Shrub help please

[Diorinthecountry]

I am looking to buy shrubs/plants that I can put in planters in my garden and will last all year round. Does such a thing exist?

I am thinking along the lines of the little dwarf trees are they called shrubs?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am a complete and to gardening.

How big are the planters?

You can grow pretty much all plants in planters, provided they are of an appropriate size.

Where are the planters going to be? Full sun or shade? How much watering are you willing to do?

I've not bought any planters yet. Still on the lookout for them.

Willing to do any amount of watering

The area has shade in the morning and sun in the afternoon.

I don't know of anything which flowers all year round but we have rhododendron and azaleas in the ground (our neighbour has them in pots). They are evergreen with flowers from spring through into summer- the bees love them. You can get dwarf and slow growing varieties so you won't have to keep repotting, but you will need to refresh the compost every 2 years and feed them.

Thank you very much. I will look at those types. Not overly fussed if they flower all year round more that they are nice to look at. Bees like my garden and I like watching them so happy to plant more bee friendly.

Recently I have become a fan of bamboo in pots. Bought from these guys. Bamboo is evergreen, manageable if in a pot, hardly down to minus 20 and big impact for low cost.

https://www.charellagardens.co.uk/bamboo-plants/

Thank you, will take a look at these.

If I were you, I would go to the garden centre once a month or once every couple of months and choose a shrub that you think looks pretty at the time. Then you will have something nice to look at each month.

I would definitely choose a largish Acer, you can get some which will give you beautiful pink foliage in spring and lovely colour in autumn. Viburnums are also great. Lots of flowers which insects love and easy to look after. Maybe a smoke bush (coggeria) they have lovely colour too. Depends what you like really? There a lots of trees which are quite small. And a rose. You can never have too many roses. If you look on the David Austin website there is a list of ones which do well in pots.

I think the op wants evergreen.

RHS guides are really good. They list plants by all sorts of criteria, such as whether they're evergreen, height & spread they achieve, soil and position they prefer etc.

I'd invest in a secondhand copy so you can look up the suggestions here and browse for ideas generally.

This is the the shrub-specific guide:-

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Flowering-Shrubs-Practicals-Horticultural-Society/dp/0751348597/ref=mpssa111?crid=1D8O9XXRTAQZ5&keywords=rhs+shrubs&qid=1686557762&sprefix=rhs+sh%2Caps%2C83&sr=8-1

Choisya is evergreen in my garden and good for brightening up a border. I would take my time picking too but look out for plants with different heights and different shapes for interest.
Planter doesn't have to be just one plant, I would probably try to add some trailing plants to give more interest.

I would but in a combination of heathers, spring summer and winter flowering will give you all round interest. Just use ericaeus compost ant they take care of themselves. If you buy tall planters then trailing ivy will add a it more interest

When you say last all year round, do you mean you want it to have leaves all year round, or just to stay in a pot and last from year to year?

If the former, you want an evergreen. The most obvious for pots are bay trees (can be clipped to all sorts of shapes) and as per a pp, rhododendrons. You can have camellias too, some flower in winter and choysias, which are sometimes evergreen and have lovely smelling flowers.

If you are happy to have something which loses its leaves in winter, you can still have things that are attractive all year round. In summer they would be due to their foliage, which might have some lovely autumn colour too, and in winter due to their shape or their bark. Acers are an example of that. No flowers to speak of, but the foliage changes colour through the seasons in a very attractive way. You could also have any number of flowering shrubs.

You need to narrow down what you want a bit (size?), there really is a whole load of choice.

@Geneticsbunny thanks will look into all your help. I already have a rose bush but unfit the leaves keep getting black spots.

Thanks @JeandeServiette will read through RHS

@Gymgoingfool think it is evergreens.

@Dox9 thank you for those great suggestions. I never thought about different heights, trailing plants.

Thanks @florentina1 I do like Heather.

@CatherinedeBourgh ideally I would like it to last from year to year. I think winter can be bleak so would like something nice in my garden to look at.

I personally find that many evergreens don't brighten things up in winter, tbh. They are kind of the same all year round, so fade into the background rather than being something nice to look at.

I would focus for that on either something that flowers in winter, like a camellia, or a witch hazel, or something which has an interesting bark, like dogwoods (cornus sanguinea) or japanese maples.

I have just bought Abelia ‘Kaleidoscope, to go in a sunny raised bed. It is semi-evergreen, with variegated foliage which should turn a fiery red in Autumn, and produces small fragrant white flowers from summer onwards. Not a big grower, but attractive for most of the year.

I have a spiraea which is evergreen and doing very well in a pot.
I've also established a hidden area of the garden which still receives plenty of light but is screened away. Here I keep my 'seasonal' pots, such as daffodils, azaleas, etc which look stunning when in bloom but quite dismal once the flowers have faded. I bring them out as they get ready to bloom and stow them away once faded. I started doing this as I have a big squirrel problem (not just one oversized squirrel, but hundreds of smaller ones).

I have lots of planters in the courtyard area of my garden and try most things with success. Fatsia Monstera, Verbina ( several varieties), Peiris which are evergreen and fabulously pink new growth in the spring, all grow well. As others have mentioned bamboo, rhododendrons, azaleas, roses, clematis and other climbers also do well. As long as you provide the right compost, feed them and ensure enough water they should be fine.

Heucheras come in different colours and stay that way all year round so it might be worth looking at those

Lavender is a possibility too.

Depending on where the pot goes, if it can go somewhere that you can fit a trellis you could do an evergreen honeysuckle

I went overboard with evergreens and it made my garden look a bit gloomy. But I think I've found a few that change colour with season that provide a bit of colour and look fresh. A Japanese Cedar doesn't get very big, it's quite wafty. It doesn't lose its leaves but does change colour. A peris is stunning in the spring when your eyes are looking for any kind of colour - it's new leaves are red that fade to green and it also has lots of lovely white flowers. Finally a bamboo Nandini. Nice compact wee shrub - I have a zingy lemon lime one and a red ish one, both are doing well in pots.

Thanks everyone. Lots of great advice and plants to read up on.