Fall is one of the best times to up your curb appeal and create a welcoming yard and garden for all your family and friends with fall planter ideas. Updating your planters and containers for fall is easy, can be done in an afternoon, and can last well into the holiday season. Fall creates a whole new gardening personality… one that is more laid back and sleepy, but also electrified with color and texture. It’s almost as if Mother Nature wants one last dip in the pool before the summer sun sets for the cold winter. And she brings the margarita mix. Gotta love that. From colorful foliage and fall flowers to pumpkins, branches, and ornamental grasses, these ideas for fall planters will help you give your garden a fresh look for the season.

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Cover Image showing different styles and variations of fall planter ideas

Fall Foliage Planter Ideas

Don’t overlook foliage when putting together your fall planters. Colorful leaves can add just as much interest as flowers, while also bringing texture and contrast to your containers. Ornamental kale is always a winner, but ivy, lamium, dusty miller, lamb’s ear, hardy herbs, and ornamental grasses are great choices too. You may even have plants left from summer that can stay right where they are. Don’t be too quick to boot out a plant just because it isn’t flowering!

Colorful Fall Foliage Planter

These colorful fall planters from Southern Living show just how much impact foliage can have in a container garden. Mix different leaf colors, shapes, and textures to create an autumn planter that looks full and interesting even without relying on lots of flowers.

Colorful fall planter filled with vibrant foliage in contrasting autumn shades on a front porch with pumpkins surrounding it
Tall grasses and low hanging vines in a fall planter on a front porch

Give a Summer Planter a Fall Makeover

You don’t have to start from scratch to create a beautiful fall container! Hearth and Vine took an existing planter that had gotten a little sad at the end of summer and gave it new life for fall. She kept the plant that was still thriving, then added contrasting foliage and colorful fall flowers around it. Take a look at your summer containers before clearing them out. Sometimes all they need is a quick seasonal makeover!

Tall grasses, florals and low hanging vines in a fall planter on a front porch to showcase different layering styles

Purple Fountain Grass and Coleus Fall Planter

Flowers aren’t required for a gorgeous fall planter! This Houzz container uses purple fountain grass and coleus to create plenty of color and texture using foliage alone. While the original source is no longer available, we’re keeping this beautiful planter here for inspiration. Combining plants with different heights, leaf shapes, and shades is an easy way to make an all-foliage container feel just as interesting as one filled with flowers.

Fall planter filled with purple fountain grass and colorful coleus

Fall Flower Pot Ideas

This is where you add the sparkle! Pop in some festive fall annuals like mums, pansies, asters, and zinnias. You don’t need a bunch here, just choose one or two you love! And don’t skimp. Your fall plants won’t have much growing time to fill in, so tuck them pretty close together to give them a designer look. This time of year, you can either choose to stay with one or two colors for a calmer color scheme, or go all out and make it a fall planter fiesta. You can even stay with an all-foliage container by using colorful foliage as your filler “flowers.”

Mums and Cut Flowers for a Colorful Fall Planter

From Momcrieff, this is a great example of using filler flowers, and some are cut flowers! What a great combo for a fall planter idea. Mixing cut flowers with planted blooms and foliage is an easy way to add even more color and interest to your container.

Colorful fall planter filled with mums, cut flowers, and seasonal foliage surrounded by pumpkins

Cordyline and Cascading Flowers

The foliage in this fall planter from Costa Farms is a showstopper, but the flowers add the fun. Use a tall fall foliage plant like this cordyline, then add cascading flowers that bloom right through until frost, like these wave petunias. These are inexpensive plants that you can find at any local nursery, too.

Fall planter with tall cordyline and cascading purple petunia flowers

Mums and Kale Fall Planter Boxes

These fall planter boxes were originally shared by Tubloom and are updated each season with filler flowers. Mums and kale fit the bill here. Notice there are evergreen plants in each container. This gives you a great year-round base so that you can update your planters for each season. Although the original link is no longer available, this is still a great idea to recreate in your own fall planters.

Apartment planter boxes filled with mums, ornamental kale, and evergreen foliage in a city setting

Fall Flower Window Box

You can make a fall planter window box using these same ideas too! This one was originally featured on Houzz and uses both foliage and flowers to create a full, colorful display. The original source is no longer available, but we’re keeping the idea because it’s a great reminder that fall container ideas aren’t limited to traditional pots and planters.

Window box filled with colorful autumn flowers and seasonal foliage

Contemporary Fall Annual Planters

These contemporary containers, originally featured on Houzz, show the use of foliage and filler flowers to make them come alive for the whole season! The tall corn stalks add even more height and texture, giving these fall planters plenty of seasonal interest. The Houzz page has since disappeared, but this combination of flowers, foliage, and tall natural elements is easy to use as inspiration for your own containers.

