What to Plant in Your Window Boxes

Truth: I could talk about flowers all day – everyday. I love and respect the new life they give to the seasons, and to me, both physically and mentally. We’ve had our window boxes for 3 years now, and I get asked all the time about them, and what I put in them. So I thought I would finally write a post on what to plant in your window boxes.

I guess we should begin with the basic questions. First, if you’re thinking about getting window boxes, go read my review of our window boxes on this post. Second, once you have your window boxes and it’s safe to plant flowers in your zone – pay attention to what type of sun your window boxes will be getting during the Spring & Summer. As we all know, there’s particular plants that do well in full sun, partial or shade. My window boxes get full to partial sun all day long. So I always plant with FULL SUN in mind. Here’s the flowers I use:

1. Traditional Geraniums – grow upright and have fresh blooms all the time (THRILLER)
2. Sweet Potato Vine – a very hardy vine that spills out in FULL sun (SPILLER)
3. Ivy Geraniums – this type of geraniums spills & frills (FILLER & SPILLER)
4. Ivy Geranium – for balance & symmetry – plant on each side of the box (FILLER & SPILLER)

There’s no questions that flowers are expensive, especially annuals. However, annual flowers typically give you a huge pop of color for your buck throughout the Summer months. I typically buy 2 really big geraniums from our local nursery and divide them up for my flowers boxes & porch planters. Another good tip: Don’t forget the knowledge that your local nursery workers can provide when you’re considering what to plant in your window boxes.

In this picture below, you can see just how small the flowers start off. Since I divide the bigger Geraniums in large pots to make my budget go further for more flowers. Because let’s face it ~ you can never have enough flowers.

There’s endless possibilities when you’re thinking about what to plant in your window boxes. The main thing you should consider is the sun exposure. If you have partial sun to shade, you can of course switch things up. For example, you can use Creeping Jenny for your vine, instead of Sweet Potato vine. You could even plant ferns, hydrangeas, impatients, pansies, foxgloves…the list can go on.

Your main goal in designing a window box or even a planter box is that you want a thriller, filler and spiller. Your thriller is of course your color and height. The filler is the combination of your thriller or a separate plant altogether. It all depends on how much room you have. Lastly, your spiller is your vine or what’s overflowing from your window box or planter box.

Above is our porch planter boxes. They also get the divided geraniums from the larger pots. It’s amazing how fast they grow with some of my MAGIC DIRT. I wrote a post about my MAGIC DIRT years ago, and I still use the same formula without fail every year. In the planters above, I’ve used:

Kimberly Ferns – they are so hardy and they can take FULL SUN!
Traditional Geraniums
Creeping Jenny – sometimes I’ll add a spiller to these pots, but by the July the ferns and flowers get so big, they take over the Creeping Jenny.

Planting flowers and deciding what to plant in your window boxes is like therapy to me. It’s amazing how much pleasure you can get out of watching things grow. For me personally, therapy begins at the very first dig in the dirt. You’re planting something for the future and also getting some of the best exercise you can do for yourself.

Source List: (contains affiliate links)

My most favorite extremely-lightweight garden hose ever made! – here

Black Board & Batten Vinyl Shutters – very similar – here

Decorative Vinyl Shutter Hinges – here

Window Boxes – here

Porch Planter Boxes – here

Exterior Gray Paint – read about it in my post here