Planted pots and hanging baskets are a guaranteed way to add colour and interest to your garden through the autumn and winter months.
A great way to design your own planters is to visit Coolings and fill your trolley, thinking about elements of height, background colour and trailing interest.
Colourful Background Plants
Winter Pansies (1), Violas, Mini-Cyclamen, hardy Primroses, Polyanthus, Ornamental Kale, and hardy Dianthus (2) are all popular choices. Winter Pansies provide flower power from autumn to spring. Autumn planting ensures good bud formation and better winter flowering.
Violas are tough little fellows whose smaller flowers withstand the winter chills. Violas are great for vibrant colour schemes as are Polyanthus and Primrose – both will provide all the colours of the rainbow. Mini-cyclamen are fab for adding instant colour in sheltered locations.
Winter Pansies and Vibrant Violas
Not only do Sweet William offer great colour but autumn planting ensures you will have a fragrant spring garden too.
Sweet Williams
Autumn flowering Heathers (3) are a superb choice that are also a great sourcer of late nectar for Bees. The Garden Girls Heather series was only introduced to Coolings a couple of years ago but they have been a fabulous introduction. Tough as the hills, these garden beauties will flower for months.
Garden Girls Heather
Contrasting foliage elements like wiry silver Calocephalus brownii (4) add real interest. The leaves of Heuchera (5) are beautiful and perfectly capture the red, purple and coppery tones of autumn. Small evergreen Ferns are a novel choice if you fancy an unusual element to your arrangement. Look out for the gold splashed fronds of Aristata variegata (6).
Added Height
Starting with a centre plant there are many possibilities. New for 2017 Solanum ‘Venus’ is an improved variety that is covered with attractive orange berries giving planters a really autumnal feel.
An evergreen grass such as Festuca ‘Intense Blue’ (7) or Stipa tenuissima (8) will make a tactile focal point.
A centrally placed garden Chrysanthemum will give a dome of flowers into the autumn, they also boast bold colours that encapsulate the nostalgic feeling of autumn.
Chrysanthemums
Small Conifers are perfect in containers. Try slow growing Thuja ‘Golden Smaragd’ (9) which makes an attractive candle of burnished foliage.
Evergreen Trailing Interest
Vinca ‘Illumination’ (10) is a great alternative to Ivy and has glossy evergreen golden variegated leaves. An added bonus are the violet blue Periwinkle flowers in spring.
Gold and silver Thyme (11) are beautiful and bring the added benefit of scent to the edge of planters.
Ajuga, (12) known commonly as ‘Trailing Bugle’, are a less well-known choice but have attractive foliage and unusual flowers in spring.
Trailing Pansies and Violas are a superb choice for cascading colour from autumn until spring. Our favourite this season is Pansy ‘Coolwave’.
Trailing Pansy ‘Coolwave’
People often make the mistake of delaying re-planting too long. Take advantage of autumn warmth to really establish later season plants before the cold weather sets in. Don’t forget that choosing the right pot is important to really showcase your plants – while at Coolings you can browse our huge range of pots and get free expert advice from our team of staff.
