container gardening in small spaces
Make the most of your space, whether it’s big or small, and jam pack your pots with bold, brilliant and long lasting varieties
Sarah's golden rule for abundant pots:
THRILLER Phlox paniculata ‘Blue Paradise’
The thriller in your combination should be really eye-catching. Whether it's colour, shape or scale, this component should be a real showstopper. This beautiful blue-lilac phlox has incredible colour and scent, which attracts lots of pollinators.
FILLER Phlox paniculata ‘Blue Paradise’
This should be a bushy variety that is dense with either flowers or foliage (or both!) to ensure that your pot is an abundance of texture. This is the best violet-blue perennial
geranium and flowers for months at a stretch.
PILLAR Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’
Add some height to your combination with a spire-like variety. This tall salvia is one of the earliest varieties which produces some of the longest spikes to add minarets to your pot
TOM’S TOP TIP FOR POTS: I use perennials in pots to create ‘mini herbaceous borders’ and provide pops of colour. After a couple of years, they fill their pot space, so I then plant them into my borders and start the pot over again
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our favourites for this season
a return to Tom's town garden
Tom Stimpson is our Head of Horticulture and he has a beautiful garden — small, exquisite and perfectly formed! Together, Sarah and Tom have curated an array of bold and brilliant plant and bulb collections for small gardens
SARAH: Tom’s garden is full of pots, large terracotta containers standing on the paths and in the borders, as well as tons of smaller pots lining the path edges and lifted on to metal tables. And he uses plant theatres — which enable you to cram so much more in.
For February, he has pots of mini iris (reticulatas) and crocus. Then from early March he uses narcissus and pot toppers to start flowering even earlier, producing winterflowering pansies. Then he moves to having lots of tulips, chosen carefully to give flowers and colour all the way through spring.
TOM: Bulb planting in autumn is something I look forward to doing every year because I know the garden will be transformed with colour the following spring.
In early October, I begin to plant the smaller, table-top pots with iris, crocus and muscari and then towards the end of October the focus shifts to narcissi. The delicate and softly coloured varieties which have a wonderful fragrance are favourites; a few will come inside when they begin to flower in spring.
Once November arrives, it’s all about tulips! Larger pots are used for these, and I plant (in lasagne layers) quite heavily for maximum flowers and impact. I couldn’t imagine spring without tulips — absolutely one of my favourite blooms for colour, visual impact and for cutting.
a few of Tom's new favourites for this season...
spotlight on: pot toppers
There are various systems you will find suggested to keep grey squirrels from eating your bulbs as soon as you’ve planted them, and over the last 15 years we’ve trialled and tested all we know of.
Without doubt, either 1. Using a pot topper to disguise the bulbs planted beneath OR 2. Creating grid of something super-spikey
like rose prunings over the pot or border surface, are our 100% guaranteed method for the last five years.
Follow our step by step with Tom to find out more...
Tom plants up a bulb lasagne and to protect his bulbs here are our two best solutions
OPTION 1 Plant your pot topper. We suggest either violas or wallflowers. Tom has chosen Wallflower ‘Vulcan’
OPTION 2 Create a grid from rose prunings (as above) which forms a protective barrier
our favourite pot toppers
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set the stage for your pots
Introduce plant stands and tables to your outdoor space and create a multi-layered display that’s jam-packed with stylish pots that burst with flowers and scent. A simple solution that can be spectacular
spring flowering bulbs & Scalloped Metal Table
Plant Stand Bulb Collection & Plant Theatre
