You may not think about arranging your potted plants too often.
However, considering the space and arrangement could easily transform your patio from looking chaotic and cluttered into a wonderfully, enjoyable outdoor space.
If you arrange your potted plants well, you draw attention to each plant’s individual beauty while making the outdoor space attractive and vibrant.
In this article, we provide you with a variety of ways to arrange your potted plants on the patio. Let’s get to it!
Create different potted plant groups
One great way (and probably the easiest way!) to organize your various potted plants is to group them based on shared characteristics.
Grouping can be done however you see fit! Different people have different preferences, and you might prefer to group by color, size or even by the amount of watering and sunlight needs the plants may have.
Here are a few ideas for grouping the potted plants you may have.
Grouping your plants by color
Grouping plantings and pots by color may be one of the easiest (if not the easiest) ways to group plants. You don’t have to group by flower color, but the color of the foliage is important too.
Plants can be grouped based on complimentary colors and contrasting colors, or grouped into similar color groupings.
For example, you may want to group your red, pink, and purple colors together. Or even red, orange, and yellow.
By grouping potted plants according to their color, you create a great effect and the most striking appearance both individually and as a grouping.
Some people will orient their potted plants prepared in a spectrum order from darkest to lightest. Others will use the color for the basic grouping and placement and then work with height or breadth to decide on the position.
It is common practice that tallest plants are placed in the back and widest plants somewhere close to where the pots overlap to the side plant.
If it fits in, you could put the most vibrant plants in the center and surround with more neutral or lighter shades.
Grouping your plants by size
Another popular method for arranging your potted plants is based upon height or size. This method ensures that you don’t overlook your small plants as you may do with the other methods.
If your surface is level all you need to do is place your small plant at the front and larger one at the back.
However, in cases where you have many plants of different sizes you should take care to position them with ample space in between to avoid them being over shadowed, especially if they need full sun.
If you would like to develop arrangement height you can always raise smaller ones up higher, or place them on higher surfaces, or use upside-down empty pots or blocks, etc.
To help create more visibility in your lower areas, smaller plants will not overlap or block other plants behind them and only may cover their pots, for example.
If you happen to have many plants that are the same or similar size you can use multiple different is of platforms and risers to create height and depth for the plants at the back of your patio area.
There are so many methods to manipulate height and size when creating an arrangement!
Grouping your plants according to needs
If you are looking for a little assistance, or just prefer practicality and usability rather than aesthetics, you could consider grouping your patio plants according to their care frequency.
For example, if you have a handful of potted plants that require watering every day, then it would make sense to group those plants together.
This means if you always know which plants require watering, and you are less likely to overwater other plants that do not.
Similarly, you could even group the plants by needing full sunlight; you could group those plants together so you know they are all getting full sunlight.
If you choose to use this arrangement, there would be no reason why you could not then organize them by their shape or color within their sub-groupings!
Use plant stands or planters
If you want to elevate those plants a bit, investing in plant stands or planters will help your potted plants to look organized, neat, and tidy on the patio.
Plant stands also give you more arrangement options. You can tier the plants, elevate some plants, and arrange the plants in ways that you may not be able to otherwise.
Let’s take a closer look at some varieties of plant stands you may choose to use.
Tiered stands
For those of you with lots of smaller patio plants, a tiered plant stand will work well for you. With tiered plant stands, you can showcase different plants at elevated heights.
A tiered plant stand is another way of grouping your potted plants with very little effort on your part. Simply group plants of similar height together and your work is finished!
In addition, tiered plant stands are perfect for smaller patios because they hold many plants and use a transformation of floor space.
Ladder planter stands
If you want something a little more modern and funky, a ladder planter stand may do the trick. If you love the look of ladder stands, but don’t really want to pay for one, you could use an old wooden ladder or repurpose another usable object with metal straps in a ladder form yourself.
There are many other DIY options as well.
Most ladder style planters hold small or medium pots either in single or grouped pots or boxes. They are a nice way to keep plants organized by type – especially draping ones up higher!
You can just as well organize plants by both color and kind.
Vertical-style planters
If your patio area is small, a vertical planter might be just the ticket.
Unlike ladder planters or tiered planters, a vertical planter does not need any floor space. Vertical planters attach directly onto a wall or fence. They are limited in the number of heavy plants they can hold, but they work great for lighter, smaller plants.
Vertical planters are also suitable for enhancing privacy in a garden.
If you choose a vertical planter, it is best to stick with the same type of plant size. Some plant ideas are climbers or plants with trailing leaves for nice spills.
Like all planter types, a good strategies is to try different sizes out to view the aesthetics.
Patio wall planters
Wall planters function in much the same way as vertical planters. However, wall planters are typically much wider and capable of holding a lot more plants than a traditional wall planter.
It is even possible to fabricate your own wall planter. You can recycle scrap wood, an old banister, or use your imagination and use whatever you think will hold a plant.
Wall planters are particularly effective with succulents and herbs due to their lower upkeep requirements and lack of growth size.
Other patio plant arranging tips
Here are some other ideas on how to arrange potted plants on a patio:
Create clusters
Just don’t feel like you need to group by type, color, or size! You could just create some cohesive clusters that just look good together.
You will want to start with a larger plant in the center and then see what plants also look nice placed around the edge.
Clusters are great because they’re easier to add to as you decide you want to buy more plants. So if you feel like your cluster is missing something, you can just run to the garden center and easily find something to fill that void!
Use different arrangements of pots, planters and stands
When it comes to grouping plants, you will often find things look much better when you are splitting the plants up a bit. Many people appreciate an eclectic assortment of pots, for example, so that the arrangement does not look like it comes from a single source of monotony.
Eclectic pots add variety to the patio, and should you have a pot break, it will be easily replaced without going out to purchase the exact same pot again.
It is also good to have different pots mixed with planters and stands too because it gives you lots of different elements to look at.
Add detail and beauty with climbers
Climbers are often the final detail you add to your deck arrangements, and they do undoubtedly add great detail. A couple of bougainvillea or a few vines can make your patio more colorful and vivid. Plus, plants are a great way to bring contrast to the rest of the patio look as well!
Final thoughts on how to arrange potted plants on a patio
As you can see, there are no right or wrong ways to arrange Potted Plants on your patio. There are several different ways you can consider for your arrangements.
Whether you choose to organize them by size, color, type, or need, you are sure to create something that will be visually nice for your space.
Add planters, a ladder, or some vines to create height and dimension on your patio and you will absolutely develop a layout that will be the envy of your neighbors!
However, most importantly, have fun with arranging and rearranging the plants until you find the design that you feel looks best!
And most importantly, remember you can always continually rearranging and adding to your potted plant collection!