Trailing plants are an easy way to create an outdoor or indoor space that overflows in natural beauty. They are ideal for hanging baskets, window boxes, and wall containers. You can also place them on top of your patio railings where the beautiful vines can flood all over, creating a stunning work of art.
To help you get started, we choose the best trailing plants for container gardens. Some are ideal for specific locations in your home, and others are great for year-round planting.
Table of Contents
Trailing Plants for Container Gardens
1. Petunia
Trailing petunias are among the most popular annual flowers that look great in hanging baskets. They bloom throughout the summer and can survive hot weather and relatively high humidity. They also grow well in most soils, but they do best in well-drained soils with medium fertility.
These gorgeous flowers come in various colors, including pink, purple, red, yellow, and white. Plant them in decorative ceramic containers, colorful pails, hanging baskets, or any pot of your liking.
2. Sweet Caroline Purple
Another colorful addition to your summer foliage is the sweet Caroline purple plant. It is a dense herbaceous annual that eventually spills over the container edges. It has a deep and striking dark burgundy-purple hue, amazing texture, and interesting patterns.
Sweet Caroline sweetheart purple is a relatively low-maintenance plant that will live for one entire growing season and will need replacement the following year.
3. String of Beads
If you’re looking for delicate rows of peas, this plant is an excellent pick.
It is also called “string of pearls” and a well-loved indoor plant with a beautiful, cascading succulent that adds a little quirk to any house. More interestingly, it grows and propagates fast whether you plant it outdoors or indoors.
For this plant to thrive, you need to place it in a spot where it gets six to eight hours of bright, indirect sunlight per day. Lastly, since it’s sensitive to overwatering, we recommend watering your string of beads once every two weeks.
4. String of Hearts
These trailing plants are excellent for beginners because they can tolerate neglect. Aside from being easy to care for, the string of hearts is a drought-tolerant and long-lived plant.
The heart-shaped, gray-green foliage boasts a beautiful marbled pattern and thin, string-like vines with a distinct purple shade.
Aside from growing indoors, you can grow it as a sprawling ground cover or for cascading down walls. While the string of hearts can tolerate neglect, it likes more frequent watering than most succulent species. You know it’s time to water it when the soil is already dry.
5. Begonia
Trailing begonias come in pink, white, yellow, and red colors. This dazzling trailing plant looks marvelous, cascading down from your window box, hanging basket, or tall free-standing container. It’s best grown in full sun or partial shade.
If you’re looking to attract beneficial insects like bees to your garden, this plant is a great pick.
6. Red Rhipsalis
Rhipsalis come in all different shapes and sizes. It’s naturally found in the understory of trees, so it prefers bright but indirect light.
One of the most common varieties is the red Rhipsalis. It’s a semi-succulent plant with a deep red-violet hue, making it a stunning addition to hanging baskets. Plus, this plant produces ornamental berries that make it even more alluring.
Rhipsalis is so pretty it deserves a vessel that matches its interesting charm.
7. Trailing Ferns
Ferns are stunning outdoor and indoor plants that never go out of style. Many trailing varieties of ferns, such as the Boston fern, make large and spectacular hanging baskets.
Other top choices are the Dallas fern with a more compact and bushy appearance, Maidenhair fern that looks stunning in smaller hanging containers or baskets, and the Kimberly queen with amazing deep green fronds sprawl upright instead down.
8. Silver Falls
Dichondra argentea or silver falls is an herbaceous and evergreen perennial that forms a mass of soft pewter fan-shaped leaves. This amazingly wandering plant creates a flowing effect over the edges of pots, retaining walls, and hanging baskets.
Choose a relatively large pot of at least 200mm wide for your silver falls, and position the plant to a partly shaded area in your home or garden.
9. Ornamental Sweet Potato Vine
This vine has beautiful heart-shaped leaves that spill marvelously over the sides of containers. Whether you’re growing them in hanging baskets or free-standing containers or letting them drape over the walls, this plant looks seriously stunning.
