How Custom Planters and Seasonal Plantings Keep a Chicagoland Landscape Colorful All Year
Tommy Pollina Landscape Company installs custom planters and seasonal plantings that carry color through spring, summer, fall, and winter across Chicagoland. Our work spans built-in stone and brick planters designed as part of a landscape, standalone seasonal planter and potted plant service, and custom holiday container displays, including a winter installation project we completed in Glenview.
Key Takeaways
- We offer custom planters built into a landscape design and separate seasonal planter and potted plant service for properties that just want color refreshed through the year.
- Our planting beds get compost preparation, fertilization, mulch installation, grading improvements, privacy screening, and decorative stone treatment.
- One of our documented landscape installations included more than 240 annual flowers, with over 125 planted in a single backyard.
- We build custom holiday winter container displays, including a documented winter pot installation project in Glenview.
- Seasonal color work extends to commercial properties and HOAs through our commercial landscaping services.
What's the difference between custom planters and seasonal planter service?
Custom planters are permanent, design-integrated features, often built from stone or brick as part of a patio, entry, or walkway. Seasonal planter and potted plant service is the ongoing swap: soil, mulch, and plants refreshed each season so containers stay full from spring through winter without a gap.
A custom planter gets built once, as part of a broader landscape design that maps grading, drainage, hardscape, and planting together before anything goes in the ground. Seasonal planter service works on top of that structure. We plan the changeover, source the plant material, and handle the labor so a homeowner or property manager never ends up with an empty pot in April or a frost-killed one in November.
Spring and summer color built to hold up
Spring and summer plantings in Chicagoland go through heat, storms, and a short window to establish before the ground freezes again. We prepare every bed with compost, fertilizer, and mulch before a single flower goes in, and we grade the surrounding area so water moves away from roots instead of pooling around them.
Our plant palette for landscape installations includes arborvitae, Green Giants, Blue Arrow junipers, Judy Zuk magnolias, hydrangeas, spirea, dogwoods, lilacs, a Cornelian cherry tree, allium perennials, Japanese maples, ornamental grasses, annuals, and Kentucky Bluegrass sod, depending on the property. One backyard installation we documented carried more than 240 annual flowers across the property, with over 125 of them planted in that single yard alone. That's the kind of density we plan for when a client wants a property that reads as full and finished, not sparse.
Fall transition and custom holiday containers
Fall is when planters change character entirely, and we treat the transition as its own project rather than an afterthought. Containers that held annuals all summer get cleared, refreshed, and reset for cooler-weather color before the first hard frost.
Winter turns planters into a design feature in a different way. We build custom holiday container installations, including a winter pot project we completed in Glenview that ran through the holiday season as a standalone display. You can see how that project came together in our photo gallery, alongside our broader holiday decor and lighting work.
How do custom planters fit into a larger landscape design?
Custom planters get planned alongside grading, drainage, and hardscape, not bolted onto a finished yard afterward. When a planter sits next to a patio or walkway, we account for its footing, its drainage, and its sightline as part of the same design pass that maps the rest of the property.
That integration matters most when a planter sits on hardscape. A brick or stone planter built into a paver patio needs the same base prep and drainage planning as the patio itself, or it settles unevenly within a few seasons. Our landscaping and hardscaping services cover that combined planning from the first sketch through installation, so the planter, the patio, and the planting bed around it all move water and settle the same way over time.
Custom Planters vs. Seasonal Planter Service: What Each Covers
| Offering | What it covers | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Custom Planters | Permanent stone or brick planters built into a design or hardscape feature | Homeowners adding a fixed planting feature to a patio, entry, or walkway |
| Seasonal Planter and Potted Plants | Ongoing plant swaps and container refresh through spring, summer, and fall | Properties that want color changed out through the growing season without doing it themselves |
| Custom Holiday Containers | Winter container displays built for the holiday season | Homeowners and commercial properties wanting a finished winter look, like our Glenview project |
Commercial properties and HOAs get seasonal color too
Seasonal planter work isn't limited to single-family backyards. We handle custom planters and seasonal color for HOAs, office properties, and other commercial sites through our commercial landscaping services, and our cemetery landscape management work also draws on the same planting and maintenance practices we use on residential properties.
A property manager overseeing a shared entryway or common area faces a different problem than a single homeowner: consistency across multiple beds and containers, on a schedule that fits the property's maintenance calendar. We plan the plant list and the changeover timing up front so every container on a site reads the same way, whether it's one planter by a front door or a dozen along a shared drive.
Frequently asked questions
How often does Tommy Pollina change out seasonal planters?
We plan seasonal planter changeovers around each season's transition, spring into summer, summer into fall, and fall into winter, so containers carry appropriate color and don't sit empty or frost-damaged between plantings. Exact timing depends on the property and the plant material selected for that site.
Can custom planters be integrated into a new landscape design?
Yes. We plan custom planters as part of the same design pass that maps grading, drainage, hardscape, and planting for a property. That means a planter built next to a patio or walkway gets the same base prep and drainage consideration as the hardscape around it, so it settles evenly over time.
Do you provide planter and seasonal color service for commercial properties?
Yes. Our commercial landscaping work includes custom planters and seasonal planter service for HOAs, office properties, and other commercial sites, along with cemetery landscape management. We plan the plant list and changeover schedule to keep multiple beds and containers consistent across a property.
What is included in a custom holiday container installation?
A custom holiday container installation includes design and planting of winter containers for the holiday season, similar to the winter pot project we completed in Glenview. It's planned and installed as its own seasonal project, separate from the spring and summer annual displays that come before it.
If you're weighing a custom planter built into a new patio or walkway, or you just want your containers looking full from the first spring bloom through the last holiday display, tell us about your property and what you have in mind using the form below this article.
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