Best Container Plants For Creating Privacy

Excited by new trends in outdoor living and a desire to connect to nature, gardeners across the country are extending outdoor living areas. You can create a garden room using your deck, patio, porch or balcony. Extend your living area into a serene, private space with the help of container grown plants. If you’ve always wanted to create a little oasis, you can use flowers and foliage planted in containers to create the perfect retreat.

Finding The Best Plants For Natural Privacy

When you’re trying to create a private space with container plants, consider the view you wish to block at eye-level – whether that is standing or seated. If you're surrounding a seating area or table, look for plants that reach eye level while sitting. If you are working to obsure an unsightly view, you can use taller plants to block and redirect your gaze. The benefit of planting in containers is that you can place them on top of tables to help your foliage reach new heights! 

Once you’ve decided how you wish to achieve a sense of privacy, it’s time to look at plant choices! At American Meadows, we offer over 100 container-happy perennials, with plenty of choices for your unique growing conditions. When searching, look d plants that exhibit several of the following characteristics:

• Strong Foliage – When planting for privacy, it's important to look for plants with lush foliage. Grasses, Shrubs, and Elephant Ears are some of the best plants for long-lasting foliage.
• Beautiful Form and Color – As an extension of your living space, consider which colors of both flowers and foliage you would like to see in your space. 
• Height – Use the filters on the shopping page to find plants that will grow as low or as tall as you need. 
• Four-Season Interest – Why not plant for enjoyment throughout the year?
• Drought Tolerant – You may want to consider this if you sometimes forget to water!

With those characteristics in mind, let’s look at a few suggestions for some of the best container plants to create privacy in your outdoor oasis!

Container-Happy Shrubs For Privacy

Shrubs are terrific choices to create privacy as they are often well branched, have an exciting flowering season (sometimes with scent!), and can bring a sense of traditional hedging to a small space. When grouped with smaller container plants or layered with other shrubs, they provide the backbone needed to make more from less. One of the most important thingst to look for with shrubs is the mature size – including width. You don’t want to be crowded off your patio by a mature shrub! That being said, their flowers, foliage, and year-round visual interest make them an excellent feature of an outdoor retreat. They'll attract birds and butterflies as well, adding a new layer of serentiy to your garden.

Clethra

With its sweet, summertime scent and a strong, bushy habit, clethra makes a terrific shrub for your shadier private patio. Plus, the foliage will turn bright yellow when autumn turns summertime cocktails into mugs of mulled cider. Ruby Spice is a cultivar with pink tinged blossoms shaped into mini-bottlebrushes. Great for lines of ‘hedging,’ but needs a bit of space. Moisture lover.

Weigela With long, reaching stems, weigela can get out of control on a small patio quickly, yet it brings foliage, flower and scent to the garden. Thankfully there are lots of new dwarf cultivars that can give you the vigor and look of classic weigela without the bulk. Try Dark Horse or My Monet. Drought-tolerant. Hardy Hibiscus Add a tropical note to your private patio with large, colorful blooms while also adding the privacy-enhancing structure of Hardy Hibiscus. It’s a tough shrub with remarkably delicate blooms and responds well to pruning shears. For even more appeal, choose a cultivar with black or variegated foliage such as Kopper King or Showtime.

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Flowers and Bulbs For Containers

It’s not just about tall grasses and shrubs! There are many perennials and annuals you can use in your containers to enahnce privacy while creating texture and introducing exciting colors Plus, if you use 'risers' like pots, tables, boxes, etc., to create staggered heights, you can use just about any well-shaped plant to create a private garden feel.

When choosing container annuals and perennials for privacy, look for those that have a good structure all season and are able to support their own weight against winds. They’ll be more vulnerable in taller containers than they would be in the ground.

If the perennials will overwinter in place, choose those whose hardiness is rated at least a zone colder than your zone. In cold climates, some great plants that grow from tropical bulbs, like Canna Lilies or Elephant Ears, can be overwintered easily in a dormant state for next year.

Best Privacy Container Flowers & Bulbs For Containers

For a meadow-like feel:

For movement, sound and wildlife habitat, consider placing containers of long-blooming meadow favorites such as Coneflower, Black-Eyed Susan or Bee Balm in front of containers of medium grasses. Add some annual seeds of Cosmos, Sunflowers, or Zinnias and you’ll attract pollinators while blocking difficult views with beauty.

For a classic, colorful feel:

Some well-loved, vigorous perennials such as Shasta Daisies or Asiatic Lilies adapt beautifully to large containers – giving you strong foliage and great flowers. When containers are grouped together with larger shrubs such as hydrangea, you can create a formal look, stagger bloom times and block views.

For a lush, tropical feel:

Try large foliage annuals such as Canna Lilies or Elephant Ears which grow vigorously and often don’t need any help from other larger plants to block views – especially when strategically placed in groups. They’re moisture lovers, so keep that hose on standby and add to the jungle effect with large Ferns or Hostas.