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By Dan Vierria Garden Jabber

Rising utility bills and grocery prices can be a gut-punch, especially when tethered to other daily challenges. No wonder studies reveal sufferings from anxiety and depression have tripled in recent years.

Beat back the blues with flowers! Containers of cheery, happy blooms fill the heart with joy.

Trek to the neighborhood nursery and buy armfuls of ostentatious annuals. Select big, bold containers and sacks of quality potting soil. These are baby steps to designing and erecting an adult happy place. Spectacular containers add decorative focal points and supercharge an emotional boost and sense of accomplishment.

You can design flower art from a blank canvas. Arrange pots where they can be viewed from inside the home. An eyeful of beauty should be enjoyed multiple times a day, inside and outside.

A dandy benefit of flower pots is they can be hung or wall mounted. Containers, like people, are a variety of shapes and sizes.

“So many different choices,” says Greg Howes, sales specialist at The Plant Foundry Nursery & Store. “Really depends on where your container is going to be located and the design aesthetic you are after. For general purposes, you can’t go wrong with terra cotta (fired clay).”

Howes designs the nursery’s display flower containers. He prefers a 24-inch-wide pot because it lends itself to several design choices. A half wine barrel is ideal for larger plantings. Pots made from fiberglass, resin, wood, concrete, metal and ceramic are options.

Before purchasing plants, consider where to place centerpiece containers. Most summer annuals love full to mostly sun. Others, like coleus and coral bells, prefer partial shade. Search the label for sunlight requirements. Choose with form in mind.

“For mixed plantings, I often adhere to the thriller-filler-spiller formula,” Howes says. “Thrillers are taller, like grasses, perhaps. Fillers would be a low-growing plant that spreads, like verbena or thymes. For spillers, I love things like Million Bells and potato vines.”

Million Bells may be labeled Super Bells. Blooming non-stop throughout the summer and deep into fall, the tiny petunia-like flowers are a waterfall of striking color.

Choosing bloom colors can be simplified using the standard color wheel that determines

Commonly found in Asian dishes, these greens are mildly sweet and buttery. Early in the season, they are tender enough to eat raw.