Outdoor plant in pot that I can buy now and will be ok to leave outdoors?

[Tumty]

I don’t know much about these things. I have a friend who enjoys tinkering in her garden and enjoys her plants in pots. I would like to buy her a gift. But is this an ok time of year for an outdoor plant? Any suggestions what would work? Off to garden centre soon

So it's worth having a quick think about whether or not her garden is sunny or shady, or if there are areas of both?

Then you probably want either a shrub (stays growing every year) or a perennial (might die in the winter but will regrow every summer). I would suggest you probably want a small shrub.

Then have a think about if you want something evergreen (leaves all year) or whether losing leaves in winter is okay? And if she has any sort of colour scheme?

Then armed with that information you could ask at the garden centre and they are likely to be able to suggest something - some plants like shade, some like sun etc.

I always like a Philadelphus (mock orange) because it smells nice and has pretty spring blossom, or roses for the smell in the summer, but both lose their leaves in Autumn and both can get quite big. I think you can get types of rose that are happy in pots but you'd need a particular variety.

An alternative would be to make up your own pot with some bedding plants for autumn/winter (pansies?) and some bulbs that will come up through them in spring (dafs/tulips etc). That won't really last more than a season but it will be lovely for the next 7-8 months.

Perfect. Thanks for the ideas. Garden is mostly shade in winter. But actually she leaves little pots on front doorstep sometimes and I think she likes little pansies in them. Style of garden is so relaxed cottage garden

Front doorstep in south facing and sunny so maybe that’s better