Potted plants for front of house

[Wallasey123]

we recently moved into our new house and are fortunate enough to have a driveway, but the front of the house is completely bare and I really want to add some greenery in the form of couple of big potted plants by the door.

In our old house, we had a lovely olive tree, but within a year it got some horrible mold on it so I’m a bit traumatized by that, are there any big potted plants that anyone would recommend that look beautiful and also are easy to maintain?

something like the attached image perhaps but taller? Thank you!

Which direction does your front face and how much sun does it get?

South west. Sun in the morning and most of the day I’d say

If you get two the same then it can look very balanced but be aware that they may grown at different speeds etc.

Anyway standard bay or clipped cone bay tree. - bit dull but classic and generally easy and you can use the leaves.

Holly standards with berries- the birds will eat the berries but will look lovely till they do.
Pittisporum - my favourite - very easy.
Lavender if you are getting lots of sun - but it looks a bit meh in winter.

Or have a kojo no mai standard on one side and the other have a tub that you change out with bulbs for the spring, summer bedding etc.

Oh the Pittisporum looks lovely and a bit different to bay tree, adding to the garden centre list.

We have lavender in the garden which I love but agree looks awful in winter.

Would roses be a bit mad? I keep getting targeted by David Austin ads and they just look divine but not really sure I can maintain if they’re too much faff

I love a lollipop shaped bay at rather side of the front door

Euonymus looks good all year round and puts up with anything.

Not all roses are suited to pot-life. As a generalisation the smaller the rose (miniatures etc), the better it does.
If you were traumatised by mould to your olive then I'm not sure that roses - with their oodles of ailments - are for you!
Roses aren't impressive in the dormant season.

How abour skimmia japonica, viburnum tinus, conifers, yew, box (if not in an area with box-moth).
Don't have floppy things (phormium, ferns, etc), which will deposit rain on you when you brush past them.
Think about the pot, and the relationship to the plant - don't have things which will catch the wind and be blown over.

The photo looks like euonymus to me. There are a few different colours/variegated forms, emerald and gold is a nice cheerful one that’s a good doer. But there’s also varieties with smaller leaves which I’ve seen in some gardens being used as a replacement for box. They can take hard pruning and clipping I think.

My other favourite for a pot is pieris - such lovely colours in spring, but nice all year.
The thing about pots is that if you want to you can change them seasonally. I’ve got a sweet box which goes by the front door when it’s flowering in late winter/early spring, for its wonderful scent.

As one of the jungle gardeners on here, I feel compelled to say that with a SW garden, you have lots of choices of hardy and semi hardy tropical plants that will thrive in pots. Palm trees like trachycarpus fortuneii and chamaerops humilis are very hardy, and they usually have them at B&Q, Home Bargains and such like.

If you are willing and able to store your pots in a shed over winter, you can also consider:

• bananas (Musa basjoo), a good option for fabulous foliage and amazing growth from April to November.
• Cannas also thrive in large, sunny pots as long as they are kept well watered. I had potted cannas well over 3m tall this year.
• Alocasia and Colocasia also have the most amazing foliage, and you can grow Colocasia for nearly free from supermarket edible corms.
• Brugmansia (Angel’s trumpets) will grow from a plug plant to a six foot tree covered in very fragrant flowers until the first frost, and may be hardy depending where you are in the country.
• Even houseplants like monstera will be very happy outside from May to October.

I do realise that not everyone likes tropical plants ☺️. I also have box trees that have miraculously not been affected by blight or caterpillars. And pelargoniums in terracotta pots look amazing anywhere. There are also many ferns that are happy in sunny locations and will look gorgeous even in winter.

The biggest challenge of pots in a SW location is watering. You really need to water most plants every day from May to the end of August. The bigger the pot, or woodier the plant, the less watering needed.