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Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

Patio pot plant help please!

11 replies

CherryogDog · 14/04/2025 08:54

This is very long, thanks to anyone who takes the time to read it and give me some advice.
I've got a North facing walled patio, half of it is full sun and the rest part shaded.
So many questions lol!
Apart from an ivy, everything else I've bought and planted.
In the full sun side I've got a honeysuckle in a large pot that only flowers every other year, with only a handful of flowers. I cut it back as much as possible three years ago, sort of kill or cure, it's now got plenty of leaf, and a few buds. I found an old photo of it the first year I'd planted and it was absolutely covered in flowers, how can I encourage it to flower more?

Also a clematis which has grown tall and spindly, and produces 3/4 beautiful flowers every year, how can I encourage it to be fuller? Should I put it in a shadier area?
A star Jasmine, flowers every year but all the leaves are red.
Two hot lips fuchsias, which flower well but are a bit woody.
I've tried very unsuccessfully to have hanging baskets, I love fuchsias but they all turn very woody and then die.
How do you water them? IE I pot up with small stones in the bottom, bagged compost, then the plugs. And when I water them it drains out of the bottom.
My DP said to line the pot with plastic bag, but then they drowned in the rain.
My pansies and violas survive my awful management, even got them popping up through the cracks in the patio, despite the disinfectant I slosh about (it's where the dogs toilet).
I'd love some ideas of low maintenance plants for both sides, I've a preference for blues, whites and purples. Love lobelia, but it never regrows in the 2nd year.
I'd like to plant some bulbs, but don't know what other plants would survive in the same pot.
I love mallows, is there a variety that would grow in a pot?
Do I need a greenhouse to over winter my pots?
My garden has some beautiful plants which survive with no interference, a huge honeysuckle, roses, camellias, mallow.

OP posts:
Nannyfannybanny · 14/04/2025 13:16

Haha
I think you might have been at the end of the queue when they gave the green fingers out
. My back garden is NE facing, but it's 200ft and a detached bungalow so always sun somewhere
. honeysuckle will go woody not producing many flowers if not correctly pruned,do you know the variety? I do a lot of growing in pots, mainly because we're on clay.. jasmine prefer sun

Do you keep the fuchsias over winter? Mine go in a greenhouse,cut back in spring, not too woody. Hanging baskets,yup, I line with the plastic compost bags, and punch a few holes in them,it's trial and error. I've tried water retainers,gel, granules,fancy compost, plant saucers...all hopeless! We live in the mildest SE UK corner,10 minutes away from the sea and Downs,get very little rain . We "need" a greenhouse,we have 4 now. We overwinter citrus bananas, a lot of tender plants. I have managed without a greenhouse occasionally,porch, garage, even spare bedroom.acers in pots like shade, acidic compost,you can move them around.mine came from Aldi and Lidl,great value . Are you feeding these plants? We like chicken manure pellets or tomato feed. I don't mix bulbs and plants,you have to leave the bulb foliage, and it looks messy
The pots are then hidden away behind a greenhouse and fed
Hope this helps.

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Nannyfannybanny · 14/04/2025 13:17

Oh,mallow Barnsley Baby is small enough for a pot.

Beebopwasthebest · 14/04/2025 14:01

Hostas do well in pots in the shade?

I am very mean to my fuschia bushes. They getv30 cut off before winter and another 30-40% at the end of March

AlwaysGardening · 14/04/2025 16:38

If your plants in pots aren’t doing well I expect they need feeding. There’s enough nutrients in compost for about 4-6 weeks. I use a weekly liquid seaweed feed but a controlled release feed such as Osmocote is a longer term feed. Tomato feed is good for encouraging flowering but I think you need to get your planting into growth first. Clematis and Honeysuckle like their roots in the shade and heads in the sun. Which Clematis have you got?
To my knowledge there isn’t a Hot Lips Fuchsia but there is a Salvia.
Plug plants need potting up into small pots and gradually potting on into bigger pots. No need for stones in the bottom.

