Suggestions for nice plants for containers.......

[sammysam]

I've no idea what i'm talking about-you might be able to tell but i'd like some nice plants we could have in pots on our patio. Ones that last forever (ie not one year only!)

I'd like an acer as my grandad loved them and we planted one in the graveyard....

What else grows well in a container?
We have shade and sun on different areas of the patio.

All ideas very welcome!

If you have a big enough container, most things!

Acer's can be very good, as long as you go for one of the slow growing ones.

Azaleas, camelias, witch hazel, roses, tree ferns, hardy fuchsias, clematis, fruit bushes, hostas....

It could be a very long list! As long as you're prepared to provide enough water and can keep topping up the nutrients (maybe change some of the compost every year or two and a bit of fertiliser) you can grow most things in pots. It could be worth trying to pin down what type of thing you're after (flowers, autumn colour, evergreen, broadleaf or coniferous, herbaceous or shrubby) and how big a container/containers you want to use, how much you want to spend now and how big you want things to get. That may (or may not ) help you work out what you want to buy

I have a rose in a very large pot to grow up a wall (that has no soil near it), and also a clematis. I also have a phlox which looks nice when in flower. You can get patio roses. What about veg - allsorts can grow in pots. i also have tomatoes in a hanging basket. I have sowed ladybird poppy seeds in another. Pansies look pretty. maybe a lavender, but I haven't tried.

Ive had one of these chaps in a pot for about 5 years it's very happy healthy gorgeous and huge!

Thank you!

I think i'd like a mixture of things really!
I have an olive tree that i LOVE.
Maybe something that flowers? I like very simple flowers, love daisys etc. Something with a scent would be nice as well.

We have a small veggie patch at the bottom of the garden.

Is there anything that really likes being in a pot? Or really is it a case of most things are ok? I always had it in my head that most plants would not like being in a pot....

How much room is needed?

I'm so fed up with our garden being so bare. We weren't planning on being here for long so dp convinced me not to spend much on the garden.....now we're stuck here for at least another 2yrs so I wish I hadn't listened!!! At least if we get plants in pots we can take them with us.....I get quite attached to plants! (though I don't have a clue what i'm doing!!!)

Most plants will do OK being in a pot as long as you tailor the pot to the plants - in a way you can do MORE with containers as you aren't tied to your alkaline, clayey soil (or whatever it happens to be) and can vary conditions on a pot by pot basis. Given you plan to move you can also consider the pot as a temporary home, and stick it in the ground when you do get round to moving - which could save a lot of grief in trying to find progressively larger pots for some specimens. Remembering to add enough water on a daily basis is likely to be the biggest challenge.

(I've had a flowering cherry on dwarf root stock in a pot for about 6 years that still seems pretty happy, and some helebores that are going strong. On the other hand I used to have an hibiscus in a pot that did get a bit fed up, but then hibiscus tend to have a pretty shallow, wide root system and are VERY hungry - if I'd fed it more it might have been happier... - it's now in the ground and looks a lot perkier)

If you want to stick things in the ground and not spend a fortune you can get some really good plants from places like B&Q for a budget price - I think they do trays of 6 shrubs for not very much. You might need to be a bit aware of the health of what you're buying (not dry as a bone and with roots that look healthy), but that can be a very cost effective way to get something in a garden. Another bargain for fairly quick effect is a clematis montana (shop around an you'll find one for about £3) - make it a nice home now and it will have covered a few square metres of fence by next spring and will then be drenched in simple four-petal flowers in either pink or white (that one could be worth sticking in a pot near the fence and moving it - they often tolerate being cut back hard after flowering quite well).

If you want something with simple flowers with scent, you could have a look at the mock orange (philadelphus) and mexican orange blossom (choisya), the later has just flowered and the former will be flowering soon - both with simple white flowers with an orangey scent.

You might want to use some annuals to get some cheap quick colour for the next couple of years - plants that are mature enough to look good by themselves in a container tend to be quite pricey...

Wow thanks tangle! Will have to make some notes to take with me when I go!

Your welcome

Only other thing that crossed my mind is that I'd go for soil based compost for shrubs in pots - things like John Innes No 3. It's heavier than a lot of peat based composts (less likely to blow over) and has better water retaining and re-wetting properties.

Have fun