Elevate Your Patio With These Gorgeous Plants

When pleasant weather arrives, you're sure to be spending lots more time outdoors, and it's all the better to do so with the delightful color, fragrance, and beauty plants add to your patio. Flowers, herbs, edibles, and more all might look great in your space, depending on your preference, and for season-long color, plan to plant both annuals and perennials (which will come back for years). It's also easy to swap any of them up from year to year and season to season to add a fresh look.

Before deciding what to plant, first consider how much sun your patio gets. Is it mostly sunny or mostly shady? When a plant label or description calls for full sun, that means about 6 or more hours per day, while part sun or part shade is about half of that. You'll also want to think about what time of day your patio gets sun. Plants that prefer part shade certainly won't be happy sizzling in hot afternoon sun. Be sure to check your USDA Hardiness zone too to make sure a plant fits your climate.

Now to our list of 20 of our favorite patio plants—get ready for some inspiration to dig your hands into the dirt and enjoy the fruit of your labor! (And check out these best balcony plants too.)