winter pots
Pep up your pots
Brighten up your garden by planting up winter container displays and revive existing pots by adding seasonal interest – Alan Titchmarsh shows you how
"Plant evergreens for year-round structure, then surround them with plants that offer seasonal variation"
A container of evergreen ferns and flowering hellebores will cheer up your patio or doorstep throughout winter
PHOTO: SARAH CUTTLE LOCATION: ROSE McMONIGALL, DIPLEY MILL, HARTLEY WINTNEY, HAMPSHIRE
It’s tempting to ignore containers on terraces and patios during winter, just leaving them to sit and stagnate until spring arrives. They’ve given their all over summer and little is expected of them in the darker months of the year. But that’s a huge shame, especially in small gardens, courtyards and even on doorsteps, where containers can contribute so much to the display. It’s not too late, even now, to make amends and cheer up those pots, tubs and troughs with perhaps a few permanent residents, plus an ever-changing chorusline of temporar y occupants to prov ide seasonal interest.
All too often, container plantings look the same throughout the year, but a shrub that has outgrown its pot is dispiriting to look at and no amount of feeding is going to turn it around once it has completely ex hausted the compost at its disposal. If this is the case with your containers, make amends now – heave out the old and bring in the new to brighten up your life with a few exciting winter plants.
Create structure
Wholesale replanting of containers for winter isn’t the only solution. To cut down on expense and labour, choose larger containers and plant them with a few permanent evergreen residents for year-round structure and interest, then surround them with plants that offer seasonal variation.