Novice gardener

[PrincessWatermelon]

I need some help please.

I'd like to pot some plants up for the patio. My DDs have been nagging me that they'd like some flowers! But I know nothing. We face west, so the garden gets a fair bit of sun.

I'd like a nice range of pot sizes but don't know what to put in them. Pretty flowers ideally!! Would you suggest seeds or small plants? And what specific types will survive a novice who has never had to remember about flowers before. Thanks.

Have some pots with foliage and others with flowers or a mixture. Place them in groups of odd numbers, say three or five for a natural look placing larger ones at the back. You can include garden ornaments, say a birdbath, among them. Don't forget a hanging basket or two to give height and interest in blank areas. Get inspiration from catalogues or websites, Crocus and Sarah Raven are a good place to start for container planting ideas.

Think about how much time you have to maintain them when you are deciding on specific plants, for instance if you think you might not always remember to water the plants you could include a water-absorbent gel in the compost matrix that will keep them going longer in warmer weather.

You could do bedding plants that will last the summer or more permanent plants.

Herbs do well pots and have the added bonus of smelling nice and being edible.

We have agapanthus in pots and they're pretty. Although they die back quite a bit in the winter.

You could also try some bulbs... The garden centre had autumn flowering ones in today, which would extend the colour through to autumn.

I have a large courtyard and try to get something of interest or in flower all year round. Textures and scent are quite important.
For structure, I’ve used bamboo ( evergreen) , Fatsia Japonica ( evergreen) and You could also use small slow growing firs.
Pansies, violas, Spring bulbs and Azaleas are good for early in the year. I have clematis growing in pots around obelisks ( 3 different ones in a large pot). Jasmine also grows around an obilisk in a pot. A herb trough is lovely and fragrant.
Roses grow well in planters as do Hydrangeas. In summer lots of annuals, Begonias, lilies and anything that flowers!
I try anything in pots as long as the growing medium and drainage is right. The larges pots and troughs are best as they don’t dry out as much as small pots. I also mix plant, for example a small eucalyptus grows with bedding plants around it.

Thanks for all that. Really helpful.

If you buy plants at the garden centre, they always have eyecatching ones that are in full flower. They look wonderful. DO NOT BUY THESE. They will probably finish flowering in a week or two and then look ugly, so they are a waste of money. Buy the small ones that still have to grow.

Summer bedding plants are in the garden centres now but most of them are frost-tender so you shouldn't put them outside until the risk of frost has gone.

This summer I am using ivy leafed geraniums, verbena (the decorative sort not the herb) fuchsias, petunias and begonias in my pots. Bog standard and boring maybe but there's a good reason why some plants are popular.

I have japanese maples in pots, with bulbs around the edges. I've got tulips.
Japanese anemone bulbs. They are hardy and flower when nothing else is. Great for Winter/Spring and Summer.
I've just planted a tri coloured budleia in a pot...see if it flowers.
I prefer to buy hardy annual plants, rather than spending money every spring on one season plants.
Rudbekkia is great in a big pot. Yellow flowers.
Hardy fuschias come in all colours and flower beautifully from July to first frosts.
You could surround them with lobellia summer bedding, then remove lobellia when flowering ends. Or surround with hardy, permanent campanulla you don't have to remove.

Get the Sarah Raven catalogue for great pots inspiration

Geraniums - Morrisons have lovely plug plants at the moment - 12 for £3 !

Plug plants are just small plants that will get bigger .Keep somewhere sheltered ,against a wall of the house ,ideally a corner with some bubble wrap over the top at night .

Geraniums are v v easy and will give lots of flowers .You can get trailing,ivy leaved ones as well .

For pots think a thriller ( something biggish ,maybe a verbena or a fuschia ?),a spiller ( something that will trail like lobellia,trailing nepeta ) and a filler million bells ( like petunias but easier ,less wilting and dead heading ).

Or you could just put lots of one plant .

Use good quality compost .I often add a little water retaining gel as pots do need watering .Oh a get the largest pots you can manage .Wilko and Poundstretcher both have attractive plastic pots in various sizes .

Dont fill the pot up to the brim with compost as the water will run off ,I watched this earlier today

Keep somewhere sheltered ,against a wall of the house ,ideally a corner with some bubble wrap over the top at night

sorry that's not v helpful of me ,it's a bit cold at the moment for baby plants to be outside and they need to be somewhere with light and shelter . A cold greenhouse or little cold frame .I was trying not to put you off by making it sound complicated ,you can improvise !

One of my local garden centres does classes where you make up hanging baskets or pots and learn something as you go along - might be worth seeing if somewhere near you does something similar?

Wow! Lots of specific help. I like that.

This may be obvious to others, but are there some plants that die back but stay there and come up again (I'm sure I have tulips and daffs in my front garden that I planted once and they come up every year). And then other plants that only do their thing once and you have to dig up and start again? I'd rather not have to do that extra work every year.

So what should I look for that looks pretty and then stays there for next year? Presumably it'd be good to put in the pot with something that flowers at a different time of year?

Well .Your questions reveal that you are a true gardener at heart !

It took me ages to twig about plants that some were perennial ( come back the next year ) and lots don't .

But I'm not expert enough to advise you .And much will depend on the size of your pot and what the weather is like where you live .

I have some large pots and I have a pieris www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/pieris-forest-flame/classid.4237/?msclkid=1c3be98569061c508149b52b5696d004&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Specific%20Plant&utm_term=Pieris%20Forest%20Flame&utm_content=PL00080404

and another with convulvulous www.jparkers.co.uk/3-silverbush-convolvulus-0005736c?msclkid=be2858da56c11e131e6c047416c8c97d&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Search%20-%20Shrubs%20-%20NEW&utm_term=%2Bconvolvulus&utm_content=Impr.%20Silverbush%20(Convolvulus)

they're both shrubs really and do get big .I add other stuff in the summer - I like frothy stuff with lots of greenery as well as flowers .
verbena ,bacopa ,bidens ,.

it depends on your personal taste !

I’d say get the biggest pots you can.

Perennial stuff in pots that has worked well for me are lilac (small variety), hydrangea, bay, erysium bowles mauve, aster, sedums and lavender. I mix it up with some pots that have annuals. Sarah raven website is brilliant for inspiration. Training petunias, geraniums, calibbroacha etc...

In the autumn plant some pots up with tulips etc.

evergreen grasses look good in pots and some change colour as the seasons change, you could use these and then have flowering plants or shrubs in between. Wilko do cheap stake solar lights, I think theyre about £1 but last years which brighten the patio up.

www.crocus.co.uk/search/_/search.grasses-for-pots/

Hardy geraniums come back every year, Rozanne is a blue flowered one that flowers all summer. Also come in white or pink, good ground cover too. Buy the plant. Nasturtiums, climbing/trailing, grow from seed. They'll only last the summer, but they're easy. How about dwarf green beans? The flowers are pretty, then you get beans! I have daffodils in a big pot, they've been there years totally neglected, but not pretty when the flowers go over. Lavender or rosemary will be long lasting. Hope you have a lot of fun!

Any help
www.dummies.com/home-garden/gardening/container-gardening/choosing-perennials-for-containers/ ?

Yes yes to erysium bowles mauve .it really does seem to be as easy and long flowering as everyone says!