While it was still quite summery in early September this year, it's now officially autumn. The days are getting shorter, and the leaves and chestnuts are starting to fall from the trees. In our garden centre in Swarkestone, you'll find many beautiful pots, planters, plants, berry bushes, and spring bulbs to enjoy in the coming months. So, brighten up your patio and balcony with pots and containers full of autumn blooms and evergreens. You can also place them outside your front door, on the windowsill, or on the garden or balcony table.
Time to plant spring bulbs!
And while you're at it, plant some bulbs of daffodils, mini tulips, grape hyacinths, or crocuses in your flowerpots and containers. You'll enjoy them early in the new year. Plus, you'll be doing a favour to bees and bumblebees because these spring bloomers offer them a much-needed (and scarce) source of food at that time. And with wintergreen berry bushes, you'll also attract birds to your garden, rooftop terrace, or balcony.
Top 5 autumn blooms for pots and containers
- Aster (Aster tradescantii)
- Chrysanthemums
- Heather (Erica)
- Winter pansies
- Autumn cyclamen (Alpine violet)
Top 5 evergreen berry bushes for terrace and balcony
- Gaultheria
- Pernettya
- Skimmia
- Foxberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea)
- Dwarf Buford Holly
Beautiful combinations for a pot or container
Combine the above-mentioned top picks from our garden centre's assortment with plants, bushes, and ornamental grasses with variegated, wintergreen, or beautifully changing autumn leaves. Such as:
- Trailing, wintergreen ivy
- Leucothoe, a bush with deep red-green leaves that turn even redder in autumn
- Wintergreen dwarf conifers
- Small ornamental grasses, like blue sheep's fescue, black Japanese snake grass, bronze sedge (Carex), and feather grass (Stipa tenuissima)
- The silver bush (Calocephalus brownii) with quirky, silvery-grey branches that almost glow in the dark
- Heuchera has beautiful leaves in a wide range of colours, from lime green or caramel to almost black. In mild winters, the leaves stay fresh on the plant
- Ornamental cabbages come with smooth or frilled leaves in various shades, with green, white, or pink dominating
Practical tips for planting and potting
When creating your cheerful autumn pots and containers, check if the plants prefer a sunny or more shaded spot and don't let your pots dry out. To prevent your plants from drowning in excess rain and the roots (and spring bulbs!) from rotting, it's important to create holes in your pots' and containers' bottoms. Put a layer of pot shards and/or hydro granules on the bottom. Additionally, choose pots and containers that are frost-resistant.
More autumn
Make your balcony or rooftop terrace extra cosy with a collection of decorative gourds, pumpkins, sturdy candles in lanterns or lantern holders, garden lighting, or a beautiful bird feeder dish or silo. We have plenty of these, as well as various spring bulbs, in our garden centre in Swarkestone right now.