CherryogDog · 14/04/2025 16:42

@Nannyfannybanny I definitely don't have green fingers where pots are involved, but at my last house I had lovely flower beds.
I've had success growing tomatoes from tom slices.
I have no idea what honeysuckle variety I've got, (unless from Asda counts 😁).
I've got some tomato feed, and thanks for the suggestion of the Barnsley Baby!
@Beebopwasthebest hostas are a great suggestion, I've had those before.
And re the fuchsia trimming.

OP posts:
CherryogDog · 14/04/2025 16:48

@AlwaysGardening , you're right, it is hot lips salvia, I don't know why I thought it was a fuchsia.
I don't know the clematis variety, has huge pink flowers when it blooms.
And I'll move the pot into the shadier bit, thanks for the tip.
I can't move the honeysuckle, the pot is huge and it's very attached to the trellis. But I do have the top of the pot covered in pebbles because one of my dogs kept burying his bones in it, so hopefully that keeps it a bit cooler....

OP posts:
ElizaMulvil · 14/04/2025 17:11

Maybe rotate your plants so some are not always in shade? Few plants will flourish in shade.

Check the weight of your plants in pots regularly ( every few days ). If they're light they need watering. If they still seem light the water has just run through the pot. You need to leave them standing in water for an hour or two at least, (but not leaving them to drown for days! They will rot.)

Fuchsias often die down in winter but should revive, having cut off the dead stalks and added water and feed in Spring.

Plants in pots soon run out of nutrients. Give them fertiliser at least twice in spring and summer and/ or repot into a bigger one ( with fertiliser) as they grow.

I think lobelia are only annuals? You need to buy new each year.

I find red geraniums especially, react well to neglect, (forgetting to water etc) but they do like sun.( You bring them inside and trim them Octoberish or even just stick them near the house if you're in the South of England eg. Then just ignore them until Mayish. In France they just take them up, shake off the soil, wrap them in paper and stick them somewhere frost free until Spring when they plant them up again!

Tete a tete miniature daffodils are reasonably tough, flower March/April and do well in pots.( As long as you remember to water!)

CherryogDog · 14/04/2025 17:40

I don't currently have anything on the shady side, it's not full shade, just doesn't get the sun until about 1pm.
Tete-a-tete daffs, now I know what they're called, definitely on my shopping list.

OP posts:
Koulibiak · 14/04/2025 22:34

How big are the containers that you have these plants in? And when did you last repot them and changed the soil? Could they be root bound?

Clematis have specific pruning needs (known as pruning groups) - some grow flowers on new growth, some on old growth. You need to identify which type you have so you know whether and when to cut it back.

Lobelias are tender annuals, they die at the first frosts and you need to replace them every year, they also need a lot of water or they dry out.

Fuchsias in pots are a bit hit and miss in my experience. I’m still trying to get some going though! Maybe I will crack them this year …

There are lots of white, blue and purple bulbs - alliums if you have deep pots, snow drops, tulips, Iris reticulata, Iris siberica, muscaris, crocuses, hyacinths, lily of the valley (heavenly scent).

You can also get white geraniums if you don’t want red ones.

Plants in pots require a lot more water and feeding than in open ground. I doubt that lining your hanging baskets with plastic would cause the plants to drown. They need watering practically every day in summer. Maybe try some petunias, bacopa, begonias or impatiens.

Koulibiak · 14/04/2025 22:36

If your garden is in the sun from 1pm onwards, I would count that as part sun - so look for plants that are good for these conditions.

CherryogDog · 15/04/2025 04:58

@Koulibiak as I said in my OP, it's roughly 50/50 full and part shade.
Thanks for the info about the clematis, it is a variety that grows on old growth. It's in the part of the patio which is in full sun.
The pots are the really big ceramic tubs, I'll measure later. I'll look into repotting.

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