It’s easy to get carried away when planning a garden, imagining the huge variety of plants you’ll use to fill every corner of your site, but not every gardener is blessed with endless beds and borders to fill, so we’ve found the best shrubs for pots that you can use to decorate patios, balconies and decking, whether you’ve got a small garden with limited space or just want to add some new feature plants to a dull area.
1. The best shrubs for pots
Box
This popular hedging plant can be pot grown to add a traditional touch to your patio.
Rosemary
Planting this fragrant herb in a container outside your kitchen window gives you access to fresh flavour whenever you want.
Lavender
This cottage garden favourite can be container grown and then eventually planted out in the garden if you wish.
Fuchsia
Displaying an abundance of bright pink flowers through summer and autumn, Fuchsia makes a colourful feature planted in pots and spread around a seating area. It will need to be overwintered in a greenhouse to protect it from frosts.
Topiary Standards
With a choice of Bay, Olive, Euonymus and Photinia, you can’t go wrong with a potted topiary tree, or two!
Cupressus Macrocarpa Goldcrest
This fragrant, two-tone conifer rises out of its pot like a flame, providing your garden with fantastic structural interest.
Bamboo
Ideal for growing in a pot, this upright plant is perfect to add height to patio planting and the fast growth rate ensures immediate impact.
Euonymus fortunei Emerald ‘n’ Gold’
Adds a vibrant twist to your pots as the variegated foliage offers a striking display all year round – also looks wonderful paired with colourful blossoms.
Skimmia Rubella
Offering a combination of fragrance, flowers and evergreen foliage, Skimmia is a great option to add interest to boring balconies and plain patios.
2. Make the most of pots in your garden
Pots are a great way to add interest to your outdoor space and can create a great focal feature, especially if you don’t have much room to show off your greenery and blossoms.
Using several of the same sized and coloured plant pots is a great way to create consistency in your garden, especially if you like to keep your planting uniform. However, adding a few empty pots for decoration can give it that extra bit of interest.
Light coloured pots ensure that your shrubs and topiary pop, and using symmetry in the garden creates fantastic impact, highlighting the various different shapes in your garden.
You can use pots to create a low maintenance garden which is perfect if you struggle to stay on top of the upkeep or if you have very little to no outdoor space.
It’s not all about the back garden, pots can help you give your front garden that wow factor too.
You don’t have to stick to traditional pots – experiment with different materials to give your garden a modern twist.
Get creative and paint your own garden pots with the kids. It’s a great way to get them outdoors and interested in gardening, and it adds a personal touch to your space.
Planting in pots is an easy way to add emphasis to the areas of the garden you want people to focus on. Varying the size, colour and shape of your pots can create a wonderful garden feature without the need for beds and borders overflowing with blossoms.
Potted plants can add interest to boring areas of the garden – using several pots to line a set of steps provides immediate ornamental value.
Share with us your garden pot designs on Facebook and Twitter, we would love to hear from you!
