October is a fun and festive month. Fall is in full swing, and with holidays quickly approaching, it’s the perfect time to spruce up your porch containers. Swapping out the plants in your front porch containers is an easy and inexpensive way to add more festive charm to your home. 

There are many festivities during the month of October, and they continue for several months ahead. You can use your front porch container plants to lean into one or all of them. It’s all about creating a space that celebrates the season’s colors and textures. 

You can use your front porch containers to complement other decor, or take center stage. Here are some fun and interesting October container plants that work well with the season. 

Mums

These flowers burst with color during shorter days.

It should come as no surprise that mums are one of the most popular front porch container plants for October. These plants thrive and bloom this time of year while many others are fading. Shorter daylight hours are what trigger these flowers to bloom. 

Mums come in a wide array of colors, including gold, orange, pink, red, purple, bronze, and white. You can find one or more to complement just about any autumn color palette. They are easy to grow in containers with their neat, mounded shapes. 

Beyond their seasonal availability, mums are popular for their hardiness and abundant blooms. A single plant produces hundreds of flowers in some varieties. Those with larger blooms tend to produce fewer, but they are colorful and festive nonetheless. Culturally, mums are linked to football season, harvest, and autumn in general. 

Black and Orange Petunias

Cool nights help the flowers perk up in fall.

Petunias are excellent October container plants, especially in the Southeast and other mild climate regions. They like the cool evening temperatures, which help them to perk up after the heat of summer. If your petunias, left over from spring, still have some life in them, they might even bounce back.

Petunias come in a wide range of colors, but for October, I favor black and orange. True black flowers are rare, but they truly give your porch a spooky, Halloween vibe. ‘Black Mamba’ is an exceptionally dark petunia variety. It’s technically purple, but so deep that it appears velvety black. 

Pair your black petunias with some orange ones, like ‘Indian Summer.’ These warm-hued blooms work well for Halloween, and they transition well into Thanksgiving, too. 

Petunias are frost-tender, so make sure to bring these indoors if you expect a frost overnight. Each flower has a short life, but if you continuously deadhead them, they will continue to produce more. Water consistently for perky petunias. 

Bat Flower

This plant needs shade or indirect light to stay healthy.

This is one of my absolute favorite October container plants. Black bat flower is an exotic, tropical plant that produces large, flamboyant, and slightly creepy flowers. It also happens to bloom right around this time of year, which makes it an ideal Halloween flower. 

If you live in a tropical climate, these will grow in the ground. I’m in zone 9, and I don’t chance it. They grow quite nicely in a container, and this way, I can move them around throughout the year. 

Black bat flower doesn’t tolerate a lot of direct sunlight. It’s an understory plant, so bright, indirect light is best. Pair this with some orange or yellow mums to really make it pop.

Marigolds

Deadhead to keep blooms coming until frost.

If Halloween isn’t your thing, think about skipping ahead to the next holiday. The Mexican celebration Dia de los Muertos has become more widely observed and enjoyed in recent years. It’s no wonder, as the lovely holiday honors friends and relatives who have passed with joy and celebration. 

In Mexico, marigolds play a key role in this celebration. Many use the flowers to decorate an altar, called an ‘ofrenda.’ Here, they place pictures and other significant objects, along with the blooms. The strong, distinctive fragrance is thought to help guide the spirits home. 

Even if you don’t celebrate, the charm of these flowers is undeniable. Marigolds are excellent bloomers. If you deadhead them regularly, they will continue to bloom right up until the first frost. 

Pitcher Plants

These carnivorous plants need moist, acidic soil and full sun.

Pitcher plants (and truly, any carnivorous plants) are a brilliant idea for a Halloween theme. Add these to your porch containers in October for a slightly eerie twist. Many North American carnivorous plants are at their showiest this time of year.

Plants that eat insects are always a curiosity and a conversation piece. Their gaping ‘mouths’ pair perfectly with skeletons, witches, and of course, spiderwebs. 

There are many different species of carnivorous plants. Pitcher plants take different forms as well. An urn full of upright, tubular pitchers is a frightful sight. If you have hanging baskets to fill, there are varieties that spill over the side. Their pitchers hang on long stems. 

Pitcher plants like a boggy environment. They need plenty of sun exposure and moist, acidic soil. Avoid using tap water, as the chemicals are often too much for these. Distilled or rainwater is best. 

‘Black Devil’ Pansies

Frost-tolerant blooms last into late fall.

‘Black Devil’ pansies have a similar vibe to black petunias. However, they have a distinct advantage when it comes to your October container arrangement. Pansies are frost-tolerant and will survive outdoors well into fall, even in cooler climates. 

Pansies are easy to grow and have a soft, sweet fragrance. They prefer full sun, but if you live in a warm climate, give them partial shade until it’s cool outside. Give them well-drained, fertile soil, and keep the soil evenly moist, but not soggy. 

Fertilizing your pansies every two weeks and deadheading them will keep a steady supply of flowers blooming. Pansies are also edible, and they make a great garnish for that Halloween or Thanksgiving charcuterie board.  

Dusty Miller

Silver foliage glows under moonlight and sun.

Dusty Miller is a great October container plant for the front porch. This foliage plant has silver leaves that have a glowing quality in the moonlight. It’s stunning during the day, and a bit otherworldly at night. It’s also evergreen in mild climates, and tolerates quite a bit of cold weather. 

In zones 7-10, Dusty Miller is a perennial, and you can leave it outdoors in temperatures as low as the mid-20s. Here in zone 9, they don’t die back in winter. These transition beautifully from fall to winter, with their frosted appearance. 

If you love this silvery appearance, there are other great plants you can put in those October containers. Lamb’s ears are delightful, and artemisia is, too. Some varieties of echeveria have a white, waxy coating that gives them this effect. 

Fountain Grass

Fluffy plumes stay pretty even after frost.

Fountain grasses are large, dramatic, and festive October container plants. They’re also fall bloomers, so this is the time of year when they look most impressive. I love purple fountain grass, and it pairs excellently with orange marigolds and black pansies. Use the three as filler, spiller, and thriller for a dynamite October display. 

Fountain grass has arching leaves and fuzzy flower heads that bring tons of unique texture to your front porch. Because of its uniqueness, it pairs wonderfully with just about anything. It adds a touch of whimsy and wildness. 

As the seasons change, fountain grass continues to provide interest in your porch containers. The blades of grass and fluffy plumes turn brown after a frost. However, they hold up nicely and add beauty to your winter arrangements, as well.

Ornamental Kale

Colors deepen and intensify after frost.

If you want to fill your porch containers with something that will truly endure through the festive season, nothing beats ornamental kale. It’s beautiful, colorful, and dramatic, and it’s exceptionally cold-tolerant. It tolerates hard freezes down to 20°F (-7°C), which takes most of us into December. 

One of the best qualities of these October container plants is that they pair well with just about everything. Colorful foliage and neat rosette form make it a complement to mums, pansies, grasses, and a wide range of other frost-tolerant plants.