The Best Container Plants for Full Sun

When it comes to container plants, many of the most popular annuals are popular for good reason—specifically, they bloom longer and more lavishly than other put-in-the-shade varieties. You shouldn’t avoid certain types just because “everybody grows them.” Instead, look for new or unusual cultivars that fit your own particular style.

You needn’t limit yourself to traditional flowering annuals, either. Many colorful vines, grasses, herbs, and seldom-blooming succulents can look just as sensational when given their place in the sun. In short, creative container gardens are more about pot planning than potluck!

Tolerant of dry air, lantana can adapt to indoor conditions and may even flower there. However, it blooms profusely outdoors during summer, with clusters of tiny multicolored and often hot-hued flowers. Avoid pampering this plant with too much food and water or you may decrease its bloom. If you take lantana indoors in autumn, don’t panic when it drops most of its foliage. It is simply adjusting to changing light levels.

Related: 12 Gorgeous Plants to Attract Hummingbirds to Your Garden

Although portulaca, or moss rose, resembles the rose in its often double flowers (and the cactus in the satiny texture of its petals), those flowers appear on an annual plant that is as easy to grow as the marigold. Portulaca was originally was a morning bloomer that closed its petals around noon and on cloudy days, but newer hybrids can remain open into the afternoon if the sun is shining. When the plants become leggy, cut them back for renewed flowering.

An old favorite with its short stature and flaming yellow, orange, or red blooms, French marigold can light up containers from early summer through frost. When watering the plant, aim your can’s spout underneath its leaves, as constantly wet foliage can cause fungal problems that might make this proud Mary a sad Mary. You’ll also want to deadhead (snip off) withered flowers to keep your plant blooming up to the marigold standard.

Not all container plants need to flower. The sweet potato vine, grown for its showy foliage, comes in a variety of sweet colors from purplish black to red, bronze, or variegated. Those splashy leaves reportedly produce their most intense hues in full sun. (Although the plant can make morning glory-like blooms, modern cultivars seldom do so.) The leaves may be heart-shaped or deeply divided, and the sweet potato vine can do double duty by serving as a houseplant during winter.

Like the fountain for which it is named, fountain grass adds a gracefully arching, cooling presence to the landscape. With narrow leaves and fluffy flower plumes, it can be used on its own or combined with other annuals. Cultivars with purple or burgundy foliage are particularly eye-catching. Like most grasses, the fountain type is vigorous enough to be pushy, so you may want to give it its own container to allow it to spout off in peace.

If you live where rosemary isn’t hardy, try growing it in a container that you can move indoors during winter. That way you can give it the good drainage it likes and position it near the kitchen door, handy for culinary snipping. You can even trim it into a topiary, if you would like. Always pot rosemary in a fast-draining potting soil that is on the alkaline side rather than in peat-based soil, which tends to be too acidic for this plant.