In the NE with our hard winters sometimes, I'll just put winter greenery in the planters or hanging flower containers just so I can have a touch of green against the cold white snow.

I leave mine as they are. Dead...lol I replant in the spring if they had annuals.

I don't have any pics but I did mine by the door in seasons. In the fall I bought some long curly willow sticks for height and put in both of them, then I bought dollar store scarecrows in them, one was sitting and the other pot was on a strawbroom. Then I filled in around with a couple small pumpkins and goards and colored leaves. At Christmas I put greenery in them, left the willow sticks in them. Added some silk poinsettas, would a strand of fifty white lights into the flowers. And bought dollar store cardnal birds and sat on the edge. They were quite pretty. And not just holiday. I left them out until feb or so. In March I bought a few stalks of tall spring bloomers in silk, added pussy willow twigs from my tree to the mix, and bought pots of blooming bulbs and just sank in there and added a few pansies for real spring and early summer punch. I still left the corkscrew willows in also. They added nice height and focus. When I got ready to really plant in the ground when it got warm then, I took out the bulbs and pansies and put them in the ground.

Most of mine get brought in for the winter so they won't crack. I might put mums in a few by the door, but that's about it. I am usually so tired from gardening by the time Sept. and Oct. roll around that I am fresh out of ideas and enthusiasm...LOL.

Anything ceramic or glass comes inside garage. I have tried to go to these foam fake pots, since they can stay out.

The big ones by the front door will be changed out to fall and then for Christmas I put silk poinsettias in them, water them so the dirt freezes hard, otherwise the wind blows everything away!

The front of our house is so bare all winter, last year I put a wagon thing under the bay window, and did it seasonally, sure helped.

Nary a picture.

Lynne

Oohhh...this is such a great topic. I hope someone has pictures for those of us who are "challenged" to try to picture things from descriptions. (that would be me!)
Nancy

Sorry, no pics here either. I like to put white lights, grapevine and either leaf branches for fall or evergreen for winter, add a few berry branches and your all set. I do this in my birdbath too.
Pearl

Hi,
I also spruce up my barren planters in the front of my house
For fall I place a small trellis in my large pot and drape artificial autumn leaves over it. In another I place a scare crow that I found at a flea market.
For Halloween I put Jack o Lanterns and creepy signs in the pots. Thanks giving I have pilgrims and turkeys.
Christmas Candy canes with bows For Easter I go to the woods
And find a bush like dead limb and make an egg tree.
You would think I had a house full of kids but my son is grown. It just makes me feel good to see them when I come and go. I guess I'm a kid at heart. I will try to get pics
this year and post them.

Most all my pots are terra cotta so they get moved into a barn for the winter. My one plastic pot has a dead ornamental grass (pennisetem rubrum) all winter. It looks nice moving in the wind and desolate when snow drifts up the side of the pot. My whiskey barrel just has dirt in it. The window boxes I decorate for Christmas with fresh greens and pine cones. I leave them all winter until the greens start to turn brown.

Here's one of my favorite planters- an old rusty bucket! It's great 'cuz it can stay out year round and it keeps getting better! It's really fun to dress it up for the Seasons. Once these flowers are done blooming, I'll put them in the ground, and replace them with Mums and Pumpkins for Autumn.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:176081}}