Selling your house? Add plants for instant curb appeal
Up your curb appeal instantly with the addition of fresh flowers and foliage. Dressing up your outdoor spaces invites potential buyers into your home. It makes a great first impression and it’s easy to do. Choose plants based on the aesthetic of your home. What does this mean? Simply put, it means that you should select colors and textures that match the style of your house and existing landscape. Add splashes of color to catch some attention from the road. Use a fresh planting of flowers or foliage to liven up the area around your mailbox. Include hanging baskets to embellish your front porch or decorative planters on the patio.
Visit your local garden center and see what’s looking good right now. Keep in mind the watering needs as you won’t want to spend a ton of time on watering these guys. Spring and summer flowers are abundant, and you’ll have your choice of what to take home with you. If you’re selling late in the season, try adding some color with mums, flowering kales and cabbages and pansies. Fall is also a wonderful time for planting perennials, trees, and shrubs. Evergreen shrubs are an excellent choice to add color, texture, and height instantly!
If you are short on time, find annuals that are in bloom and pot them up into containers. Containers can be packed full of plants for a full mature look in minutes. You can save time and effort by going with a combination planter that is already put together.
Check out the list below for some of our top suggestions!
Geranium
A treasured favorite for generations with good reason. They can be grown in flower beds and containers and are easy to care for and are abundant bloomers with bright flowers. Try a classic red variety or explore the many choices of colorful blooms, foliage, and habits that Geraniums have to offer.
Marigold
The no fuss flower for your garden. Not only do they bring the warm colors of sunshine, but they are also great pollinator plants attracting butterflies and bees. They’re the perfect bedding plant for your garden.
Petunia
The classic summer annual, Petunias are a smart choice for beds, containers and hanging baskets. Petunias are one of the most popular flowers because they bloom for an extended period of time. They come in a variety of colors and habits to suit any space in need of a pop of summer color.
Salvia
Add drama to your landscape with annual Salvia. They’re so easy to grow, bloom abundantly and the best part is that deer, bunnies, and other garden pests typically ignore them. Salvia’s upright habit add height and bold color to garden beds and containers.
Coleus
Grown for their colorful foliage, they come in never-ending supply of textures, sizes, shapes, and habits. Let the larger varieties take center stage or choose a smaller version to serve as an accent in your containers. Just keep them watered and they will thrive all season long. They love shade or sun!
Ferns
They're the perfect addition to any shade garden and are incredibly easy to grow. The fronds add drama and vertical interest with their varying textures and colors. Larger varieties can act as anchors for larger shaded areas while smaller selections can be used to add a pop of color or define a border. They also look amazing in hanging baskets on your front porch.
Sweet Potato Vine
The perfect trailing accent for your window boxes, containers and hanging baskets. The beautiful heart-shaped foliage comes in vibrant colors like lime green, purple, bronze, copper, or black. While traditionally used in containers, these colorful foliage plants shouldn't be overlooked as a groundcover option.
Hostas
They're the quintessential shade perennial and can be the focal point of your shade garden. Grown for their foliage, these easy to grow plants come in a variety of colors, sizes, and textures. Use the more petite selections for lining your shaded cottage walkway and the larger ones to make an enormous impact in the landscape.
Pansy
A classic favorite for spring and fall plantings, it comes in an array of blotched and clear colors. Use to add long-lasting color to your garden, borders or containers. Especially nice for the Midwest in the Spring into early Summer, they don’t perform well when the temperatures start going up.
Mums
A traditional choice for late season color to containers and landscapes with their full, colorful blooms. These fall beauties are available in a multitude of colors and shapes making them versatile for any application. Make your combination planters pop with assorted colors or go for a monochromatic look.
Caladium
It's tropical leaves give shaded areas a needed boost of color. The patterned, exotic-looking foliage comes in many colors including white, green, pink and red. Most are best suited for shade but there are new varieties tolerant of sun.They can be planted to fill a space. Use them as a component for combination plantings too.