so been given 2 beautiful plant pots/containers...

[bouncinbean]

... that will look very nice by our front door. Now I'm not a gardener but I'm aware that you need to buy the right plant for the conditions so I'm turning to you guys for advice for something that will brighten up the front of our house...
They are not massive so there won't be much room for roots so probably can't be anything that is too big. The front of the house is south facing so they will get plenty of sun (when we have it) and to a large extent its also quite windy at the front. We don't have a tap at front of the house and realistically I will probably forget to water regularly (will buy that gel stuff to put in compost as well to help keep them hydrated) so need something pretty resilient.
Would love something that I can plant and will not require much aftercare but will provide colour/interest throughout the year - maybe something that is evergreen (or red or yellow) with nice flowers at some point in the year.
Any ideas? I did once go to our local garden centre and ask for help for something to put in our back garden and they were spectacularly unhelpful and gave me a shrub/tree that looked nice for half a year and then died so haven't got much confidence they will point me towards something that will be good for us this time.

Rosemary is indestructible for me, flowers in late winter/early spring (fairly small though), is evergreen and tastes and smells nice - might be worth a go. A bit minimalistic, but those are fairly tough conditions you are putting it in!

Another possibility is lavender, similar kind of thing as rosemary. Bay would probably survive too, but won't give you any flowers.

Rosemary is indestructible for me, flowers in late winter/early spring (fairly small though), is evergreen and tastes and smells nice - might be worth a go. A bit minimalistic, but those are fairly tough conditions you are putting it in!

Another possibility is lavender, similar kind of thing as rosemary. Bay would probably survive too, but won't give you any flowers.

Thanks liara - I like the idea of something that smells nice as you walk past, am mulling over whether both sides should be the same as then I could do lavender in one and rosemary in the other! In fact the more I think as I type I think that could be quite nice rather than being too uniform/perfect...

I second rosemary. I have a rosemary in a large pot - it's been there for ten years and I rarely do anything with it apart from pick it for cooking. It's been forgotten in dry spells and is still going strong.