Start your own mini garden design project this year with a colourful patio full of vibrant spring blooms. Mix and match nature's own foliage and flower palates with chic containers, from metallic materials to traditional glazed and terracotta styles
Flower power
For flowers that show off all the way through spring, and to get value for money, choose Senetti with its bushy foliage and daisy-like blooms. Senetti Deep Blue or Salmon (a pale mauve colour) looks serene in a terracotta pot and will enliven any patio.
Materials:
- Quality potting compost, like John Innes number 2, which is easy to find in garden centres and is ideal for general potting;
- broken plant pots (crocks) or polystyrene (from old, torn up plant trays) for drainage; 1 x 6 litre pot Senetti (approx. £9.99 per 6 litre pot), 1 terracotta pot. We like Crocus' terracotta Elizabethan baskets (£39.99)
- and Terra Tanagara squares (£52) from Bright Green.
Step by step:
- Water your pot of Senetti thoroughly before planting.
- Fill the base of a large terracotta pot with broken crocks or pieces of polystyrene and fill with compost, leaving enough space for your pot (for most pots this will be about three-quarters full).
- Plant and firm down your Senetti and leave your container in a sunny or partially shaded patio. Remove faded flower heads to encourage flowering and water as and when required. Senetti will also love a sunny border, so plant out once you have enjoyed your pots.
Perfect pansies
No spring or early summer container is complete without the essential annual (one-year life cycle) flower, the pansy or Viola. Bulk buy your cheap and cheerful pansies in polystyrene strips, available from DIY stores or in small pots.
Mix with some trailing foliage in a trough container or window box to bring out their pretty purples and pink hues. Plant pansies alongside Helichrysum 'Goring silver' with its contrasting dusty grey leaves.
Ivy (Hedera) is also the perfect pansy partner, especially variegated (two-tone) Hedera Colchica 'Dentata Variegata', Persian Ivy. Vary your pot by adding some miniature pansies, widely available in nurseries and garden centres.
Materials:
Quality potting compost, 4 x 1 litre pots of pansies (approx. £1.99 for a one-litre pot), 3 small pots of Helichrysum 'Goring silver' (approx. £1.99 for a small pot), plant fertiliser, 1 x trough container. The Citrus trough from Crocus (£54.99) comes in a range of dimensions and is light weight and frost proof, or for value try Argos' wooden trough planter (£9.74).
Step by step:
- Water your pansies well before planting. Fill the bottom of your pot with crocks and top up with compost.
- Plant pansies along the centre of your container in a hole the same depth as the pot and water in well. Add your trailing plant to the outer edges of the pot.
- Dead head (pinch off) wilting pansy flowers to encourage blooms. Your pansies will stay with you until it gets warm as they prefer cool conditions. Feed Helichrysum weekly with fertiliser in the summer.
Prim and proper pots
Pots of purple and yellow flowers will cheer up any outdoor space. The heads of Muscari latifolium - two-tone grape hyacinths - provide smudges of blue colour in April and May. Buy them ready-potted or plant as bulbs in advance in September. Then go for it with yellow! The yellow tubular flowers of Primula veris, or cowslip, with will glow from early to late spring.
Materials:
Quality potting compost, 1 x 1 litre pot Muscari two-tone (approx £2.99 per pot), three small pots Primula veris (approx. £1.99 for a one-litre pot). For a prim and proper patio we like old fashioned glazed pots, like this set of three sage green glazed pots from Crocus (£39.99).
Step by step:
- Water plants well before planting. As before, add crocks for drainage to the base of your pot and fill with compost, leaving room for your plants.
- Plant your Muscari in the centre and evenly space Primula veris around the edges. Water well until the Primula veris plants are established.
A leaf encounter
Spring and early summer colour needn't come in flowering blooms. Foliage can be eye-catching in pots, especially with contrasting colours. Plum-coloured leaves look great against bright limes. For a long-lasting pot, which can be added later to your border for excellent ground cover, go for the hardy shrub Heuchera.
Pick light and bright Heuchera 'Lime Rickey', which blossoms with white flowers in late spring, and pair it with maroon Heuchera 'Licorice', 'Creme brulee' or 'Plum Pudding' for the perfect lime and purple combo.
If you are feeling daring go for splashes of yellow colour with narcissi (daffodils) in early spring. Heuchera's showy, ruffled leaves look great against contemporary metallic or black containers.
Materials:
Multi-purpose compost, 1 litre pot of lime and maroon Heuchera varieties (approx £6.99 per post), one large metallic container. We like this pair of zinc tone containers from www.greenfingers.com (£19.99) and this black sanctuary pot from Homebase (£29.99).
Step by step:
- Prepare your plants and pots as above.
- Plant your Heuchera and firm in well with the compost level 5cm from the rim of your pot. If you plan to keep it in the pots for more than six months add a small amount of slow release granular feed.
- Place your Heuchera pots in a sunny, or partially shady place for them to thrive.