Once you have taken the summer bedding out of your pots, how about replacing it with some plants to cheer you through the winter months?
It’s not a good idea to use plastic pots for this, which can be too light and unstable in strong winds, but sturdy frost-proof stoneware ones are perfect.
A few caveats before you start planting:
- Position your pot BEFORE you start filling it, or you may not be able to move it. Choose as sunny a site as you can, but where you can see it from the window, or where you will go past it to and from your front door each day.
- Stand it on pot feet or bricks to help drainage and prevent waterlogging.
- Use a good free-draining compost.
- Plan to PACK plants into your pot because none of them will grow hugely during the winter, and you want it to have plenty of impact.
- Now for the plants! I daresay that you want flowers, but be aware that the main flowering season for many plants sold as ‘winter bedding’ is actually early spring – Polyanthus, pansies, violas and the like. You’re better off opting for good evergreen, possibly coloured, foliage, berries and coloured stems. A little shrub can add some welcome height – a small bright-stemmed Cornus (dogwood) such as flaviramea, perhaps, or Skimmia ‘Rubella’, Erica (heather), Gaultheria, Euonymus, Hebe……..lots of colourful choices! And they can always be planted in the garden at the end of the winter.
- Then tuck in things like ivies or Lysimachia nummularia (creeping Jenny – I like the golden one) which can trickle over the sides. Then there’s Heuchera in all sorts of foliage shades like the lovely H. ‘Marmalade’, or Cyclamen which can inject some flower-colour as well as delight with their pretty leaves. The leaves of Bergenia often colour up beautifully in the winter, and grasses such as Carex and Anemanthele can soften the look, as can ferns such as Asplenium or Polystichum in a shadier spot.
- Popping in some small early bulbs and pansies or Polyanthus primula to match your colour scheme can prolong the beauty of your pot into March or April of next year. Have fun with it!
One more thing – don’t forget that we can have dry spells even in winter, so do remember to check the soil from time to time – you’re aiming for slightly moist, definitely not wet.
