Today I’m sharing 8 summer planter ideas that are simply stunning! From beautiful potted hydrangeas, to gorgeous boxwoods, these are some of the most beautiful garden planter ideas to DIY this summer! (Plus, the prettiest planter boxes still available!)
Flowers are in full bloom and I’m ready to spruce up our planters with gorgeous florals that will last all summer long (hopefully!). If you haven’t added planters to your front steps, porch or patio before, it’s such an easy and beautiful way to really spruce up your outdoor space. Flowers and shrubs are so fresh and inviting, and creating a summer planter is such a welcoming way to enjoy those blooms for both you, your family, and your guests.

*Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. All opinions and recommendations are my own.
Tips For Planning Your Summer Planters
When creating a summer planter, the possibilities are truly endless! These are a few things to consider when planning your DIY summer planters:
- Do you want mainly flowers as the star of the show? Or would you rather have a shrub like boxwood or more greenery like ferns?
- What color flowers bring you joy? Do you like calming purples? Or happy pinks or soft yellows? Or something classic like beautiful white flowers?
- Do you want one main color? Or do you like a combination of colors like blues, purples and whites?
- Do you want something drought-tolerant and low-maintenance? (Russian Sage is fantastic for this!)
- Would you like to have flowers that you can plant in your garden at the end of the season? (Perennials are your go-to then!)
- Or would you rather not worry about planting flowers at the end of the season, but rather have flowers that bloom and grow throughout the summer? (Annuals are your best friend here!)
- Would you like a summer container filled with highly-fragrant flowers? (Consider a compact Garden Rose bush with a fragrant variety!)
Beautiful Summer Planter Ideas
Get ready for a summer refresh with these beautiful summer planter ideas! Be sure to PIN each image for later!
Pink Hydrangea Planter
There’s no doubt about it- pink hydrangeas are STUNNING! And what better way to add in a pop of color and a burst of full pink blooms than with a pink hydrangea planter this summer!
This summer planter has touches of wispy fillers and spillers like white petunias and ivy, that will continue to grow and fill the planter throughout the season. But the star of the show can’t be missed with that bold pink color!
A teak chippendale planter is a classic style that brings warmth with its wood tones.
Here are a few other chippendale style planters (or similar) that are absolutely gorgeous:
- Absolutely love this green chippendale planter
- This one is more of a trellis-style planter– a FAVORITE with the most darling bee on it!
- And a super affordable look-for-less chippendale planter that’s really cute! (We used 2 of these for our playhouse makeover, and they’re darling.)
- Here is another affordable chippendale style planter 2 pack:
If you can no longer find pink hydrangeas in your local garden nursery, think of adding in a pop of color that’s similar. While mixing florals is so fun, keeping the planter box design simple by adding in one main color can be such a showstopper!
Flowering Topiary Planter
I mean could this be any cuter? This flowering topiary (Sapphire Showers Golden Dewdrop) has the prettiest pop of bluish-purple, trumpet-shaped flower clusters that attracts butterflies all summer! l love how stunning the color is against a sea of white- a white fence, a white brick wall, a white planter, and white petunias underneath.
Even if you don’t choose a purple flowering topiary, you can see how pretty purples, whites and greens work together in a summer seasonal planter.
*Be sure to check out 12 Beautiful Purple Flowers For Your Summer Garden !
Here are a few favorite white planters:
- This Ballard find is such a pretty white planter box!
- Inexpensive White Chippendale Planters like mentioned above
- These are always a fan-favorite white traditional planter box at a reasonable price! (We’ve had these in black in front of our garage for 6 years and they’ve held up great!)
Blue Hydrangea Planter
Just because you don’t live in Nantucket doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy these stunning blue hydrangea blooms right outside your front door all summer long! Some of the most widely available blue hydrangea varieties are Endless Summer, Nikko Blue, Nantucket Blue, Early Blue, and Rhythmic Blue.
The white petunias really make the blue hydrangeas pop! Supertunias (by Proven Winners) are an amazing white annual petunia that will continue to grow all season long, creating a lush blue and white planter display. Other white annual favorites are Sweet Alyssum, Verbena, Euphorbia, and Angelonia.
Blue and white flower planters are always gorgeous, so even if you can’t find blue hydrangeas left in stock, you can get a similar effect by combining white and blue annuals together!
Blue hydrangeas can look fantastic in white planters, black planters, navy blue planters, green planters, terracotta planters, or concrete planters / stone planters like seen here. (Or hand-cast faux stone composite planters for a similar look!).
Here are a few favorite concrete / stone planters:
- THIS beautiful planter looks like weathered stone
- LOVE this popular planter that is meant to look like carved stone
- An inexpensive Look-For-Less:
How classic, simple (yet lush), and gorgeous is this summer planter?!
Fern Planter
Easy, breezy, simple, yet stunning, a ferns planter is lovely for a front porch or back patio. And a woven planter with ferns really takes it up a notch!
Here are some woven planters that can be used outside:
- THIS beautiful outdoor-safe resin wicker planter box is so pretty
- A simple woven planter that’s super versatile!
And here are some woven planters that are great if you have a covered patio or outdoor living space:
- A splurge, but such a pretty wicker urn and pedestal look
Ferns can look great in any type of outdoor planter- a blue and white chinoiserie style planter, a classic white or black planter box, a chippendale planter (see above for link recommendations!)- you can’t go wrong with these lovely greens!
