Top of the Pots

Decorate your outdoor living room with pots - they’re blooming marvellous. Whether you prefer a burst of colour, or an oasis of calm greenery, here’s what the designer pot is wearing this year...

Topiary is small and beautifully formed, it’s cut out for success.

Buy a ready-shaped box tree (buxus sempervirens) from the garden centre and keep it neat with a twice yearly prune with the kitchen scissors. Cactus - give these prickly houseplants a treat and bring them outside for the summer. Position them in the sunniest hot-spot against a painted wall to show off their wacky shapes.

Veg out - yes really!

This year’s must-have designer plant is the ornamental cabbage (don’t try eating it!). With a pastel coloured heart and frill of dark green outer leaves, who needs flowers? Pretty maids all in a row : pinch a designer trick and stick to just one flower repeating over and over - it always looks stunning, especially if you echo the colour by painting the pots.
 

Good enough to eat

Herbs thrive in sunny spots, so position them where you can enjoy their perfume and grab a handful to add to your cooking. Plant up a large pot with the frilly green foliage of cut-and-come again parsley, a variegated thyme to spill over the edge and spiky chives which are topped with lilac pom-pom flowers.

For something bigger and more permanent, try a rosemary bush with its all year round soft grey-green foliage or how about a stately bay tree - or even a pair to stand guard either side of the door?
Make your herb pots colourful by painting them.

Think big

You don't need many architectural plants to make a really big impact: give a host a shady spot and keep the soil damp for huge leathery leaves and tall flower spikes; Fatsia Japonica (the castor oil plant) has huge shiny leaves up to 30cm across and can grow up to 10ft tall, but keeping it in a pot will slow its growth; or try ornamental grasses, ferns, palms or bamboo - all easy-going plants that create an instant exotic look.

Up, up and away

Don't forget the walls - grow annuals like the sweet pea (keep picking the flowers to encourage more to grow); nasturtiums for their hot orange and yellow flowers; and Ipomea (morning glory) with blue trumpet shaped flowers than will grow 2m or more on a sunny wall.

Top Tips for Pots

Terracotta pots look the business but the soil dries out quickly, so line them with plastic to conserve moisture. 
To reduce watering, add some moisture-retaining granules when potting up. These swell and hold moisture. 
Feed plants once a week throughout the summer with a liquid feed or add slow-release fertiliser when planting up. Always line the base of containers with old crocks for drainage. 
In large pots, use broken polystyrene as a lightweight alternative to stones.

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