Winter Pots and Planters

What's in your winter pots? I find the bedding rather boring at this time of year, and the Cyclamen coum/neapolitanum which I love are too tender for the gardens; so they just get frosted/rotted/blighted off too quickly.

Here's a couple of pics of my winter pots, I use shrubs for winter colour, and underplant with bulbs to keep the season going through till May when they get emptied out and the summer planting is installed.

 

Wow! Gorgeous! I always thought containers a waste of time in winter and relied on pansies for colour. After seeing these I shall try harder!

 

They look great, Jazid!

Trying to make out what the shrubbery is at the centre back of the first - is it pieris, or choisya or what? Looks like skimmia at the side...

We put hardy cyclamen in planters last winter, but they all rotted, but yours seem quite happy!

 

Thanks for your kind words. Yup Dendy, the shrub is a Pieris japonica 'Variegata' with a white erica gracilis in front. These latter do brown off, but not in the warm climes of central London.

The other fellows are boring old Skimmia japonica. The good news about this type of display, which is expensive to do, is that the shrubs can be re-used in the garden in the spring, so almost nothing goes to waste. Difficult to convince clients to fork up the first time however...

The cyclamen do peg it eventually, as I alluded to above. The trick for me is to only use them in situations where there isn't too much exposure to the rain, and to underplant them with iris and crocus so there's something hiding them hotfoot come early spring! Where they won't grow I use pansies or Cineraria maritima instead.

 

Cineraria is incredibly useful! I use it a lot, growing it from seed, since it comes on so easily.

I've used small shrubs of Aucuba japonica, Prunus laurocerasus, Euonymus fortunei of various sorts, and several other evergreen ones - even in a relatively small container, or large winter hanging basket - combined with bulbs, trailing stuff, pansies and primroses, they can look great. I hadn't thought of cyclamen though - thanks for the idea! :D

 

jazid, you surprise me about C. neapolitanum, mine just grow like weeds here, they took a bit of getting going, but now shoot up everywhere. I found them self seeded round my pots of cannas when I came to bring them in, but the funniest place was growing through the cracks in my compost heap!

I have taken little corms round the village in the hope that they will catch on. Just yell if you want some.

Your pots look great by the way.

 

Hi Waco, I think it's mostly because the ones I use are glasshouse raised and just aren't too tough. Any little knock can let the botrytis in, and steady high humidity, which I agree the naturalised plants thrive on, seems to be too much for them. I still chuck them into garden corners however they have fared in the hope that a few will come back!

PS Podowhatnots have decided enough is enough for one year. I am hopeful for next year

 

Jazid - really nice pots. My garden hibernates in winter. But you have got me thinking - why should it?

 

Indeed so PeterS. One of my favourite places in the winter is the Kew Gardens grass border and the scented winter border around the visitor centre on the main road entrance. Pics to follow

 

Because peter, its normally wet soggy and cold up here in the winter - just a gentle reminder of winters past.

 

Here's a tip for those contractors (and others)who are kind enough to like my style of pots. In the third pic down on both sides is Skimmia reevesiana. The berries last till next SUMMER. The plants are well tough and after transplanting in the late spring grow slowly in their new homes (neutral to acid soil), spreading slowly and berrying freely to form a lush evergreen cover. They also cost a bit but are so worth while for their five star performance.

 

Waco, many evergreens are made for those conditions; their winter colourations are a huge plus in the winter. I will try to take some snaps from my gardens to show what I mean,but the important point is that the cold conditions further north enhance the colour. Down here in the (currently soggy) mild conditions the colours don't come up as well...

 

jazid they are very nice will look great all winter

 

Very nice, Jazid. You are obviously mild / protected where you are as it looks like you have Solanum (Jerusalem Cherry) in the choc-a-bloc pot.

 

Looking good Jazid !