Wouldn't it be nice to be greeted with cheery flowers?
Adding flowers to your front porch is a simple way to increase your home's curb appeal—they enhance the look of your yard to both visitors and passersby alike. Plus, it's not difficult to dress up your porch's railings, steps, and even walls with bright blooms. Here are five of our favorite ways to add more flowers to your front porch right now.
Hang Flowering Hanging Baskets
Hanging baskets can be the easiest (and, in some cases, the most cost effective) way to add flowers to your front porch. Buy them already assembled, or choose baskets and "fill them with flowers that spill over the sides, such as fuchsia, lobelia, or pelargonium to create a stunning cascade throughout the spring and summer," suggests Pippa Churcher, horticultural expert for Candide Gardening. She recommends using a wicker basket: "It never goes out of style, and only needs to be watered every one to three days."
Go Vertical
If you want to do something a little different than the standard container garden, Claire Josephson, product marketing manager for PanAmerican Seed, suggests creating a wall of flowers. To add a vertical garden to your porch Josephson says to attach small containers to a tall item, such as a section of a picket fence or wood palette, that you'd like to have as part of your décor. "Or stack two pots on top of each other for a cascading effect top to bottom," Josephson says.
Add Window Boxes
"Window boxes are a guaranteed way to introduce a riot of color to your front porch," says Churcher. (Like with hanging baskets, short or trailing flowers in a variety of colors can be perfect to use; Churcher suggests geraniums, marigolds, petunias, pansies, English ivy, or tumbling tomatoes, and says to steer clear of plants that tend to spread out, such as melon or squash.) Attaching window boxes is a straightforward process, but "it's best to choose containers with rubber or plastic-coated brackets to avoid damaging the railings," she says.
Decorate with Fragrant Flowers
Looking for a perfect way to welcome guests to your home? Add scented flowers to your front porch, says Josephson. Place a decorative pot by the front door or on the porch steps, she suggests, then fill it with fragrant flowers such as blue spear or lavender. "For cooler seasons, cool wave pansies have a pleasing aroma, as do container stocks and dianthus," Josephson says.
Use Statement Pieces
Your porch might be a smaller space, but that doesn't mean tiny flowers or petite pots are your only options. It's also "the ideal place for large flowering plants such as agapanthus, dwarf buddleia, or a hibiscus tree," Churcher says. "These are real statement plants, so it's a great opportunity to find some impressive pots as well. Whether you like the look of stone, wood, metal, or ceramics, there are plenty of options out there. You could even go for something more unusual like an old milk churn."