Winter colour in pots and containers

October is a great time to create some winter and spring colour for your garden using pots and containers. It’s a great way to add some colour during the darker months of the year for your garden. A range of pots and containers grouped will provide interest, they need not be expensive. For example, using cheaper terracotta pots can save money and they can be made frostproof by painting with Thompson water seal clear 5 litres to make them frost proof
Use John Iness number two compost with a few stones or crocs covering the drainage hole so the compost does not flow out then you water the posts
With Plants, it’s a good idea to start with some winter flowering shrubs plus plants that provide interest with berries etc.
Possible autumn and winter pot plants used as structural plants include
Skimmia rubella – great berries all winter long
Helleborus – dependable winter flowers
Sweet box, or Sarcococca confusa – fantastic for scent
Camellia – providing flower in early spring in shady areas
Daphne odora’Aureomarginata’ – attractive evergreen with highly scented flowers.
Once you have decided on your structural shrubs next are the filler plants plated around the structural plants. These include
Erysimum ‘Winter Sorbet’
Cyclamen
gaultheria
Heathers
Varigated ivy
Pansies and Violas
Heucheras
Finally, no autumn and winter interest post would be complete without some bulbs. Planted at different depths they will provide an ongoing display of spring colour
Winter iris ( iris reticulata )
Crocus
dwarf narcissus
Winter aconites