora add more color for variety and depth, while strings of hearts dangle over the sides, producing a wildly untamed look that brings a sense of beauty.
24. Space It Out
Salvia forms the centerpiece of these containers, filled with bright colors and subtle greenery. The purple flowers sit at the center, adding height to the arrangement.
Plenty of green foliage provides a backdrop for the bold calibrachoa and petunias, allowing them to stand out. The off-white planters give a sense of cohesion against the concrete design elements of the pool deck.
25. Match the Look
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This poolside container garden is an excellent example of how to achieve subtle variation, proving how simply repeating a color or shape can go a long way in creating a beautiful and relaxing outdoor space.
Here, three ceramic planters in a bold shade of black hold a variety of textural plants.
26. Green for the Win
These sisal-like planters are flea market gems. They’re filled with an assortment of plants that provide different shades of green, anchoring the poolside area while adding depth to the space.
Brugmansia spp. (Angel’s trumpet) offer a pop of color among the textural leaves while the bird of paradise acts as the focal point of this incredible container garden wonder.
27. Utilize the Landscape
These terracotta planters sit in an evergreen-laden landscape, an excellent way to frame a tonal container garden. Consider adding interest to your terracotta-toned planters with evergreens. Here, the planters are old and weathered, but lively green boxwoods turn them into instant statement pieces.
Other small planters in between the tall ones fill the space with red, yellow, and purple florals to prevent the container garden from falling flat.
28. Play with a Fun Design
Go for evergreen topiaries for a low-effort, high-impact poolside container garden. Here, topiaries sit at each corner of the pool deck, adding just the right amount of height and depth to the space.
The best thing about these evergreen planters is that they’re inexpensive, so you can get plenty of bang for your buck when you opt for this design!
