Cracking plants for pots

Have you noticed how sometimes a plant in a pot can set the tone for a whole area in your garden?  

Drama, charm, colour, fragrance? A perfectly-placed plant in a container can lend the perfect je-ne-sais-quoi that you’re after.  But what to choose? We have some ideas for you, but OF COURSE we disagree about what’s hot in a pot this summer……

My first recommendation has to be Agapanthus. These bulbous plants are not good bedfellows in a border anyhow because they generally feel themselves to be above the kind of jostling for root-position that is required.  

In a big pot in a warm and sunny position their winding white roots can hog the space as much as they like. They actually flower better when they are pretty root-bound – which is just as well because they can be very difficult to re-pot! Never plant an agapanthus in an ali baba pot or you’ll never get it out. One more tip – they are heat-lovers but do water them well.

I do love a daisy, don’t you? Erigeron karvinskianus – the Mexican fleabane – is a sweet little thing that will soften the edges of paving and steps beautifully and charmingly.  I bought a variety of it called E ‘Lavender Lady’ from the fabulous Binny’s Plants stand at Chelsea a few years ago, and its dainty blooms literally dance above the edges of its pot for most of the summer. As they start to falter, I shear the whole lot back, and it will flower again well into the autumn.

I visited a friend’s garden today and was really taken with a totally different approach to question of what looks good in a pot.  She had a splendid Pinus nigra – I always thought these were only great big trees! –  growing as a shrub in a big pot.  This variety, P. ‘Pierrick Bregeon’, is a cross between P. nigra and P. densiflora  and is a dwarf slow-growing black pine.

It has a real architectural presence about it and would look great among the summer ‘fluffier’ plants . Perfect to add structure in even a small garden, it needs very little pruning and is tough as old boots against the hardest frosts, come winter. It even gets nice cones apparently!

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For once I agree with Elaine! Pots should principally be used to enhance the botanical nuances of individual species by removing the competition they would encounter in a border, and it’s always worked superbly with summer bulbs such as Eucomis bicolor, our feature picture at the top of the blog . This year I’ve discovered some great new plants that benefit from this sort of elevation. 

The first is French lavender (Lavandula stoechas), prompted by discovering a neglected collection of different cultivars in the reject corner of a local nursery. I quickly pruned, re-hydrated and potted them individually giving me just a taste of the satisfaction it must give people to adopt a Romanian rescue dog.

They haven’t looked back and it’s lovely to see their individual characteristics developing, ‘Provencal’ sprawls languidly, whist ‘Regal Splendour’ stands tall and proud. Raising them up in pots has had the added benefit of letting the light play through their different coloured topknots and lets you watch the happy bees at eye level when you’re sitting in the garden. 

The second revelation is clematis. 

Always annoyed that Elaine can grow better ones than me (obvs no worries about  Caroline on this score) and spurred on by the advice of Raymond Evison’s right hand man, Chris Jeans, I have been putting more and more clematis in pots. They have to be big pots (at least 18inches wide and deep) and well watered in summer, but being able to add lime to the compost in the pot  to ameliorate the natural acidity of my garden soil has been a game-changer (- according to Chris, clematis grow best in neutral to alkaline soils).

Life in a pot won’t work for the big species clematis but seems perfect for viticellas and the new repeat-flowering patio clematis. Chris’s final tip was never to let the pots sit wet in the winter so mine will be dragged into the rain shadow by the back wall come November. Apparently some clematis nurseries used to dig up all their clematis in the autumn and hang the roots over a beam in a barn to keep dry and then replant in spring – who knew??

My final discovery is called Phymosia umbellata ‘Blood of Pan’, which has to be containerised as it is only H3 hardiness. E and C will be muttering already about weird names and fussy growing requirements but I don’t care – it’s absolutely gorgeous with yellow stamens against deep maroon flowers and will grow 6 ft in a season giving a stunning sense of drama in a sheltered courtyard.

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I’d be up for Elaine’s purple agapanthus but ‘Blood of Pan’ sounds more like a prop from the ‘Wickerman’ than a cracking summer pot plant.

My garden is open to the public in less than two months and I need something less macabre and more jolly.

Normally I’d have bought lily bulbs at Chelsea Flower Show in May and they’d be two feet high and Instagrammable by August, but at this year’s show I was so bossed about by my big sisters (have you noticed old age doesn’t affect the family pecking order?), I didn’t get the opportunity.

Help!

Can’t order online now, everything within my budget comes in 9cm pots and that’s far too tiny when size matters…and you’ve only got two months to go. 

It’s at about this point when begonias start to look appealing to me (a stage never yet reached by Laura). Yes, I admit, they can be a little blingy, but for colour and length of flowering they’re a perfect 10, so get over yourself  Laura, begonias are a fabulous summer pot plant.

I can’t believe Elaine hasn’t mentioned roses. You can buy potted roses now that will flower into the late autumn. What looks more beautiful on a terrace than a pastel shaded rose pumping out its gorgeous sent on a sunny day? 

However what I really need is something tallish and self-sustaining with that same begonia wow factor (but yes, OK, a little posher 🫣). Luckily I had an epiphany. What about summoning the Bishop of Llandaff? The dahlia not the actual cleric. Dahlias – affordable and a decent size already – just get on with flowering from mid summer onwards. Plus the Bishop, particularly, has lovely dark foliage and the sort of vibrant colour I need to get the party started.

I know, I’m considered the least likely sister to get divine assistance, but ‘God works in mysterious ways, his wonders to perform’ and my dahlia pots are set to bear this out!

Do you have any knock-out ideas for summer pots? Please do share them in the comment section. We all want to know!

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Generous with its seeds this lovely annual guarantees a bit of summer colour – year after year. It’s Louise’s Great Plant this Month and here’s why…

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Picking produce from your garden is one of the most satisfying jobs. Using a proper harvesting basket just makes it that little bit more magical – have a look at this one in our shop…

If you’re feeling like a bit of brain exercise why not have a go at The3Growbags Video Plant Identification Quiz – click on the picture below to get started – there’s only 6 plants to name correctly!

NB If you’re not already a subscriber and you’d like a bit more gardening chitchat from the3growbags, please type your email address here and we’ll send you a new post every Saturday morning.

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