3 different sized black planters with colorful flowers, foliage, and tall corn stalks

Fall Planters with Branches, Grasses & Natural Texture

Adding texture is an easy way to give your fall planters more height, structure, and seasonal interest. Ornamental grasses are a great bargain this time of year and are often on clearance. Pick up a few container-size varieties, making sure to plant the taller grasses toward the back of the container. Branches and berries are another easy way to add texture and bring a little more of the season into your fall planters.

White Branches and Mini Pumpkin Fall Planter

This fall planter idea from Midwest Living uses texture and form with white branches and mini pumpkins. There’s lots of subtle contrast here with texture, while the simple green and white color palette keeps the overall look fresh and understated.

Planter with white branches, green foliage, and small white pumpkins

Fall Leaves and Dried Grass Planter

If you really love the whole autumn colors vibe for your fall front porch decor, this container garden is perfect inspiration! The branches of fall leaves and the dried grasses really do add color and texture to an already fiery fall planter. We don’t have the original source from Pinterest for this photo, but we’re keeping it here because it’s such beautiful inspiration for creating your own autumn planter.

Fall planter filled with colorful autumn leaves, dried grasses, and seasonal foliage

Fall Planter with Bamboo Stakes

This planter, originally featured on Houzz, is another great example of adding texture to your fall containers, this time using bamboo stakes. We can no longer link to the original project, but the idea is simple to recreate. Adding tall natural elements like these is an easy way to bring height and structure to a container without adding more flowers.

Black ceramic fall container with colorful foliage and tall natural bamboo stakes

Creative Outdoor Fall Planter Ideas

Your fall planters don’t have to be limited to traditional flower pots! This is a great time of year for repurposed containers as well. A planted wheelbarrow, old tin buckets, or vintage crockery can add a little extra character to your outdoor fall planter ideas. And don’t forget seasonal accents like pumpkins, which can add even more color and texture.

Mums Planted in Vintage Crocks

Liz Marie planted her fall mums in old crockery for her front porch. The pumpkins add the texture to make this a really festive fall planter idea!

Fall porch display with mums planted in vintage crocks and pumpkins

Wheelbarrow Fall Planter

This wheelbarrow fall planter idea is something any of us can do. You can simply place nursery pots into the wheelbarrow, then hide them with fall pumpkins, straw bales, and other autumn accents. Or, you could drill a few holes into the bottom of the wheelbarrow, fill it with soil, then plant directly into it! Frankly, if you are recycling an old, rusty one, you may not even need to drill holes!

The photo was originally credited to Cape Cod Happenings, but the original project is no longer available online. The idea itself is simple enough to use as inspiration for creating your own version.

Rustic wheelbarrow fall planter filled with seasonal plants and a pumpkin

Purple Kale Fall Container

Love the texture the purple kale gives to this bright fall container! Originally shared by McCabe’s, this is a great example of how colorful foliage can bring just as much interest to a fall planter as flowers.

Bright fall container featuring textured purple ornamental kale and colorful plants

Get Inspired by These Fall Planter Ideas

What’s your opinion? Can’t wait to decorate the yard with fall planter ideas, and usher in those holiday festivities with style? Or do you think its a waste of time… those flowers are just going to die anyway? (We’re hoping you pick the first one!) With colorful foliage, fall flowers, ornamental grasses, and a few seasonal accents, it doesn’t take much to give your planters a fresh look for autumn.

Looking for even more seasonal inspiration? We think you’ll also love our posts on Fabulous Fall Container Ideas and How to Make Winter Garden Planters! And check out Fall Pumpkin Decorating Ideas and Easy & Cheap Fall Decor over at TBD, and Fresh & Pretty Fall Wreath Ideas over at OhMeOhMy!!

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6 Comments

  1. pauline January 11, 2018 at 5:11 pm

    I must admit that here in Australia we don’t go all out in autumn (fall) probably because this time of year is usually mild and we tend to rejuvenate our gardens and clean up around the yard this March though I will plant up a number of containers to make the most of the season so, thanks for your ideas – great work.

    Reply
  2. joanne September 8, 2015 at 6:04 pm

    Hello,
    Do you know what the large wooden container, on the green porch, is in the fourth photo?

    Love it and thank you.
    Joanne

    Reply
    1. Kathy Woodard September 17, 2015 at 9:06 am

      Im sorry Joanne, we don’t! Good luck in finding (or making) one like it!

      Reply
    2. dena September 3, 2016 at 8:05 am

      It looks to me to be an old cupboard and they set the plant on the top.

      Reply
  3. Lisa August 2, 2015 at 6:07 pm

    Great pics! Do you know what the name of the paint color used on the green house color is in the photo? Thanks!

    Reply
    1. Kathy Woodard August 4, 2015 at 2:43 pm

      We don’t Lisa, sorry!

      Reply

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