Winter pot ideas: 5 easy container combinations for your doorstep

Shwmae, everyone!

When the borders go quiet, a few good pots by the front door can carry the whole garden through winter. They're the first thing you see when you come home on a dark evening, and they're easy to swap around. Here are five combinations we love, all using hardy plants that look good right now.

1. Gold and blue for a sunny step

Pair the gold-edged leaves of Euonymus 'Emerald 'n' Gold' with tufts of Festuca glauca, the blue fescue. Both are frost hardy evergreens, and the warm gold against cool blue-grey glows on a bright winter day. Festuca likes full sun, so give this pot your sunniest spot.

2. Brighten a shady door

North-facing porch? Aucuba japonica, the spotted laurel, is happiest in part to full shade, and its gold-speckled leaves bring light to dark corners. Edge the pot with black mondo grass, which copes with shade or sun, for a smart contrast. Aucuba's berries are toxic to pets, so keep that in mind.

3. A herb pot by the kitchen door

Rosemary 'Sudbury Blue' stays evergreen and fragrant all winter, ready to snip for your Sunday roast. Tuck Saxifraga cuneifolia around the edge. Its neat evergreen rosettes soften the rim, and both like well-drained compost.

4. Dark and silvery

For something a little different, team the near-black leaves of Ajuga 'Black Scallop' with the cream and green of Euonymus 'Emerald Gaiety'. Both are evergreen and happy in part shade, and the ajuga gets darker the more sun it sees.

5. Winter flowers on the way

Plant winter jasmine in a large pot near a wall and let its arching stems tumble over the rim. It flowers bright yellow from January to March, just when you need it most.

A few pot tips

• Use peat-free compost and a pot with a drainage hole.
• Stand pots on feet so they don't sit in water.
• Water sparingly in winter, only when the compost feels dry a finger's depth down.

All of these are grown peat-free at our Wenvoe nursery and dispatched within 48 hours. Have fun mixing and matching!

Until next time, happy gardening!
Garden City Cymru