Gardening novice seeks advice re planting in pots...

[CoffeeMum]

I know very, very little about gardening, but would like to plant something in pots outside the front of my house. What would you more experienced gardeners recommend please? I want something colourful but tasteful, that will be longlasting, and pretty easy to maintain. I'm quite interested in the idea of lavender - would that be suitable, and should I go for a certain variety?

Also, the pots I have are really huge - bigger than a baby bath. Should I fill the whole thing with compost? Do I have to do that thing where you put broken bits of china at the bottom? [and why and when do you have to do that?]

Apologies for the v.basic questions, if anyone can advise i'd be very grateful. Thank you!

[LadyMud]

I'm also a beginner, and find www.shootgardening.co.uk/ very useful. Are you wanting flowers, or would colourful foliage be better?

Go for things labelled "hardy perennials" as they should survive the winter. And "evergreen" will obviously keep their leaves rather than dying back.

The Alpine section of your garden centre is worth looking at for this type of plant, although these tend to be smaller.

Stones at the bottom will improve drainage. If the pots get waterlogged, the roots will rot and die.

Hope this helps!

[cantspel]

For a large pot i would use stones at the bottom for drainage with an old jumper or other fabric. Then a bag of topsoil and then compost.
I have a pure white Hydrangea in a large pot. It looks fantastic with all the rain we have had. great big white blooms which fill the whole pot but it is a well established plant.
Camellias, Rhododendron or Rubella all do well in pots. These are spring flowering but you could under plant with summer bulbs to add extra colour for later in the year.

[CoffeeMum]

Thanks both! Will definitely have a look at that website LadyMud - good tips too, I am definitely keen to plant one lot of plants, and keep them going as long as possible, so something from the hardy perennials or alpine sections would be ideal.

cantspel - love hydrangeas, will definitely consider that for some of the pots, a white one would look great

[cantspel]

Topsoil is cheaper than compost and heavier so idea for large posts. i like John Innes no 2 compost for pots as it is nice and heavy so stops plants being blown over. For a really large pot like yours i would go for 2/3's topsoil to 1/3 John Innes.
Hydrangeas love water and the more they get the bigger the blooms you get. Very easy to look after. Just prune off the dead blooms after the winter frosts. i tend to do mine about the end of feb as we are on the south coast but if you are up north it might be worth waiting another month or so. Cut back to the first strong, healthy pair of buds lower down the stem and then just feed and leave.
Dont forget that plants in pots will need feeding so get some controlled release fertiliser pellets and pop a handful into the soil when planting and again every few months to fed your plant.
Good luck and before you know it you just like the rest of us gardening obsessed and will be spending far to much money on plants and fancy gardening gloves

[Aquelven]

You could put broken up polystyrene containers in the bottom for drainage, the sort that bedding plants often come in. Cheap & makes the pots a bit lighter than all stones if you want to move them sometime.
Then what I do is layer planting in the pots near the doors. Half way down I plant bulbs, daffs & tulips. On top of those I plant smaller bulbs like dwarf iris, muscari & crocus a bit nearer the surface with a layer of soil over the top. Then in the top, in autumn, I plant winter flowering pansies, primroses & winter heathers. That way the pansies & heathers provide colour through winter. When they are going over the primroses flower & the different bulbs follow each other to give continuous colour till it's time, in about May, to pull out the pansies, heathers & primroses & replace them with summer bedding like petunias etc.
The bigger pots have a dwarf conifer to clipped box in as well as a centrepiece.

[LadyMud]

If you still fancy lavender, then Aldi have a good selection in on Thursday.
English and French, range of colours including white and red
www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/special_buys3_25692.htm

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

The drainage material is to stop the pot getting waterlogged - a real problem at the moment.

I read/heard something in the last few days where Bunny Guinness was recommending that for large pots one should add a layer of crocks and gravel for drainage and then put landscaping fabric on top of that (although cantspel's old jumper would do just as well). I quite like pots in the front garden to be heavy as it stops ne'er-do-wells from nicking them.

What did you buy in the end?