Plants for front of house - complete novice

[mammmamia]

As someone who can’t keep any plants alive I would love some advice.
I have a path leading up to my front door that looks very bare and I would love to get some plants / flowers to brighten it up. No flower beds so would have to be in containers.
It gets full sun all afternoon and evening.
What would you recommend? Thank you

Also I am not sure what to get that will flower year after year or will just survive all year round. I don’t really want anything I’ll have to replant in the garden.

I’d use alternate roses and lavender plants in reasonable size pots. You could choose particularly scented roses that would be lovely with the lavender in summer.

Thank you
So do you buy the lavender already in pots or do you have to plant it yourself? Sorry for the daft questions

You can buy Lavender at the garden centre. You don’t say how big your pots are, so I’d get the biggest plants that you can to fit your pots.

I’ve just reread your post. You buy them in large plastic pots to put into your own larger pots or planters.

Roses and lavender sound lovely, I'd be tempted to add in some herbs too, for extra fragrance. Mint, lemon thyme and and oregano for example.

Ones that come up every year are called perennials, ones that die off at the end of the year are annuals. Might help you as you’re searching.

I’d just go to a garden centre and have a mooch.

Hmm I might disagree here, I find lavender a bit of a bugger and goes very woody and hard to keep going year after year, possible but it’s not easy..

Roses everyone loves but let’s face it when they aren’t in bloom, which is most of th year they are straggly and thorny and not very attractive. Don’t get me wrong I’ve a climbing one up part of th house but they are not very attractive when not in bloom.

I’d focus on dahlias, peony’s, lambs ear, daylillies ans maybe a single rose bush in the middle.

I’d agree with @Bluntness100 roses are ugly when not flowering and lavender is a pain.

If you want a neat low maintenance front garden you could go for bay trees with gravel surrounding them, or you could plant some evergreen shrubs.

Pots in a front garden? Wouldn't last long round here. Even my hanging baskets went so I just plant out now. Primroses, Forsythia, black elderberry and lots of dog rose. Prickles stop the bastard thieves.

Plus random stuff I pick up in trays to make it look pretty. I have a black thumb so I'm always getting new ones for when I kill them off, or DH 'weeds' (sigh)

Erysium Bowles mauve flowers pretty much all year and needs no care.
It does need replacing every two or three years though.

Penstemons are nice, they also flower much of the year and need very little care.
They often self seed (make more plants!) too

Ooh snapdragons too!
If you are in the south they flower may go frost and need zero pruning and come back every year and make loads of babies to boot

This is great thanks for the suggestions.

@Bluntness100 how would I get things like peonies etc - do I have to plant seeds?
I went to the garden centre last year when they all opened up again and I was just overwhelmed so didn’t buy anything

@Babysharkdoodoodood

Love the idea of snapdragons and the other low maintenance options. I have never managed to actually grow anything or even keep a house plant alive.

Oh I have another question too - if I buy / plant anything this week is it too cold - will it all just die so better to wait a few weeks until it gets warmer?

A nice pieris japonica? Pot will need to be largish though and buy a bag of ericaceous compost to put in the pot.

Pots that get all the afternoon sun and are on paving will need loads of watering. Really tonnes.

TBH I’d not bother. I love gardening and gardens but that’d drive me nuts. Do you have someone who can water while you’re on holiday?

Lifting some paving would be a much better option if it’s at all possible.

My mum has a peony from Poundland.
It isn’t the variety she bought, it was labelled as ‘Sarah Bernhardt’ which is a gorgeous heavily ruffled baby pink but what she actually has is a deep neon pink single petalled variety!
She loves it though.
They are dead looking twigs you just plant in the soil and water.
They only flower for a small amount of time though and disappear over winter to pop up again in Spring.

She also has a very healthy and thriving pink Wiegela that was bought from Poundland.
Where it was labelled as a gooseberry! 🤣
Same as the peony, dead looking sticks you plant and water and they magically come to life and grow!

