For a truly appealing display in mixed upright planters, adopt the same design principles used to create a full-scale garden.

Horticulturist Nick McCullough used 42-inch-wide oak planters for a client’s Japanese maples: a pair of the upright purple-leaf variety Bloodgood.

All types — upright, spreading and weeping — work in the planters, Eastwood said. Whatever variety you pick, deft formative pruning would enhance the effect.

To further create privacy (and scent the air), Nicpon suggests adding upright planters with flowering plants inside.

Use upright planters, hanging baskets and trailing vines to build visual movement. A tall snake plant next to a pot of thyme and a trailing ivy can add that lush, layered look with very little space.

While upright log planters are probably the easiest to make, you can also make a long trough-style planter by going through a similar process but hollowing out the side of a log instead of the top.

For a truly appealing display in mixed upright planters, adopt the same design principles used to create a full-scale garden. Depending on the size of your container, try to incorporate a variety ...