1: Roses (main image)
Generally speaking, roses aren’t the best for containers, as they tend to be large and all need good, rich compost to thrive. But there are lots of smaller varieties that have been bred specially for pots. So if you have a sunny front door or patio that could do with some scent and colour, options abound, as long as your pot is a decent size with plenty of depth. Try SWEET DREAM (‘Fryminicot’), a compact plant to around 50cm with double apricot-coloured flowers from early summer right into November, or golden-yellow climbing rose LAURA FORD (‘Chewarvel’), which will reach around 2.5m tall.
Type: Flowering shrub
Do use peat-free soil-based compost, feed regularly and keep them well watered.
2: Cut-and-come-again lettuce
Edibles in pots? Absolutely! Choose the right ones, and you can have a productive mini kitchen garden on your patio. One of the easiest and most satisfying salads to grow is cut-and-come-again lettuce. Simply put, it’s a mixture of seeds you can sow from early spring, direct into patio containers, then again every six weeks or so, to give you fresh salad leaves until the beginning of autumn.
Type: Annual salad crop
Do keep picking the outer leaves to encourage your plants to produce more.
3: Trailing tomatoes
All tomatoes can be grown in containers, however the taller ‘cordon’ varieties can become unwieldy, plus they need plenty of attention and a strict watering regime. For something easier and lower maintenance, look to trailing types such as ‘Tumbling Tom’ (red or yellow), a compact, bushy cherry tomato that fruits prolifically, or ‘Peardrops’, which has unusual yellow, pear-shaped fruits. Both work really well in a pot or hanging basket placed in a sunny spot, provided you feed and water them regularly.
Type: Annual salad crop
Do plant out deeper than in the original pot, to encourage more root growth.
4: Mint
Planted out in a border, mint is a bully. It will run riot, smothering nearby plants with ease. Give it a pot in sun or part shade, and it will behave and thrive, providing you with fresh pickings for salads, teas, desserts, smoothies, jellies and sauces from spring until early winter, year after year. Mint isn’t fussy about soil; it just needs a decent amount of water. Spearmint (Mentha spicata) and peppermint (Mentha x piperita) are traditional, but try others like chocolate mint, with its purple new shoots, or zingy grapefruit mint for something a bit different.
Type: Herbaceous perennial
Do keep picking the leaves to encourage bushiness.
5: Agapanthus
This South African native loves nothing more than a constricted root run to flower freely, so growing it in pots is ideal. It won’t even mind drying out every now and again. Be a little careful when choosing varieties, as some are more tender than others. ‘Windsor Grey’ is a lovely one, fully hardy with huge heads of lilac-tinged flowers; Headbourne Hybrids can also take the cold, and they have violet-blue flowers; or opt for ‘Margaret’, a stunning powder-blue agapanthus that’s fully hardy. Agapanthus are harmful to humans and pets if eaten.
Type: Deciduous/evergreen perennial, depending on variety
Do give them a spot in full sun.
