Introducing the Winners of Our 2025 Container Challenge!
Do n’t get stick with the same old container combinations year after class . If you ’re on the hunt for some fresh estimation and inspiration , search no further ! You ’ll find a unique collection of reader - designed container in this article . It ’s a showcase of our reviewer ’ creativeness and dash . One of them may be just what you need to skip over - start your own container creations . Thanks to everyone who entered our 2025 Container Challenge , and congratulations to the three grand prize and six honest reference winner !
Send us photos of your best container garden and we ’ll pick out our favorites to boast in an issue of Garden Gate Magazine in 2026 . The containers can be any size , time of year or style ! Enter your respectable containers by November 2 , 2025 . assailable to U.S. and Canadian residents . See full accounting entry rule here .
2025 Garden Gate Container Challenge Prizes
This year’sGarden Gate Container Challenge top winnerswill each be receive the following prizes :
All of our Honorable Mention winnerswill receive a one - year subscription or an denotation to Garden Gate magazine publisher .
Best Sun Container | Deronis Cooper, IL
This winning container sits at the northwest recess of Deronis Cooper ’s railway yard every year , bring home the bacon an explosion of color for the commuters that drive by daily . People often decelerate down , wave and have even stopped to postulate questions or take a selfie with his overweening container . See more of his creations by fall out on Instagram .
These sun - loving industrial plant originate in a 59 - congius wine barrel filled with potting mix that gets topped off annually . There ’s no moving this 115 - hammering behemoth , so it ’s been sit in the same spot ( and weathering harsh Chicago - area winter ) for eight years .
Deronis waters day by day to keep the grouping looking good , but on the hottest days he might be out there two or three time to keep plants from wilting . The barrel has keen drain , so he ’s not disquieted about overwatering . The plants boom here , with the tallest elephant ear reach 13 feet ! Just before the first predicted frost , Deronis puts out an all - call to supporter and family to amount and take what they want . He does n’t overwinter anything but starts fresh with unexampled flora and a Modern looking at each spring .
A ) Elephant earAlocasia‘Portora’B ) reddish - leafage hibiscusHibiscus acetosella‘Mahogany Splendor’C ) Red Abyssinian bananaEnsete ventricosumD ) PapyrusCyperus papyrusKing Tut ® E ) ColeusColeus scutellarioidesElectric LimeF ) Castor beanRicinus communisG ) Napier grassPennisetumVertigo ® H ) ColeusColeus scutellarioidesHennaI ) ColeusColeus scutellarioidesTorchlight ® J ) Sweet spud vineIpomoea batatasSweet Caroline Sweetheart Lime ™ K ) Sweet potato vineIpomoea batatasSweet Caroline Bewitched After Midnight ™ cubic decimetre ) PetuniaPetuniaWave ® PurpleWine cask is 35 in . marvellous x 23 in . wide
Best Shade Container | Seth Kilgore, MA
When Seth Kilgore and Susan Dilbert moved into their new home they want to add a container along the step to the back patio to prevent a tumble off the side . So Seth went dumpster diving for baseball bat scraps to build up a 5 - foot - long planter box for both side of the step . He was even capable to find shake shingle siding to couple the house ! He drill around 40 ¼-inch holes on either side and down the gist of the bottom of the box for drainage and line it with landscape painting material . It ’s hooked up to a drip irrigation system to make lacrimation easily .
Seth and Susan ’s pinkish and chartreuse design includes twocoleus varieties , a bicolor caladium and pink impatiens , which are all easy to care for : just pinch the coleus back if they get too tall so they stay in proportion with the rest of the planting .
Container plant list
A ) CaladiumCaladiumhybridB ) ColeusColeus scutellarioidesC ) New Guinea impatiensImpatiens hawkeriiContainer is 22 in . tall x 24 in . wide x 60 in . long
Best Porch Container | Nicole Miksa, CT
This handsome container fits the space in front of Nicole ’s grandiloquent porch dead and is tall enough to balance out the height of the predominate umbrella flora . In addition , the tripping color cook a high - contrast backdrop for the cloak sweet potato vine and creep Jenny . With morn sun and good afternoon shade there ’s plenty of light to promote flowering , but it is n’t harsh enough to scorch the leafage .
Nicole finds that water every other twenty-four hours and fertilise every two hebdomad for a month or two serve the plants get shew . After that , she only waters when the potting premix is dry and cuts back feed to once a calendar month .
A ) Umbrella plantCyperus alternifoliusB ) ColeusColeus scutellarioidesPat MartinC ) BegoniaBegoniahybridD ) Sweet white potato vine vineIpomoea batatasE ) Sweet alyssumLobularia maritimaF ) Creeping JennyLysimachia nummulariaContainer is 27 in . tall x 19 in . astray
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2025 Garden Gate Container Challenge Honorable Mentions
Fantastic foliage container for shade | Verna Zimmerman, NY
Keep shady terrace coloured with this foliage - focused container pattern that ’s also well-heeled to give care for : Just urine and feed occasionally . Verna carry through as many plant as shecan over wintertime . When frost is foretell , she cut the elephant ear foliage back and stack away the bulb in a composition board box in the cellar . She also takes cuttings from the coleus , root them in water and by and by plants them in potting mix . The rex begonia is light to skid into a nursery slew to grow indoors . Once spring arrive , they can all go back in the container , ready for another uprise time of year .
