Celebrate the changing season with these ideas for your fall front porch planters.

Give your front porch new life in the fall months with these colorful autumn-inspired planter ideas. It’s time to get creative, have fun, and add some bold color and texture to your front porch. Celebrate the change in season by following our guide for crafting the perfect fall porch planter!

Style Ideas for Your Front Porch Fall Planter

We’ve put together a few quick tips to guide you as you design your perfect front porch fall planter. Don’t be shy with color. Fall colors are bold, so don’t hold back! Make sure your fall planter ideas involve colorful options in golds, reds, oranges, yellows, and purples. Combine thrillers, spillers, and fillers. The formula for a perfect planter for any season is to combine thrillers, spillers, and fillers. Thrillers are the stand-out statement plants that catch everyone’s attention. Spillers are plants that will extend their tendrils and trail out, spilling gracefully over the sides of the planter. Finally, fillers are low-growing plants that will fill the gaps between the others, creating a full, cohesive fall planter.

Get creative with textures. Soft, spikey, tall, short—add it all! Don’t be shy to play with texture! Creating visual interest is as easy as mixing and matching different colors and textures. Choose cold-hardy varieties. Fall weather can be a bit unpredictable, so make sure your fall front porch planter ideas include plants that can tolerate the colder weather as winter approaches. Protect them from the elements. Keep an eye out for frost warnings in the forecast. You may have to cover or insulate your plants overnight from time to time.

Ornamental Kale

Try adding ornamental kale to your fall porch planter. Flowering kale gets its magnificent color from its ruffled leaves, which come in hues of green and rich purple. Use kale as a focal piece for your fall planter: add some spillers and fillers to create a cohesive look. To care for ornamental kale in your fall planter, keep it moist and don’t let it dry out. Nutrient-rich and well-draining soil is the key to keeping the kale happy. In fact, ornamental kale can make it through very cold temperatures—it may even survive a mild Iowa winter!

Mums for all Seasons

Chrysanthemums, or mums, are the darlings of the fall flower world. Mums come in endless shades: you’ll be sure to find one to fit your best fall planter ideas. If you want your mums to bounce back in the spring, make sure you insulate them well before the first frost hits. Ideally, in order to have your mums survive our Iowa winter, it’s best to plant them in a well-insulated garden space early in the summer season to allow for the roots to establish—but it’s always worth a try later in the season, and if not just enjoy them as annual container plantings!

Pansies & Peppers

Pansies are the perfect filler plant with rich-colored blossoms and some serious ability to stand up to early frost. Their pops of color will mix perfectly with mums and kales. Ornamental peppers have the right colors for fall pots and that weird spooky shape to help usher in the Halloween holiday.

Squash & Pumpkins

Nothing screams cozy fall vibes more than delicious and decorative fall squash and pumpkins. Use heirloom pumpkins with interesting color and texture as a focal point in your fall porch planters. You can also add vining squash as a beautiful and edible filler.

Ornamental Millet

We carry ornamental millet, an unexpected and fabulous addition to your fall porch pots and planters. Ornamental millet adds height and great visual interest to your autumnal decor. They reach heights up to 3-5 feet and they finish off with a flourish: they are topped with a bushy cattail. Planting ornamental millet in your fall porch planters attracts birds and makes a great addition to your harvest bouquets.

We’d love to hear more ideas on how you’ll be filling your front porch planters this fall in Bettendorf! Come visit us to get more ideas on how you can celebrate fall in your home and garden.