Some Of My Own Favourite Low Maintenance Planted Containers

There are so many plants that lend themselves to containers. Whilst we have some beautiful pots of annual bedding looking gorgeous its good to take time and look at some of the simple alternatives and often fairly permanent pots.

Acer Palmatum

The foliage colour of this small Japanese red acer tree positioned against a back drop of green foliage is uplifting an also very structural.



Short of time for my own garden with a nursery to run, one of my favourite pot solutions is simply agapanthus. I have quiet a few. Its good to see them all in flower together. I plant them and neglect them. A feed in the autumn before they go to sleep is a good idea to replenish the rhizome. I pull them under the eves of the house if it gets very cold in the winter.







Once I saw them planted in terracotta pots as a center piece with a trim of small lavender around the edge proveing simple ideas are often the most beautiful.

Annual blue salvias as a afterthought amongst Mediterranean herbs such as curry plant, and sage.

I love to plant herbs particularly if they are going to be useful. To create a little more colour in the summer I add a few annual salvia which blend so well with my purple sage foliage which is also a salvia. Remember to plant Mediterranean herbs in well drained situations. I mix my compost with half grit. If you plant them in soggy pots they will not survive the winter wet.

 

Troughs of lavender by the house where you can enjoy the calming fragrance is a simple effective low maintenance alternative to bedding. Give them a hair cut in the autumn but don't trim until you see new shoots and growth in the spring or you will kill them. 

Rosemary lends itself to a particular shape of pot and its just beautiful particularly with the blue flowers early spring in a blue pot, like mine pictured here above. Purple sage also works well in these pots that curve in a the top and is equally indispensable in cooking.

Here I have a lovely pot planted with an evergreen Viburnum tinus under planted with heuchera foliage.

I have enjoyed a Prince Charles clematis in a large blue pot growing up a small obelisk with a spring trim of narcissus for years. It's survived with just a top up of compost and a few scatty feeds. Nothing is no maintenance but its definitely low maintenance!

Lastly Salvia Hot Lips can not be beaten for continuous summer colour. Arriving on the plants seen a good few years ago now with the summer bedding many of us have discovered its reasonably winter hardy. A good feed and a trim in the spring and often potting up it lends its self again beautifully to cottage gardens.

 
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