White Flowers and Greenery Planter
Classic and elegant, a summer planter with white flowers and greenery is such an easy look to accomplish! From white dahlias, white ranunculus, white garden roses, white hydrangeas (Incrediball, Annabelle, Tardiva, Little Lime, to name a few!), mixed with long-lasting white annuals such as angelonia, petunias, verbena, you can have a sea of gorgeous white blooms! And combining some pretty greenery such as ferns or ivy, will really give those white flowers the perfect complementary color.
White florals and greenery are such an easy planter box idea for summer, and they can really look fantastic in any type of planter or container. I love the European-inspired look of white flowers in concrete or stone containers.
These are a few more favorite stone (or stone-look) planters:
Boxwood Planter with White Annuals
Bouncing off of the classic white flowers and greenery style planter idea, another low-maintenance, yet gorgeous and elegant look is a boxwood planter with white annuals. A boxwood planter always looks classy and beautiful, and you can easily just keep the boxwood as the sole star of the show, but adding a few dainty white annuals such as this white Sweet Alyssum, really gives it that summer touch!
I love white Sweet Alyssum (Lobularia Maritima) as a companion plant because it last all summer long, really fills the space as it spreads, and it has the sweetest, most dainty little florets (that smell like honey!). (I often use Sweet Alyssum to trail over our raised vegetable garden beds and it’s always so beautiful!)
Boxwood is readily available in most garden nurseries and there are many different varieties such as Sprinter boxwood, Green Velvet boxwood, Winter Gem boxwood, and Chicagoland Green Boxwood (aka Glencoe Boxwood). Not only is potted boxwood a great option for a summer planter, it’s also an ideal evergreen shrub for a display throughout different seasons! (Some varieties are more cold-tolerant than others.)
I love the classic and European-inspired look of Boxwoods in aged terracotta pots. Here are a few favorite terracotta planters (or an aged-terracotta look):
- Here is a tall terracotta planter that’s simple and pretty
Potted Hydrangeas in a Basket or Woven Planter
No matter which color hydrangea color you choose- white, blue, pink, or purple, adding these lush blooms to a woven planter / basket planter just sings summer! Just like the pink and blue hydrangea planter ideas we saw previously, this just shows that buying one single blooming hydrangea plant, placing it into a basket-style or woven container, will give you a beautiful, summer-inspired look that will make you feel like you’re vacationing in Cape Cod all season.
Hydrangeas are classic, pretty, and do really well in containers as long as they receive sufficient water. Some of my favorite white varieties of hydrangeas are: Incrediball (for HUGE white blooms), Annabelle (for the classic white hydrangea look), Bobo (wonderful compact variety of white blooms), Tardiva (for a white hydrangea that is a late bloomer), Limelight or Little Lime (both great panicle hydrangeas, although I prefer these planted in the garden).
Some of my favorite blue, pink or purple hydrangea varieties are: Endless Summer, Bloomstruck, and Wee Bit Grumpy.
These are some beautiful basket-style woven planters:
- THIS beautiful outdoor-safe resin wicker planter box is so pretty
- Simple and versatile basket planter
A Potted Tree (or Topiary!) with Annuals in an Oversized Planter Box
Could this look more perfect for a summer planter?? Poolside, check. Gorgeous planter box, check. Ornamental tree, check. Summery white annuals, check!
It may seem grande, (and at the same time, simple!), but placing a single tree in a large planter box surrounded by a single variety of annuals is really easy to replicate! If you’ve thought of adding a tree to your landscape, consider having it spend the season in an oversized planter box, and fill it with white annuals (or any color!).
Often times you can find a beautiful shrub like a Limelight Hydrangea in tree form, or even beautiful garden roses in tree form. And if adding a tree is a bit much, you cannot go wrong with a stunning topiary! Consider a boxwood, English laurel, or wax leaf privet topiary- all of which are gorgeous!
I absolutely love this oversized and regal style planter box with its 4 posts that really showcase the spilling dainty white florets (and of course, the beautiful tree!).
Euphorbia Diamond Frost or Euphorbia Diamond Snow like seen above, are fantastic white annuals that have a dainty and wispy appearance, perfect for use as a filler and spiller in such a lovely planter box.
Other white annuals that would work well here are Sweet Alyssum (which is also available in the most beautiful purple hues!), Verbena, Superbells, Angelonia, Stock, and Petunias.
And of course you don’t need to keep your annuals white! If you’re looking for color consider soft yellow Petnuias (I love Superbells Yellow Chiffon by Proven Winners), purple Sweet Alyssum, pink Stock flowers, or purple/blue annual salvias! (Rockin’ Playin’ The Blues Salvia is one of my all time favorite deep blue/purple annual salvias).
This Versailles-style planter box is simply stunning, here are a few similar traditional planter boxes I love:
- The prettiest Versailles planter box !
- And this one is BEAUTIFUL too!
- Here is a beautiful and affordable traditional planter box
- We’ve had these popular black traditional planter boxes in front of our garage for 6 years and they’ve held up great (including my kids climbing on it daily to reach our garage code box!)
*While I always think it’s best to order plants from a local garden nursery, some big brands such as Proven Winners and Endless Summer are actually available online! I’ve linked a few favorites below:
Happy Summer Planting!
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Other Posts You’ll Love:
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