Change Up Your Thrillers & Spillers

By Delilah Onofrey for Suntory Flowers

The basic anatomy of a successful combination planting is thriller, filler, spiller. Thrillers represent a taller or more upright plant. Fillers are full and mounding. And then the spiller trails down from the planter. One common thriller choice is a tropical foliage accent or spike, like dracaena or cordyline. Purple Fountain grass is popular, too. Vinca vine and ivy are natural spillers that add greenery.

You can also use flowering varieties as thrillers and spillers, adding more color to your arrangements. Start with any full, mounding, bushy bedding plant as the filler and then select thrillers and spillers with compatible light and watering requirements. You don’t want to mix a shade variety with full sun ones or thirsty plants with those that prefer less water.

Here are four of our favorite thrillers from Suntory Flowers:

Sundiascia Diascia

Upright varieties in shades of peach, pink and blush white add color and grace. These plants are especially popular out West, in places like Colorado, with high light and cool nights.

Sungelonia Angelonia

Commonly known as summer snapdragons, these plants love heat and humidity. Sungelonia varieties are sturdy and well branched in white, blue and pink.

Granvia Bracteantha

These super strawflowers are larger, more vigorous and go the distance spring through fall. Harvesting dried flowers is a bonus. Seven colors span shades of yellow, orange, red, white and pink.

Sun Parasol FiredUp Dipladenia

And now for something completely different! This new upright dipladenia is freestanding with bright pinwheel blooms and slender foliage. Perfect for your summer containers. Do not overwater. Pair with other heat lovers, like vinca and scaevola.

Here are five of our favorite spillers:

Lofos Lophospermum

This unique flowering vine brings a fairytale quality to your combinations and hanging baskets. Attractive foliage resembles a grapevine with trumpet flowers. There are two lengths. Lofos Wine Red and Lofos White will cascade to 6 feet! Lofos Compact is more controlled, spilling to 2 feet.

Summer Wave Torenia

A mainstay in the Proven Winners program, Summer Wave trailing varieties tolerate full sun but are especially nice for partial shade to shadier spots. They are commonly mixed with tuberous begonias in hanging baskets.

Surfinia Petunias

Our original classic trailing vigorous petunias spill dramatically. A top seller in this class is Surfinia Trailing Sky Blue.

Million Bells Calibrachoa

The trailing, more vigorous class of Million Bells spill nicely and are more heat and weather tolerant through the summer.

Temari and Tapien Verbenas

Suntory has two types of verbenas – Temari and Tapien. Temari Trailing varieties produce cascading clusters of flowers while Tapien creates a lacy mat of dense foliage that can also spill over.

For more information about Suntory Flowers, visit suntoryflowers.com.

A great online source for Suntory varieties is GrowJoy.com    Shop Suntory Flowers | Innovative, Heat-Tolerant Varieties for Every Garden - GrowJoy

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