Bring A Touch Of Texture To Your Front Door Container Garden With One Stunning Addition

Are you looking to freshen up your front door container garden but feel just a little overwhelmed with all those beautiful plant selections at your local nursery? Or, perhaps you've just found a stunning large pot at a thrift store or yard sale, and can't wait to fill it with an attractive array of plants. When choosing species for a pretty pot, always remember the mantra "thrill, fill, and spill". If you find plants that fit those three things and look harmonious when placed together, you simply can't go wrong. To that end, there's a gorgeous species that can add texture to your container garden and fill all three criteria, depending on what you plant it with. The 'Soft Caress' mahonia (Berberis eurybracteata 'Soft Caress') is an outstanding plant that has the most pleasing dark green, fern-like foliage perfect for both filling and spilling. 

Then, when winter comes around, this plant could even add a bit of "thrill" to your container as well with its showy yellow fragrant flowers on long racemes above the foliage. You might even find that this winter-blooming plant will have hummingbirds visiting your yard. But, although 'Soft Caress' mahonia can thrill and spill, it's probably most commonly used as a filler to really emphasize the feathery texture of that lovely evergreen foliage. As a bonus, unlike other mahonia species, like creeping mahonia, which is a beautiful ground cover that will have birds flocking to your yard, this cultivar is wonderfully soft to the touch.

While this versatile plant can look just fabulous on its own, it can add a lovely texture to a mixed container and impress the visitors to your home with your superb styling skills. It can be grown in USDA hardiness zones 7 through 10 and appreciates good drainage – just another reason it does so well in pots. You can use it as a filler if you're fond of growing spring flowering bulbs in containers. Imagine it filling in around a pot of long stemmed tulips or how nice it would look planted with some gorgeous daffodils. You'll find that the mahonia will even help keep your flowering stems a little more upright and stop them from flopping over.

If your front door is in shade for most of the day, you could easily blend 'Soft Caress' mahonia with some Heuchera in darker leaf colors such as warm red, like Heuchera 'Obsidian', or something a bit brighter, like Heuchera 'Marmalade'. Or, why not pair the mahonia with some winter blooming Hellebores so you'll get a mix of floral color during the colder months. The dark green foliage of the mahonia would look stunning when mixed with the deep crimson blooms of Helleborus x glandorfensis 'Early Red'. However you decide to use it, this plant is so versatile, you'll probably find yourself reaching for it again and again. And, when the blue berries appear in late winter, you might even have robins visiting your yard.