Where are you OP?
I’m in the south and busy planting but if you are up north where it’s colder I wouldn’t plant anything yet unless it’s a hardy perennial plant

Oh. It’s afternoon AND evening sun. Nope. Lifting some paving is the only realistic option TBH.

The fab planting suggestions would look even nicer that way too.

Oh. It’s afternoon AND evening sun. Nope. Lifting some paving is the only realistic option TBH
I disagree.
A sufficiently large pot with drought tolerant plants should do fine imo

I’m just outside London.
Wow I never considered it might be too much sun for pots. I really have no clue.
So basically avoid anything too fragile and get hardy things in large pots is what I’m hearing?

Thanks I really appreciate the advice I am clueless.

I said above no flower beds but there is actually one there but it doesn’t need anything more in it. It was already planted with lovely roses that flower every year without me having to do anything

Sorrry I missed it was in containers.

Honestly some of the suppliers on Amazon are really good. There are plenty of on line suppliers. Normally large nurseries and big names like Thomson and Morgan,

www.amazon.co.uk/s?ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_5&crid=2ZDB3C1K9B9YI&sprefix=Peony%2Caps%2C183&k=peony+plants&tag=mumsnetforu03-21

www.amazon.co.uk/s?ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_10&crid=8TUE4XPQJUOB&sprefix=Dahlia+pla%2Caps%2C178&k=dahlia+plants&tag=mumsnetforu03-21

I’m just outside London
You can plant now then 😊

Wow I never considered it might be too much sun for pots. I really have no clue.
So basically avoid anything too fragile and get hardy things in large pots is what I’m hearing?
Large pot, hardy drought tolerant plants.

Some good examples would be;

• English lavender (this needs to be cut severely in late March.

At the bottom of the plant you’ll find teeny weeny green baby leaves, you need to cut just above these. Do that every year late March and your lavender won’t go too woody and should last for years)

• Snapdragons
• Penstemon
• Roses
• Erysium (Bowles mauve flowers nearly all year)
• Verbena Bonariensis
• Gaura
• Geums
• California lilac (only flowers in spring)
• Achillea (this one needs a severe chop by half or more once a year else it gets raggedy looking imo)

When you first plant you will need to give it some water once a day every day for a week or so.
Don’t go crazy!
I use a 1/2 litre gravy jug to water my new plants.
Then just check everyday and if it’s looking a little wilted give it some water.

Brilliant advice thank you!!

I’ll second what @OwlBasket said, I have lots of pots, from small trees in large pots to summer bedding plant displays and in a hot position they do need loads of water.

Why don’t you start by getting 2 medium sized pots for one either side of the path, buy one bag of multipurpose compost, then chose a small selection of annual plants, they are the brightly coloured ones that will be everywhere over the next couple of months. Put 4 or 5 small plants in each. It’s then not a huge commitment to water them every day.

Plants you can try are:
Petunia,
Petunia surfinia, these are great they really bush out and trail over the edge and look spectacular
Geraniums, put this in the middle
Fuchsia,
Busy lizzy
Lobelia, these trail so on the edge

If you go to the garden centre now they have them as babies, ours are 8 plants for £8 and all have pretty pictures next to them so you can chose what you like.

Don’t put them outside just yet, it’s a bit too early and the frost might get them.

If you get fuchsia or geraniums and can keep them out of the frost they might come back next year too. B

I’ll second what @OwlBasket said, I have lots of pots, from small trees in large pots to summer bedding plant displays and in a hot position they do need loads of water
Ah but billy summer bedding isn’t drought tolerant!

This list you’ve suggested for example:

Petunia
Petunia surfinia, these are great they really bush out and trail over the edge and look spectacular
Geraniums, put this in the middle
Fuchsia
Busy lizzy
Lobelia, these trail so on the edge

Most of these are not at all drought tolerant.
Even in the ground, in my garden, which is very sunny over most of it, unless placed under the tree by my house (the shadiest spot) they would probably die in the summer unless I watered them daily!

Hardy geraniums though would be another good option for OP, as would fuchsia.

If you get fuchsia or geraniums and can keep them out of the frost they might come back next year too. B