What to put in pots at either side of the front door?

[bonvivant]

We have a modern house and am looking for something modern/fresh to put at the front door - flowers or plants but I want a modern look.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Was thinking about some sort of topiary but DH wants some colour!

Standard Bay trees always look good,if your pots are big enough you could underplant with violas or any bedding to keep your DH happy.

We have a tall, skinny Japanese maple in a pot which works brilliantly and has an amazing colour range...but bare in winter unfortunately. It's very striking for most of the year though.

Spiral topiary in zinc pots

I have a very modern looking tall pot with a young version of this;

www.vanmeuwen.com/trees-shrubs-and-ornamentals/shrubs/camellia-standard/V16590VM

It looks lovely and because it's young it has about 5 buds which will be a lovely bit of colour this year.

I am watching this thread with interest as I want some interesting plants at the front of my house (south west facing so very sunny). I did lose bay trees to frost and it actually cracked my very nice pots. I also had no luck with a camellia in a pot. I am not a good gardener!

I think you really need scent at the front door, if pissible. A friend has Lydia by the front door, yellow flowers, smells divine.Lydia dunno if that link will work but if not just Google Genista Lydia.

I have recently discovered Christmas Box which smells lovely too, and is good in containers I believe?

Daphnes smell absolutely amazing but I'm not sure they thrive in containers.

Lol! Pissable. Now that would give you scent at the front door!

I am planning on getting 2 of these www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/buxus-sempervirens/classid.7563/ and planting them in these m.primrose.co.uk/-p-50744.html?adtype=pla&kwd=&gclid=COLmk8nRmr0CFeKWtAodYRYAWA. Then I can add flowering plants around the base of the tree when I fancy some colour.

I always try to do seasonal stuff so we get lots of colour. Right now it's daffs and pansies, once they're done I will repeat what I did last year which was impatiens plus some trailing lobelia. Is that too cottagey?

How about some ornamental grass? Some of them look fab all year round.

I had box balls in large painted Versailles tubs. I say "had" because they scorched last summer and have not recovered. Porch faces South so I need a rethink! Something Mediterranean for the summer and something that will survive frosts in winter. Not sure anything will survive all year!

Oh dear Milly, my front faces SW and I have just planted a new hedge with box and lavender. That 's why I though box would be good as a standard :(

Angry - that will look lovely. I unfortunately have a long overhang supported by 2 pillars so I couldn't fit in anything like that. I did have 2 similar tubs to that which were varnished, but that's all gone now and I am thinking about repainting them similar colours to those.

Is the front door north or south facing ie shady or sunny?
Symmetry is nice. Get pots of a decent size, more vertical than wide usually works well.
In the centre something with vertical structure eg your spiral topiary box, standard rose or bay ball or whatever and at the base, a variety of seasonal flowers.
If wanting something a bit more imaginative, try clematis Countess of Wessex, or sweet peas up a tripod, or Monty's favourite: calla lilies with bishop of LLandaff dahlias.
If wanting to have a mini garden in pots out the front remember you can grow raspberries, herbs, lavender, tomatoes in pots, and there is no cultural law which says it has to be two symmetrical standard box balls in metallic containers.
The house at Great Dixter changes its pots at the front with seasons.
Out the front in pots I have roses with lilies, pieris, lavender (three types) a magnolia stellata, hellebores, an olive tree, sage, roses with dill, calla lilies with dahlias, in my pots out the front, and sweet peas and clematis will grow up stick wigwams when the time comes. The roses are nuits de young (with lilium regale), coopers burmese (with alliums everest), mrs oakley fisher (with agapanthus) wimbledon(with applemint) victory (with rosemary) gertrude jekyll (with lilium regale)
Its a lot of pots but it makes me and visitors happy and the postman always stops and smiles.

Another thought is to have planting in keeping with the style and period of your house. Something too formal at the front of a post wasr semi looks silly. On the other hand a Georgian double fronted porch needs formality and structure.

Hi, the front garden is slightly more shaded than the back and would suit a symmetrical modern design. There are lots of topiary designs by us but would be nice to have something a little different!

Thats interesting that you have lots of topiary already. Maybe something with white flowers would look good against all the green. These are Calla lilies. They come in other colours too. If you want to bring a bit of colour into it, orange crocosmia could be nice to plant with and extend the season.

We don't have topiary - our neighbours do. Sorry, should have been clearer!

What's your budget and scale?

I'm looking for something similar for our garage conversion. Have 2 large lightweight cement urns from homebase that were £40 out front with pyramid buxus in. & they look good. May go for the same out back but would prefer something taller.

Phormiums add height & look good but I've found them difficult to underplant. Agree with pp that you need depth in the pot-I've found depth & width difficult to find although there are some nice big plastic beehive type pots in my local garden centre which look good.

Suspect we'll end up getting traditional urns & plinths after looking at other options!

This is nice
www.pinterest.com/explore/front-door-plants/

This is one of my favourites

This friendly American chap says it all
www.pinterest.com/pin/253960866459701220/

This also is interesting
thinkingoutsidetheboxwood.com/?p=3150