Discover the basics of successful container garden planting. How to choose plants and plant them up in all kinds of pot, tub or window box. Should you water or feed winter container plants? And do you have to change all the potting compost? Find the answers here, plus how to choose plants you can grow in your garden when the pots are over. With Jane Beedle (@janebbakes)
00:00 Welcome
00:24 Maytree Nursery in Kent: https://www.maytreenursery.com/
00:31 Find Jane Beedle on Instagram at @janebbakes
00:47 Choose perennials and shrubs for planters – you can grow them in the garden afterwards
01:27 Buy more plants for winter pots and window boxes because plants don’t grow in winter
01:57 How to choose plants for winter planters at the nursery
02:42 The blue ‘grasses’ are Festuca glauca and the red stemmed shrub is Cornus Alba ‘Sibirica’
03:07 Choosing very young shrubs for winter planters – they won’t grow!
03:43 The small yellow shrub is Choisya ternata (Mexican orange blossom)
04:04 Choosing holly for a winter planter. The yellow holly is Ilex ‘Golden King’
05:29 List of evergreen plants for winter garden containers
06:29 How to plant up the containers – first add height
07:11 Add bulbs into winter planters before adding most plants. Use shorter varieties
08:13 Put plants into the planter before fulling topping up compost. You don’t want to be ‘digging holes’
09:59 Move pots, planters and window boxes before watering them. They will be too heavy afterwards
10:07 Do you need special materials for winter pots?
10:51 Don’t water planters in very cold weather
10:58 Do you need to change all the soil or potting compost in a container?
12:50 Should you feed or water winter pots and planters?
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39 Comments
Excellent video thank you. For the information,
Useful practical advice. Thank you.
Jane is wonderful! Such practical info, not fussy, and a beautiful result!
Here in Northern Europe no winter boxes as snow is a blanket so thick and deep for many months it is not an option . Summers warm and dry can get on garden building. Decided to add a holiday cabin in last garden for bit of income and joy of meeting other garden lovers.
Fabulous ideas, I'm inspired to have a go ☺
Great ideas for winter interest.
Thank you Ladies, never thought of doing winter pots. They look beautiful!
Those window boxes were beautiful! Thank you.
Thank you for more great tips! In winter zone 9 i like to plant a variety of sizes of succulents in pots outside. For inside i plant rosemary (shaped like christmas trees) and small hedging plants and then transplant out in the garden in spring.
I just love the silvery leaves of the hellebores. I wish I could find smaller plants like those to tuck into planters. I usually just come across large plants which are really pricey around here.
"I was totally seduced." That's me, going to any tree and shrub nursery. 🙂 🙂 🙂
Always great videos! Mahonia repen Mahonia sweet caress with yellow twig dogwood could be fun! I wish cyclamen growers would specify hardy or florist cyclamen apart Love your videos questions and friends/experts you gather!
Osmanthus goshiki maybe too Thanks for the inspiration loved the combo⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐😄
Window boxes always look like fun, but they just wouldn’t work for my home. Maybe I’ll try a couple of pots, but even at that in zone 6 USA they probably wouldn’t look like much, and it would have to be something that deer definitely won’t eat, since they get bold when they’re desperate…I guess I can’t ever find a plant that fits the bill, so I don’t bother 🤷♀️ I’d love anyone’s suggestions!
Thank you
I cheat, and just put some coloured cut stems from cornus into the compost. They keep their colour until I change everything in the spring. It saves money and uses the more attractive ends of the stems, rather than cut ones.
I always learn something new 🙂 watching your videos. greetings from Fuquay-Varina NC
After a couple of years trying pansies that always succumbed to fungus, this year I have three hanging baskets with a solarnum, blue festuca and hedera helix in each. So far they are all doing well 😀
Sensational video. The window boxes are outstanding with brilliant and unusual plants. I too was seduced by and immediately researched the cornus alba Siberia. I haven't seen that variety of hellebore, with the silvery foliage, that goes so well with the blue-green sedges. I will look for them too. Please tell Jane I was gobsmacked with her creativity.
In America, we usually have window boxes attached to the house. I'm very interested in the shelf she had attached to the house with the planters on it. Is the shelf painted wood or some other material? If wood, what type of wood should be used? Does it rot from the water that collects on it from watering the planters? It's a great look and I would like to try to do something similar on my home.
Amazing Video!! Keep up the great work!!💚
Excellent video. Enjoyed it immensely . I know we should plant in odd numbers, but if my planter is slightly shorter, would 2 boxwoods be a huge no-no?
Thanks for fresh ideas. As always you never disapoints
Hi Alexander, so glad I am watching this video. I have a few grasses, now when I saw the tray with grey grasses, I thought, if you wish something fresh in your home, get a lovely plastic pot, not as heavy as terracotta or cement ideal for indoor use, plant it up with some really lovely grasses, when complete, get a strip of battery lights, those real tiny ones and weave them through the grasses, it will give a magnificent show, depends on your home style, space etc. There are many ideas evolving from your talks. it really gives a boost to your imagination. Kind regards till next time, Elize 🙂
Slightly off the point but this project has given me an excellent idea for winter plantings on family graves. Thank you Ann in Wirrl UK
I love this video today
Very helpful. Thank you!
My Dusty Miller plants,and Sage still looking OK in Nebraska in December. ..
👌👍✨
Thank you for this lovely video. It is very difficult in NYS to find such small specimens in such small pots and affordable prices. Ah well. I think I heard your guest say that the Festuca ovina glauca is a sedge but I’ve planted seeds of this and I believe it is a grass. (But I could be wrong!🤡). Merry Christmas
Very nice video which has given me some ideas. I in fact bought a cornus recently which I was going to plant in the garden so its in a pot . I could add some heathers that I bought as well and put them in a pot together till planting season.
Lovely plant combination and texture contrast.
Thank you. I just watered some pots, including boxwoods since it has beans dry and not too cold yet. Very timely advise. Cheers
Brilliant ideas on selecting plants for a winter box that is stunning in the dormant season and good for the garden next year as well. I appreciate the interview questions and Jane's demonstrations, practical pointers, and extra details. Thank you for this video!
Happy Christmas
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I'm in Colorado zone 5b. I have two self-seeded violas blooming in the ground at almost the new year. I don't think that's supposed to happen, but I love it. They bloomed in the summer, one with no irrigation, when the summer brought 90-100 degrees F with no rain for two months. I'm amazed. There's some sort of moss growing spontaneously too, some with no irrigation. It's so pretty I think I'll water it next year.
Excellent idea about using young shrubs in winter containers. So jealous of those wee potted hollies for sale. Holly is abundantly feral in my neighborhood, but just try getting a named variegated variety here without driving 400 miles.
What a brilliant idea to plant next year’s perennials in this winter’s window boxes! Thanks Alexandra and Jane. 🙌🙌
I’m so glad winter-flowering pansies were mentioned – I’ve never yet seen them convincingly flower in winter apart from the odd spindly bloom. And then, come Spring, off they go, just in time to be hoiked out and replaced! Thankyou for so many helpful hints. 😊
Great advice as always. The window boxes look wonderful and so good that the plants are perennial too.