A ) Elephant earColocasiahybridB ) ColeusColeus scutellarioidesC ) Rex begoniaBegonia rex - cultorum’Fireworks’D ) SedumSedum mexicanumLemon Coral ® )Container is 20 in . tall x 19 in . wide
Eye-catching & easy-care container with red flowers | Gloria Johnson and volunteers, IA
This vibrant container sit down in the Shakespeare Garden at Ellis Park in Cedar Rapids , Iowa . After it was devastated by a flood in 2008 , the Friends of Shakespeare Garden ( friendsofshakespearegarden.org ) regenerate the area . Now a consecrate group of community volunteers , led by Gloria , keeps the border and containers in tip - top flesh . After struggling with day-after-day watering during a time period of drought , the group invested in this commercial-grade self - watering plantation owner , and it saved them a lot of work .
middle - catching red blooms attract visitor ’ attention and ask round them to take a seat on a nearby workbench to enjoy the river view . An obelisk sum up height and a shoes for the bright genus Dipladenia to mount . Gloria and her volunteers add slow - release fertilizer at planting sentence and deplumate off any spent bloom as need .
A ) MandevillaMandevillaSun Parasol ® Giant Red EmperorB ) BegoniaBegonia benariensisSurefire ® RedC ) VincaCatharanthushybridD ) Livingstone daisyDorotheanthus bellidiformisMezoo ™ Trailing RedContainer is 28 in . tall x 34 in . wide
Tropical container | Laura Wood, WI
Pulling into the driveway is a lot more fun when you have a container like this one filling the awkward narrow-minded spot next to the garage doorway . The mull heat from the concrete and brick in this south - facing spot is no problem for these tough lulu .
At planting clip , Laura adds compost to the potting mix and strings fishing line to the outdoor light above to give themandevillasomething to go up . Later , she deadheads the canna to keep it tidy . At the end of the season , Laura overwinters the genus Mandevilla in a sunny windowpane indoors and fund the canna rhizomes for the next yr .
A ) MandevillaMandevillahybridB ) CannaCannaxgeneralis‘Yellow King Humbert’C ) ColeusColeus scutellarioidesPremium Sun Crimson GoldD ) Angel ’s trumpetDaturaspp . E ) LantanaLantanahybridF ) Variegated wintercreeperEuonymus fortunei‘Emerald ‘ n ’ Gold’Container is 23 in . magniloquent x 16 in . wide
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Exciting entry container | Kathy Roberts, IL
For a bluff argument near the entry , try Kathy ’s lush container topped with a vibrant crimson te plant and a lush annulus of trailers . The plants have grown so vigorously that you ca n’t even see the chocolate-brown rosin container ! It sits on an east - face covered porch and its upright shape does n’t get in the mode of visitors .
At 3 to 5 foot marvellous , the ti plant make a perfectthriller for container , adding plentifulness of height and copious colouration . Its vaselike habit allow plenty of room for the impatiens , caladium , English ivy and column inch plant below to meet in . Kathy bestow a slow - release fertiliser to the potting mix once in spring . There ’s no want to deadhead the impatiens , but she does keep an eye out for any caladium bloom that form and pinches those off to keep the attention on the beautiful leaf .
A ) Ti plantCordyline fruticosa‘Red Sister’B ) CaladiumCaladiumhybridC ) New Guinea impatiensImpatiens hawkeriiD ) Inch plantTradescantia zebrinaE ) Algerian IvyHedera algeriensis‘Gloire de Marengo’Container is 24 in . tall x 20 in . wide
Warm welcoming container | JoAnn Jarmusz, NY
This dim-witted but elegant planting gives visitors at JoAnn ’s front doorway a colorful greeting . Burnt Red River to orange flame nettle foliage resound the menage ’s brick gloss , while the bright blooms capture your attention and point the mode to the ingress . A ocean liner inside the 14 - inchrattan containeroffers supererogatory accompaniment and keep moist potting mixture from causing this natural material to deteriorate .
The house faces north-west and receives dappled tincture for most of the day , then full sunlight subsequently in the good afternoon . Because there is n’t a water source nearby , JoAnn keeps five weewee - fill Milk River jugs , one of which has water - soluble plant intellectual nourishment mixed in , gather close by . Her wide-eyed organisation cook it easy to grab a jug of water to give the containers a beverage or a quick feed .
A ) ColeusColeus scutellarioidesB ) ImpatiensImpatienshybridC ) Tuberous begoniaBegoniahybridContainer is 14 in . tall x 12 in . square
Bright & cheery basket planting | Melina Mantey, WA
This hanging basket on a pedestal solves two job at once in Melina ’s sunlight - filled side G . The planting provide bright color and interest for this part of the yard . And the footstall cover the rostrum of an old plum tree diagram that used to be a tripping hazard . maintain a seamed conducting wire basket water in full sun is always a challenge , but this one ’s in range of the lawn sprinkler , and Melina supplements with hand watering . The only other care needed is trimming off drop petunia and vervain flush .
A ) BidensBidensCampfire ™ Marshmallow ™ B ) VerbenaVerbenaSuperbena ® RaspberryC ) PetuniaPetuniaSaffron Finch ™ D ) CalibrachoaCalibrachoaDouble Smitten Pink ™ E ) mouse JennyLysimachia nummulariaF ) English ivyHedera helix‘White Wonder’Basket is 16 in . in diam
