The Best Plants for around your Mailbox

• Written by Holly Hughes on May 18 2022

The area around your mailbox can look a little forlorn when compared to the rest of your flowering garden. Sometimes, we can think of these functional features of our front yards as a nuisance, an ugly fixture to be ignored and avoided. 

However, just as there are clever and creative ways to hide your garbage cans, there are so many ways to turn your ordinary letter box into one of your front garden’s most captivating features. From sprawling and romantic vines to hardy flowering shrubs, here’s how to plant around your mailbox.

How to landscape around mailbox

Before we dive into some landscaping around mailbox ideas, there’s first a couple of things you should consider.

Firstly, as pointed out by Gardening Know How, a postbox is a practical piece of equipment that is used most days by mail carriers. Therefore, to landscape around a mailbox post we must be considerate of what plants we use to make sure our postbox is easy to reach.

Avoid plants with thorns or those that might attract stinging insects and, while you might want to consider showy bushes or climbers for a full and textured effect, make sure you don’t choose shrubs that will completely enshroud your mailbox making it difficult to reach.

Additionally, when it comes to looking at mailbox landscape design ideas, there’s a bit more to consider than when choosing plants for a typical flower bed.

What are the best plants for around mailboxes?

Firstly, whether you decide to plant perennials or annuals (more on this later), there are certain features you need to look out for when choosing the best plants to plant next to your mailbox.

Resilient

If your letter box is on the side of the road or curb, you are going to need some hardy plants that can tolerate some pretty harsh conditions. Air pollution, salt, rocky soil, drought, and even human traffic in the form of pedestrians, dog walkers, and kids – your mailbox plants need to be able to withstand them all and still remain bright, perky, and cheerful!

Generally, shrubs that do well in drier conditions are preferred over ones that need a lot of moisture as most curbside areas are exposed to harsher environments.

Related Post: Best Bushes for Front of House

Low-maintenance

While there are so many fabulous mailbox landscaping ideas for you to get creative and flamboyant with, chances are you want a nice way to camouflage or brighten your postbox that won’t require much upkeep. That’s why choosing low-maintenance plants that will thrive with the bare minimum amount of attention is important.

On top of this, if planting perennials, it’s a good idea to go for long-lasting plants that will bloom year after year rather than needing to be replaced after a few short seasons. More on the best perennial plants for your mailbox later.

Related post: Year Round Plants

Weed blockers

It can be difficult to maintain flower beds around mailboxes so choosing plants that can block out weeds offers many benefits. Similarly, these kinds of plants help to reduce the amount of time you need to spend maintaining your mailbox feature and so further create a low-maintenance, weedless plot.

With these key features in mind, it’s time to look at the best perennial and annual plants for your mailbox.

The best perennial flowers for mailbox plots

Perennials are arguably the best shrubs for low-maintenance mailbox landscaping as they will regrow and thus require little replanting each year.

Some of the best perennials for mailbox areas are:

• Daylily
• Lavender
• Periwinkle
• Columbine (though short-lived, coneflowers self-seed so can regenerate forever!)
• Phlox
• Hostas
• Salvia
• Russian sage

The best annual plants for around mailbox

If choosing annuals instead of perennials for around your mailbox, ensure you opt for plants that suit the area’s conditions. For example, if your mailbox is in a largely shaded area, you’ll need to plant flowers that can withstand these darker, more protected conditions like begonias. Not only are these bright and colorful, they’re also low-maintenance to look after. Read our guide to the best annual shade plants here.

Some other annual options that can withstand roadside conditions and will provide a lovely pop of color to your front yard include:

• Geranium
• Petunia
• Zinnia
• Vinca
• Dianthus
• Snapdragon
• Impatiens

Other simple mailbox landscape ideas

Larger mailbox structures – like brick post boxes – can feel difficult to plant around however there are still simple and impactful ways you can disguise these features in a flourish of greenery and bright flowers. If looking for brick mailbox planter ideas, consider growing climbing plants and vines around it to turn it into its own garden features.

You can choose either perennial or annual options. Clematis is typically the most popular perennial choice with its stunning purple blooms but, for a great annual plant, use morning glory.

To avoid these vines completely covering your mailbox and causing your mail carrier significant consternation, ensure you plant them behind your box and prune them regularly to stop them growing over the box door.

There are so many ways you can turn an ordinary mailbox into an extraordinary garden feature. Once you know the roadside conditions your plants need to be able to tolerate the sky’s the limit for your creativity! 

Of course, if you have no mailbox to worry about but would still like some floral cheer in your home, just treat yourself to a beautiful floral arrangement. These flower delivery services can mail the best flower bouquets, no mailbox required!

• FromYouFlowers
• SendFlowers
• EnjoyFlowers
• 1800Flowers
• BloomsyBox
• MonthlyClubs
• EnjoyFlowers
• Plants.com