Petals & Roots: The Container Plant Recipe I Always Return To in Fall

Large terracotta pot full of fall plants, heather and thyme — (Image credit: Future/Esme Mai Photography)

I love fall planting because there are so many beautiful plants that come into their own at this time of year. The colors become warmer, and there’s lovely texture to play with.

For me, the secret to a professional-looking fall container is to think about the plants as a whole rather than choosing individual varieties in isolation. In a large pot, you have the space to combine different heights, shapes and textures, allowing taller plants to bring structure, fuller varieties to create abundance and trailing stems to soften the edges.

In this weekend's episode of Petals & Roots, which you can watch below, I share with you my favorite plant recipe for a fall container. The result feels generous, layered and wonderfully seasonal, giving you a beautiful focal point wherever you want to bring a little more autumn color.

The Ingredients

Workbench with large terracotta pot, fall plants and trowel

I planted up a large terracotta pot, just like this one from McGee & Co. You could use wicker or concrete as alternative materials.
I used a bag of potting soil especially designed for container plants. I'd recommend this potting soil from Walmart for the job.
The plants included coneflower, Echinacea 'pumpkin pie'. I found a similar 'soft orange' coneflower at Plant Addicts.
I also chose a peach sedum, similar to this Sedum 'autumn joy' from Nature Hills.
I added bright, textural heather; I love this magenta Beauty Ladies® Scarlet Scotch variety from Plant Addicts.
Then trailing thyme for a scent element. You can find thyme plants at Amazon.
And an ornamental grass for fall texture. The variety I planted was Stipa tenuissima, which you can find at Plant Addicts.

The Method

Hands planting terracotta pot with fall sedum and coneflower

Make sure you choose a statement or oversized planter with drainage holes. Then start by filling your container half full with potting compost.

I always mix a little bit of grit or perlite into these big pots to help with drainage.

Top tip: Water your plants before potting them, as this way they will stay hydrated for longer as they settle and establish in their new environment.

Woman planting up a large terracotta pot with fall plants

Start with the largest plant, which in my case was the coneflower. This will need the most space and depth, and it will be easier to fill around it with your other plants.

Coneflowers will go on flowering through fall, and will maintain their structure once they've finished, providing vital food for the birds in winter.

Next I added the sedum, which brings dual tones of peach and pale burgundy. I love how easy sedums are to grow (and to propagate by the way, if you wanted to multiply it around your garden or into other pots).

Now it's time to add the smaller plants, so before I do I'll fill the container with some more potting soil, which will raise them up.

I'm adding a purple heather as my next plant ingredient, which is stunning all through winter. It has a unique texture, and any bees left in your garden will be very thankful for it, too.

Hands touching thyme potted into a terracotta pot

Now it's time to add those beautiful, textural elements. I am a little bit obsessed with thyme, so I always try to include a trailing variety into my autumn pot recipe.

It smells incredible, of course, and it also helps to soften the container and make the whole display look more naturalistic.

Finally, no fall container recipe would be complete without an ornamental grass. I chose Stipa tenuissima, or Mexican feather grass, to cascade above and over everything else.

Top tip: Water it in situ rather than on your potting bench, as it will be far too heavy to carry once the water is absorbed by the soil. Keep an eye on watering as it doesn't want to dry out, and it will go on to delight well into winter.

Workbench with large terracotta pot full of fall plants and zinc planter filled with soil

What to Shop

Urn Planter Planter

Beauty Ladies® Lynn Scotch Heather

Expert Gardener Potting Mix

Petals & Roots is a weekly video series fronted by me, Rachel Bull, Head of Gardens at Homes & Gardens. Every weekend on social, I share my seasonal gardening and flower arranging expertise and advice.

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Rachel is a gardening editor, floral designer, flower grower and gardener. Her journalism career began on Country Living magazine, sparking a love of container gardening and wild planting. After several years as editor of floral art magazine The Flower Arranger, Rachel became a floral designer and stylist, before joining Homes & Gardens in 2023. She writes and presents the brand's weekly gardening and floristry social series Petals & Roots. An expert in cut flowers, she is particularly interested in sustainable gardening methods and growing flowers and herbs for wellbeing. Last summer, she was invited to Singapore to learn about the nation state's ambitious plan to create a city in nature, discovering a world of tropical planting and visionary urban horticulture.