How to Refresh Your Porch Pots With Holiday Greenery

The tree is lit, the paperwhites are potted, and the wreath and garlands are hung, but before your guests arrive, don’t forget to address the containers on your front porch, whose colorful summer and autumn displays have long since faded!

Below are three options for reinvigorating your porch pots for winter. From quick fixes to opportunities to express your own creative perspective, our garden centers are prepared to help your home feel warm and welcoming from the moment you reach the front door.

OPTION 1: Drop-In Pot

Instant Gratification

1. Remove fall or summer plants from pot; measure the diameter of the pot
2. Purchase a drop-in pot that is sized to fit your existing pot
3. Bring soil to correct volume to support new pot addition
4. Add pre-made drop-in pot to ceramic planter (add evergreen branches around the edges if drop-in pot is smaller in diameter than your pot)
5. Finish with a bow, twinkle lights, or any other seasonal flair

OPTION 2: Cut Winter Greens & Berries

Let Your Creativity Shine

1. Visit our garden centers to pick up seasonal cut greens, sold by the pound and available in a range of colors and textures, foraging in your own landscape for any bright additions
2. Remove fall or summer plants from pot
3. Bring soil within 2” of top lip of pot to support greenery addition
4. Add large, substantial branches like those from a Noble Fir, starting back to front and layering in a fan-like pattern
5. Add textural evergreens like Pine and Incense Cedar in between Fir layers
   Add colorful elements like Holly, Ilex Berries, or Twig Dogwood
6. Finish with a bow, ornaments, twinkle lights, or any other seasonal flair

OPTION 3: Living Plants & Cut Greens

Build Something That Lasts

1. Purchase a few living plants at our garden centers, along with cut branches and berries that complement your living plant selections
2. Remove fall or summer annual plants from pot, keeping any evergreen elements that still look fresh in place, as desired
3. Remove a few gallons of old soil and add fresh potting soil within 3” of top of pot
4. Add a structural, evergreen plant in the center/back of the pot, such as Lemon Cypress, Sky Pencil Holly, or other conifer or broadleaf evergreen that suits your aesthetic
5. Plant a few 4” or quart-sized plants toward the front of the pot for winter color, such as Cyclamen, Wintergreen, Dusty Miller, Heather, or Pansies
6. Layer textural evergreen branches to frame the plantings and add drama to arrangement
7. Add in colorful elements like Holly, Ilex Berries, or Twig Dogwood
8. Finish with a bow, ornaments, twinkle lights, or any other seasonal flair