What are you planning for winter containers this year?

I have a very large container in front to keep delivery men alive (there's a sturdy metal ring in the paving, designed to trip people over so the planter sort of directs them away to a safer route).

Currently it has Cosmos, Fuchsias and ground Ivy but soon it's time to put in something nice for winter.

I dug up one Festuca glauca which will probably go in, and am planning something upright (a small conifer?) and something colourful.

Gaulthera is nice but rather expensive, cyclamen may or may not keep their flowers through the winter, I have a nice Heather just budding up but will probably keep it in the back for my personal enjoyment . I have Christmas Hellebores too but not enough to dig up yet this years.

Violas perhaps...

What is everybody planning this year?

 

I do quite a few with just single species of plants fond of tulips but the prices this year local garden centre £5 for 10bulbs cost even more for taylors with less bubs. I'll be keeping an eye on the winter sales and for something different .

Still got some cornus plants from last year in pots so I'll probably use them for focal / centre piece , and some hellebores - heuchera I've saved as well . I 've grown some pansy - viola - wallflowers from seed this year so I'll be squeezing them in .

Do some lasagne pots on the large pots, it doesn't always work out but I like a experiment .

Some pots from this spring

same pot as the one above



Cornus in these two big pots with other bits and bobs not the best picture. They looked better earlier with bare stems

 

I've planted up two containers with a grass, Miscanthus Morning Light, plus some violas and tulip bulbs, all bright colours. I’ve also done two pots of Iris reticulata, they don’t flower for long but always bring some cheer . A few weeks ago I planted a Mahonia in a pot near the front door for all year interest. It’s flowering now. Several more pots of violas, the more the merrier! One here with a Juncus, corkscrew rush.

 

I don't really bother with winter containers as such, because I have a lot of evergreens etc for interest, but you can often get smaller pots of things like Skimmia to add to pots of pansies/violas or Hellebores etc for over winter. Add a small trailing ivy and you'd have something to tide you over until spring bulbs come through.
The drawback is that you then need to find somewhere to plant the shrub out, or pot it on it's own before it gets too big, but it would be fine for a good while, and you could swap the pansies etc for summer bedding or similar, depending on the site.

 

I don't do much with winter displays either, it's a lot of work and I can never get around to it. I do however plant bulbs in pots and place them in view for the time they're flowering only.
I also bought some Mums this year and I've put them in individual pots, and stuck the pots in troughs, which makes them easier to move. I'll take them out of sight when the flowers die.

 

I have some pots with heathers and cyclamen that come back, and I add to replace losses. The bedding cyclamen last surprisingly well for a few years.

 

I never bother with winter displays in containers either. We have too many storms and torrential rain to make it worthwhile. Too much hard work maintaining them as well. I do plant up pots with daffs and tulips for later colour, also lilies for perfume.

 

When I had my old house in Dordogne I had lots of pots. I used to plant bulbs, violas, bellis daisies and wallflowers in them for winter and spring.

Then I met OH, eventually managed to sell my big old farmhouse and downsize to an old stone cottage, still in Dordogne as my children all live in France. OH lives in Norfolk. Now I don't have many pots, just a few herbs and 1 pot of Busy Lizzies in summer, as I travel between Dordogne and Norfolk.

 

In Belgium I'd do a pair of big matching pots for the front door but that was it as anything smaller just froze solid in February when we'd get -15C and worse for 2 or 3 weeks.

Here, where it's much milder, I did pots for the first couple of winters - evergreens such as a red phormium mixed with red cyclamen and pansies - but they've been planted out now and I don't bother any more as I have permanent plants in pots along the front of the house which is south facing so sheltered from the worst cold winds but open to westerly rain. If an easterly beast is forecast I'll put some fleece round them as the pots are now too big to move.

I do wait for LIDL to sell off hardy cyclamen for pots and troughs each autumn but they go straight out in the garden now.

 

I had a very nice doorstep delight some years ago, variegated Vinca minor and Christmas Hellebores. This was in January.



I hadn't considered Heucheras. That's an idea.

@Plantminded, Pansies with the corckscrew grass is charming!

 

I bought a load from Morrisons. £3 for 8 bulbs, but on a 3 for the price of 2 offer. So 24 bulbs for £6.

 

You could also use snowdrops and some of the very early dwarf narcissus for an early display, and they'd work with Heucheras or Hellebores as they like similar conditions. You'd just have to keep an eye out for vine weevil on the heucheras while they're potted. Many of the species/botanical tulips are really good in containers as they need sharp drainage, and many tend to be quite early [February] depending on where you are. They'd probably need a pot of their own, unless you had something else which would like similar conditions. I'm not keen on mixing stuff anyway, so I tend to have single types/varieties in a pot, and then move them accordingly.
It depends on the location of pots, and whether you need something with height or just a lower growing display too.
I have a lot of early-ish stuff in the ground so it's not worth doing containers. I'd also have to wait until all the annuals were finished to plant anything in them, which isn't always great.

 

I’ve given up with snowdrops. Whether they’re in the ground or pots, I just can’t grow them here, they mustn’t like it.
I have planted up some tete a tete daffodils and grape hyacinths in pots but leaving the tulips until next month. We are also leaving the Mexican Fleabane in its big pot , undisturbed, as it’s self seeded all underneath the plant so would expect a lovely display next year.
We do have a Heuchera ( Obsidian) in a pot as it was doing nothing in the ground where we had it. It has settled and grown so well that we leaving it in the pot. At the moment it is flowering beautifully.




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That's strange that you can't grow snowdrops @Songbird . There are hundreds of varieties, and many don't mind drier conditions, despite the general feeling that they need moisture and shade, so if that's the problem it's worth having a search. Most of the more common ones are happy if they have moist soil throughout the year though.

 

If you're planting small bulbs like snowdrops or crocus it helps to soak them in cold water overnight so they are fully hydrated before planting in the ground or in pots.