Advice
RHS Help & Advice
Planting up winter containers
There are plenty of plants available to provide colour, interest and freshness for containers over the winter. Whether you want to brighten up rooms with window boxes, keep permanent tubs looking good between the autumn and the spring, or brighten up an otherwise quiescent winter garden, containers are a high-impact choice.
Planting
Start by placing crocks or broken pieces of polystyrene over the drainage hole at the bottom of the pot to prevent it becoming blocked by wet compost and debris. Good drainage is essential in winter containers.
Choose a pot with the appropriate shape, proportions and size for the plants chosen. This can be a matter of taste, but taller plants often look better in taller pots, and low, spreading plants look better in more shallow pots. Trailing plants need a taller pot to hang down from.
Fill up the pot with a free-draining compost. Make sure to leave enough room for the rootballs of the plants to be added, and leave a 2.5cm (1in) gap below the rim of the pot to allow space for watering. A John Innes No 2 compost is best, as these loam-based composts give easier plant management. John Innes Ericaceous will be necessary for lime-hating plants such as Rhododendron, Skimmia, Gaultheria, Camellia and Erica (winter-flowering heathers).
Plant the larger, centre piece plants first. By positioning the plant (still in its plastic pot) inside the container, you can adjust the level of the compost as appropriate so that the final position will be level with the edge of the pot.
If the plant does not fall easily out of its plastic pot, then squeezing it against the rim of your chosen container may help to dislodge it (right).
Make sure to tease out the roots from the edges of the rootball before planting. This will encourage the roots to grow out into the new compost in the container.
Next, plant the smaller, surrounding plants. Positioning these on the surface of the compost, still in their pots (right), will enable you to get the arrangement as you like it, before planting them.
The edges of the pot and the leaves of the plants can be cleaned up with a small paintbrush. This will remove any scattered compost and put the finishing touches to the display.
Mulching
Finally, water in your new plantings. Watering will settle the compost around the plant roots. The compost should be wet thoroughly (until water runs out the bottom of the pot), and then left to drain. Maintenance watering is only necessary when the compost becomes just moist at a hand’s depth.
Extra tips
Take care not to plant deeper than the plant was originally planted in its plastic pot. Deep planting (with a few rare exceptions like Clematis), can lead to plants rotting off and failing to establish or thrive.
Small gaps between plants can often be filled using trailing ivy, which adds a downwards dimension to the scheme.
Don’t think you have to stick to bedding plants such as winter pansies. Perennial grasses and slow-growing evergreen shrubs such as Sarcococca and Myrtus (myrtle) can make attractive, sometimes scented, low-maintenance additions to a container planting scheme.
Here's one I did previously...!
Here are a few examples of the type of styles it is possible to achieve.
In the arrangements below you can see heathers, Cyclamen, grasses, Heuchera, ferns and Euphorbia, as well as more commonly used plants such as Skimmia, Gaultheria and Phormium.
With thanks to the Wisley Plant Centre for the examples of planted containers available for sale in the plantarea.
Maya Albert