If you want to have seasonal planting rather than a single plant, the best method is to have some plastic pots which will fit inside those nice ones. You'll need double the amount of the nice pots [or three times] to make it easier to manage. You then plant those up and swap them round with the seasons. Bulbs for spring, some perennials or annuals for summer, and then something evergreen for winter, is the easiest way. You can often combine bulbs and perennials rather than doing those separately, but it just depends on what time you have for maintaining them, and what choices you make.
I do that regularly. I have a few nicer pots, and I just swap an insert depending on what I have and how I want to position them.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I’m always banging on about my fave plant @theno2soco so I would think about erigeron in all the pots. Not exactly evergreen but flowers for months and months. Soooo pretty👍
@Fairygirl, am I right you don't remove the plants from the pot. Instead you store the previous season pot and replace it with another? We don't have enough storage place to have two or three times the number of pots each with growing plants. Seems I cannot do that then.
If you don't have anywhere to tuck the pots when they aren't 'on display', then you'll have to accept that you'd need to keep changing the plants in the good pots.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
You could have bulbs and annuals together, to do late winter/early spring and through summer [annuals can usually go on top of bulbs fairly easily] and when the annuals are done, remove those [they'd be composted or binned] and plant something evergreen to have a display over winter. The bulbs will come through until the winter planting gets too big for them to get through. When that happens, you'd have to lift the winter plants to put in bulbs/annuals, so you'd need somewhere for the winter planting to go, and that's where the difficulty would be if you don't have room to store any extra pots. If you opt for one set of pots with bulbs and annuals/perennials together, and one set with a winter planting, it would only be three pots you'd need to have room for to set aside.
If that's still not possible, you'd just have to keep something evergreen permanently planted. They'll need attention on a fairly regular basis to keep them healthy though, depending on what you choose
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
@Fairygirl, I have an external small room in which to store a wheelchair. Would they be ok in a dark room on a shelf for most of the time?
How would I know that the winter planting is too big to allow the bulbs to come through. Would it be best to replace the winter planting every two years and re-plant the bulbs?
It's looking like a plan, if it is then next thing is to determine the best annuals, bulbs and winter planting. Maybe @Rubytoo will chime in
Looking at the borders at the back over the last year it seems they are on a similar plan except for the annuals. I will replace them in the spring.
Differing plant kept coming up in the same place and confusing for me until now. I have named 29 of them as they flowered. I am still tempted to remove everything in the spring except for Iris (2 colours), poppies, clematis (3) and two bushes and start from scratch. I would have some control then and be able easily to refresh the soil which has not been touched for a several years its seems.
I have this list of plants for the seasons to choose from but will need to research the sizes.
Not really - you can store some bulbs in sheds or rooms, but the conditions have to be right. They're far better just potted up and kept somewhere that they won't dry out, or get waterlogged. Eaves of a house or against a wall or similar. Even tucked in among other shrubs. It would depend on the type of bulb too. Some are reliably perennial and others aren't. If you stick to daffs and crocus, for example, that's easier than most tulips, as many of those are not returnees year in year out. The problem of the winter planting getting too big is impossible to judge because it would depend on the plant, and on the size when planted. Something upright, or naturally conical, will cover the bulk of the pot more slowly than something bushy. When you get to the point where the foliage is covering the whole surface of the pot, that's when it would be harder for any bulbs to come through. It depends on the plant though - a dense, rounded evergreen, like many of the Hebes, will block bulb stems/flowers far more than a plant with an airier habit which has more space between branches and stems. It depends how you feel about lifting those plants and replacing them with new ones, and you'd still have to find somewhere else for the plants you take out. It would be easier, and much cheaper, to just do the swapping over with insert pots
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I think annuals would be a good way of doing it. Plant violas and pansies now and they will flower until mid May when you can change them for summer bedding plants. Garden centres will be full of them, you can take your pick and they aren't very expensive. You will need to change some of the compost in autumn and spring, but not always all of it. I use those little fertiliser granules that last 6 months. They will need watering, mostly in summer but they will be pretty and flowery and not too big all year.
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
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You can often combine bulbs and perennials rather than doing those separately, but it just depends on what time you have for maintaining them, and what choices you make.
I do that regularly. I have a few nicer pots, and I just swap an insert depending on what I have and how I want to position them.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
so I would think about erigeron in all the pots. Not exactly evergreen but flowers for months and months. Soooo pretty👍
My abode: Essex, soon to be a desert!
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
My abode: Essex, soon to be a desert!
If you opt for one set of pots with bulbs and annuals/perennials together, and one set with a winter planting, it would only be three pots you'd need to have room for to set aside.
If that's still not possible, you'd just have to keep something evergreen permanently planted. They'll need attention on a fairly regular basis to keep them healthy though, depending on what you choose
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
How would I know that the winter planting is too big to allow the bulbs to come through. Would it be best to replace the winter planting every two years and re-plant the bulbs?
It's looking like a plan, if it is then next thing is to determine the best annuals, bulbs and winter planting. Maybe @Rubytoo will chime in
Looking at the borders at the back over the last year it seems they are on a similar plan except for the annuals. I will replace them in the spring.
Differing plant kept coming up in the same place and confusing for me until now. I have named 29 of them as they flowered. I am still tempted to remove everything in the spring except for Iris (2 colours), poppies, clematis (3) and two bushes and start from scratch. I would have some control then and be able easily to refresh the soil which has not been touched for a several years its seems.
I have this list of plants for the seasons to choose from but will need to research the sizes.
My abode: Essex, soon to be a desert!
The problem of the winter planting getting too big is impossible to judge because it would depend on the plant, and on the size when planted. Something upright, or naturally conical, will cover the bulk of the pot more slowly than something bushy. When you get to the point where the foliage is covering the whole surface of the pot, that's when it would be harder for any bulbs to come through.
It depends on the plant though - a dense, rounded evergreen, like many of the Hebes, will block bulb stems/flowers far more than a plant with an airier habit which has more space between branches and stems.
It depends how you feel about lifting those plants and replacing them with new ones, and you'd still have to find somewhere else for the plants you take out. It would be easier, and much cheaper, to just do the swapping over with insert pots
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...