Container Gardening for Pollinators part 2

Building Balcony Botanicals and Pollinator Penthouses in the Sky

 

Thrillers

Thrillers for your containers should be towering over the rest of the plants in the planter. However, they shouldn’t be too tall as to take the focal point away from the rest of the pot. The closer you can keep them to the rest of your plants without the flowers hiding behind the filler plants, the better.

For thriller options in a container situation, plants that can be kept around 2-3 ft tall would be great. Echinaceas, sunflowers (Helianthus spp.), New England asters (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae) , culvers root (Veronicastrum virginicum), swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata), and gayfeathers (Liatris spp.) are just a few options for a sunny area. Late figwort (Scrophularia marilandica), hairy aster (Symphyotrichum pilosum), blue sage (Salvia azurea), zig-zag goldenrod (Solidago flexicaulis), and white snake root (Ageratina altissima) would be great options for an area that has a lot of shade. At any point before flowering, pruning the plant to a more manageable size can be done.

Fillers
Filler plants should be dense, bushy plants that don’t tower over the thriller plants. For sunny areas, orange coneflower (Rudbeckia fulgida), showy evening primrose (Oenothera speciosa), tickseed (Coreopsis lanceolata), Leavenworth’s eryngo (Eryngium leavenworthii), and blue mist flower (Conoclinium coelestinum) are all excellent options that offer a long bloom time. For shaded areas, golden alexanders (Zizia aurea), crested iris (Iris cristata), plantain leaf pussy toes (Antennaria plantaginifolia), silky asters (Symphyotrichum sericeum), wild ginger (Asarum canadense), and wild strawberries (Fragaria virginiana) offer thick foliage with different textures and colorful pops of flowers.

Grasses and sedges can also be used as thriller or spiller options. It is important to know the full-grown size of what plant you are interested in. Another consideration to take into account is the flower's shape and form. For some grasses, the flower doesn’t show up until midsummer but can stick around all winter. Sedges, on the other hand, might only have a short-lived flower that seeds out in only a few short weeks. The foliage of these plants offers a contrasting texture to most of our flowering broadleaf species.

Grasses that love sunshine include switch grass (Panicum virgatum), little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), Canadian wild rye grass (Elymus canadensis), blue grama (Bouteloua gracillis), and prairie dropseed (Sporobolis heterolepis) will perform well. Grasses that are shade tolerant include bottlebrush grass (Elymus hystrix), Canadian wild rye grass (Elymus canadensis), sideoats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula), indian grass (Sorghastrum nutans), and purpletop tridens (Tridens flavus). Sedges for sunny spots include dark green bull rush (Scirpus atrovirens), palm sedge (Carex muskingumensis), Gray’s sedge (Carex grayi), and foxtail sedge (Carex vulpinoidea). Options for shade-tolerant sedges include oak sedge (Carex albicans), Pennsylvania sedge (Carex pensylvanica), Texas sedge (Carex texensis), bur-reed sedge (Carex sparganiodes), and common wood sedge (Carex blanda).

Spillers
Spiller plants should be a nice accent to the rest of the container. It is helpful to see the pot, especially if it is a nicely colored glazed pot or with interesting designs. When using vines, it is best that you don’t have a lot of dead space in between the leaves.

Native spiller options are here in our area. There are plenty of native vines, however, not all of them like to flop over the side. They will instead climb over the top of other plants to reach the highest point. For sunny areas, Missouri primrose (Oenothera macrocarpa), rose verbena (Glandularia canadensis), and purple poppy mallow (Callirhoe involucrata). The only shade option I would recommend is purple leatherflower (Clematis pitcheri).

Remember, these are native plants, and they will behave like they are growing in the wild. The goal is to provide food and nectar to our native insects and wildlife throughout the entire growing season. Deadheading the plant right after flowering will help control the spreading of seeds. Seeds can be left for the birds and caterpillars; however, if they spread directly into the landscape, the building managers might start to have a problem.

If you know of a native plant that would work as a thriller, filler, or spiller that didn’t make this list, it is just because this article is meant to provide inspiration as to how to design the container that works best for you.

I encourage everyone who is interested in making a native plant container to check native plant list Native Garden for NE KS, as well as plant catalogs of local vendors. Some plants you might find will be native to the U.S. but not native to Kansas or Missouri. Check the sun or shade requirements, bloom times, maintenance tips, and water needs of the plants you are considering grouping together. Bottom line: don’t be afraid to try something new and exciting.

by Markis Hill, Horticulture Ornamentals and Turf, 2025