Once your single containers are ready to merge

It's hard to fail with a group of containers. Any size group, from a simple couple to large multiples, can enhance any outdoor space. Open patios and decks become softer and more intimate when you place pots around them. A straight and simple outdoor path lined with containers can become a wave of sorts—a formal one with some plants or an informal path with others. You never know what you'll come up with by placing one pot next to another or a particular plant with others. Once you start experimenting, you'll notice many places where a container is grouped.

1. Combine bright colors

This collection of colorful pots introduces the viewer to the vivid color scheme in the beds behind it, mainly blue flowers. However, to maintain exclusivity, pots get exclusive rights to colors like magenta, pink and chartreuse.

2. Formal lateralization

A combination of papyrus and vases always looks elegant, but when placed side by side with this decorative rock, these container designs work in a striking formal duet with each other. They draw attention to the rocky corner, which might have looked spectacular without them.

3. Subtle variations on a common theme

Container arrangements don't have to be huge to be effective. This trio of similarly sized pots relies on tonal and textural interest for success. Each is green but adds a different texture and hue to the collection: skin jade from hosta, feather emerald from fern, and paper-thin blades from Japanese forest grass.

4. Similar baskets and pots fill a view

To completely fill a space, use overhangs to stack a basket that mirrors what's going on below. Up and down in purple and green, Who notices the monotonous fence and siding?

5. A warm color diffused through the cold

These red plants create warm, rich colors atop their pots: a New Zealand flax and a petunia tall, a cape fuchsia and a coleus in the middle, and burgundy hens and chicks in the narrow space. However, to make them more accessible, these containers were lined on their sides with silver plants such as a dusty miller and a licorice, to diffuse the sparkle as the eye moved over these pots.

6. Find common ground

No one would expect this Japanese forest grass, this coleus and this begonia to share a corner so peacefully. But thanks to fitting the terra-cotta containers in graduated sizes—a common ground that allows them to mix together the wide variety of plants they hold.

7. Irregular pots are a puzzle

These designs almost double: boxy pots, green sprinklers and purple plants. But the containers stand at different heights, the spillers are not the same plant, and the purple bunches at the top are not the same plant. It's as clever as a child's spot-the-differences puzzle.

8. Pick plants with habit in mind

Dracaena 'Lemon Lime' hangs its leaves in gentle curves. Because of this habit, it's the perfect neighbor to smaller plants like 'Solania Red' begonias and this coleus, nestled under the leaves of Dracaena.

9. Two makes a great addition

They are nearly identical compositions: 'Swardkop' and 'Velor' stand tall with petal-like leaves surrounded by other succulents such as 'Swardkop' and 'Velor' aeonium, sticks of blue lime and other succulents such as 'Ogon' sedum. But while the window box sits in a formal, regimental shape, the casket is made more casual by adding firesticks and less formal-looking plants like 'Purpurea' dagger plant.

10. Don't match the plants—match the uses

Bright greens, deep purples, and muted silvers come from the variety of plants in these two containers, creating harmony among the many varieties in the pots.

11. Clusters of pots provide rest

Thanks to the containers around it, this chair becomes a private space. While low petunias, short coleus and sparse firesticks don't screen the chair, they provide a pleasing visual barrier.

12. Big and small pots call for big and small plants

A large container surrounded by smaller ones is a loving base, like a hen surrounded by chicks. To balance the difference in size, plant one large plant in each small pot and several small plants in the larger pot.

13. Limited color choices free up other details

This design uses reds, greens, and some deep purples exclusively, allowing plants of different shapes to share the same window box and vase. Texture and pattern vary but are toned down and connected by color. An extra dash of attractiveness, 'Zwartkop' Aeonium provides a succulent burst in its pot, while Baby Tut® Umbrella Grass provides a similar burst in its container top.

14. Texture and patterns reflect home

The arrangement of this group is recommended at home: open windows flank solid enclosures, so the airy olive has a beautiful dense coprosma that stands out beautifully against a dark, slated surface.

15. Go out in groups for a green look

These gigantic hanging baskets are overgrown to make the exterior feel majestic yet wild. Using two baskets adds a formal touch to the display, but the hanging chain and vines growing over the edge of each basket help to tone down the formality for something unique and important.