Year round plants

Afternoon all,

I have made four planters for outside a little courtyard area.

I am looking for year round plants to go in them, ideally not to tall as they will cover a window.
I just want something I can plant, water, leave. That will give abit of colour all year round, that doesn't require much upkeep. Can somebody suggest anything suitable?

Kind regards
James

 

Hi,

How tall and wide are your planters and what is the total maximum height before the windows ?
Also what direction do they face / how much sun or shade does that location get ?

To meet your brief of very low maintneance you are probably looking as something evergreen like below.

 

Planters are around a 100cmx 50cm x50cm high ish. Window you have around another 50cms, but will only effect one planter, the garden is south facing.

I don't mind doing abit of maintance, just not too much, and as its the first thing you see when you walk out the side door, ideally don't want something that's dead/brown in winter.

 

Have a look here for flowering evergreens and other similar pages -

20 Best Evergreen Shrubs | BBC Gardeners World Magazine

 

That's a good sized planter

Since the garden is south facing, you would do well with something very draught tolerant. Rosemary and Lavender would fit the bill nicely, both are evergreen and flower in the summer.

A herb container could also host some smaller herbs between the evergreen base planting, thyme is lovely especially trailing types, marjoram and sage are nice too and chives are very pretty.

All will do well in full sun and require minor maintenance. And give you lovely snippings for the kitchen.

 

Cheers guys, I'll have a look into what's been suggested

Regards James

 

Euonymus Japonica and Fortunei have pleasant varieties that are evergreen (maybe a few pinky leaves in Winter) and are pretty drought tolerant once the roots have gotten settled.

E. f. "Emerald n Gold" I picked up dirt cheap a couple of years ago has grown into a nice pyramid in the garden, supported with 3 bamboo canes. When trying to plant it, I broke off a branch that split the main stem! It suffered nothing, and instead I got a LOT of cuttings. All took and thus I had golden yellow edged plants galore - particularly zingy right now. Can be clipped into a nice neat ball or trained up a small frame.

E.j. "White Spire" is a pleasant slender variant of white and green. Grows to around 2-3 ft tall max. Nice for formal containers, framing a doorway for example.

Happy in full sun to almost full shade.

Probably doesn't suffer too much, but aphids have attacked a lot of the plants last year. Ants like to move 'em around too. Sprayed with Growing Success Bug Stop and all is good.

 

Not yet grown Photinia x Fraseri Red Robin or it's numerous varieties (of which we've a few) in container yet. Little Red Robin might be good - smallest variety, long time span with red leaves, nice dark older leaves. Clip it to a form you like. Not particularly dense, until it gets more mature and larger, but hey, I think they're fab!