Since its beauty comes from the foliage, you can enjoy sweet potato vine all season.
While it’s traditionally grown as an accent plant, it can be a focal point on its own. You can complement sweet potato vine with coleus, cordyline, and geranium for a dash of color and vibrance.
10. Variegated Fuchsia
Fuchsias are spectacular blooms that are highly suited for growing in pots and containers. They come in different varieties, and most of them are happy growing in full sun or partial shade.
Plant your trailing fuchsias in a fertile, well-drained vessel where its roots can stay moist.
11. Million Bells
Calibrachoas, popularly known as million bells, are smaller versions of petunias that bloom non-stop from spring to winter. These dazzling trailing flowers are ideal for containers, especially hanging baskets.
You can enjoy them in different colors and patterns, such as stripes, splashes, speckles, and pinwheels. You can even find a variety that looks like mini roses.
Don’t forget that these are tiny plants, so if you’re growing calibrachoas along with other foliage, keep them near the front because they can get lost among larger plants.
12. Golden Pothos
It is a twining vine that can be left to hang or trained along a wire. It features variegated leaves with speckles of white that look really stunning. It only grows from six to eight feet, but the trailing vines can grow as long as 40 feet.
Golden pothos is a perennial evergreen houseplant that prefers medium light, well-lit spaces but can tolerate low light for long periods.
13. Nasturtiums
Another perfect pick for beginners, these are easy-to-grow annuals that look great trailing over the sides of your window box or hanging basket.
To grow nasturtiums in pots, plant them four to six weeks before the last frost so they can start flowering early in the spring. If you live in a mildly warm climate, you can grow them as annuals.
Nasturtiums are a relatively low-maintenance plant once they fully bloom. Watering the container at least once a week will do.
14. Red Herringbone Plant
This red-veined plant, known as the “prayer plant”, comes with lovely olive-green leaves with stunning herringbone patterns and prominent midribs. It’s a perfect candidate for trailing or hanging because it grows long, flowing stems.
Maranatha is a tropical houseplant that needs moist soil and shaded light.
15. Lobelia
Lobelia is particularly attractive when its bright and vibrant blue and white petals come out over a window box or pot. Unlike most container plants, this attractive flowering plant prefers cooler temps.
Do note that lobelia thrives in rich soil. That said, you want to add organic compost in the container or use some water-soluble fertilizer every other watering.
16. Pansy
Pansies provide color in all seasons. Aside from being very easy to grow, they are also available in a variety of hues.
Pansies also work beautifully with other plants, such as tulips, chartreuse, tiger ferns, and heucheras. If adding in a window box, don’t hesitate to fill it with small evergreen shrubs or perennials. In the fall, slip in kales, violas, and snapdragons.
17. Sweet Alyssum
This delicate-looking plant is highly valued for its sweet fragrance and charming clusters of tiny blooms. The best thing is it’s easy to grow and adaptable to varying growing conditions.
Sweet alyssum deserves to be placed in stunning hanging baskets, window boxes, or rustic-themed vessels.
18. Burro’s Tail
Burro’s tail is a beautiful and delicate trailing plant and is one of the most adorable potted succulents. It’s perfect for hanging pots on your porch or for that idle spot high up on your bookshelf or home office.
Like other succulents, this plant will thrive in dry, sandy soil. You can also merge it with other precious succulents in one pot.
Conclusion
Make your space feel like a lush, green oasis with these 18 stunning trailing plants for container gardens. Most of them require little care, so they are perfect for beginners too. However, for your trail plant to grow healthy and beautiful, it’s important to learn about the specifics of planting and growing them.
If you’re hanging them indoors, ensure that they get enough sunlight by keeping them close to a window or door or using a grow light. Finally, feel free to experiment.
Try combining different plants for a more attractive garden. It can feel intimidating at first, but once you’ve grown one or two container plants, you’d be wanting more for sure.
