Container planting is an easy way to stamp your personality on your outside space. For beginner gardeners to seasoned professionals, and whatever size and style of garden you may have, filling patio pots with colourful plants will help to add style and interest to your outside space. We reveal our pick of the best plants for patio pot and planters in this handy guide.

What can I plant in my patio planter?

There’s hundreds of horticultural favourites that will thrive in patio pots.  So whether you prefer showy annuals, reliable perennials or long-lasting evergreens, there is so much choice available.  Vary your colour scheme, add interesting textures and don’t be afraid to experiment.  Creating a beautiful patio display is simple and very rewarding.

What are the best low maintenance outdoor potted plants?

For those short on time, or with little gardening experience, it’s best to choose a few faithful favourites.  Here’s three low maintenance options that will always find their way onto a ‘best plants for patio pots’ lists.

Osteospermum

Osteospermum, or African daisies, are ideal for filling a patio pot.  Easy to grow and care for, their large and cheery daisy-like blooms reliably flower for months on end.  With a compact and robust habit that makes them ideal for filling a planter on their own, they also complement other pretty annuals really well.  Osteospermum ‘Berries and Cream’ is a gorgeous, candy-coloured variety in pink, purple and cream.  A delightful collection and more muted alternative to more flamboyant Osteospermum varieties.

Geranium

Geraniums are unmistakably one of the best plants for patio pots.  They thrive in containers and are loved by gardeners young and old for their beautiful scent and long-lasting flowering.  Geraniums are available in a vast array of colours, with red being the planter staple for decades.  But Geranium ‘BullsEye Light Pink’ is a lovely alternative to its crimson cousin.  This upright variety has bushy, dark green foliage with mid-green margins and bears masses of delicate pale pink summer blooms.  Like all geraniums, it’s a low maintenance choice that’s also drought tolerant, but will flourish in moist, well-drained soil.

Rosemary

Patio pots shouldn’t be reserved for tender annuals and perennials alone.  Planting hardy herbs like rosemary in your containers, will add evergreen foliage to your patio pots long after the seasonal flowering spell.  A reliable shrub, rosemary is undemanding and one of the best plants for patio pots thanks to its high tolerance of almost any soil type or planting position.  On a warm day, a potted rosemary will fill the air with its gloriously peppery, piney scent, attracting pollinators from afar.  It’s also adored by cooks and just a simple rosemary plant will offer year-round flavour to all manner of dishes.  A lovely herb that looks even better in early summer when covered in its decorative blue flowers.

Which patio plants will add colour?

One of the main reasons we love to plant containers is to introduce colour to our patios.  These three plants are guaranteed to provide lasting, radiant colour to your pots.

Heuchera

Heuchera, or Coral Bells as they are commonly known, are evergreen plants best known for their scalloped foliage and dainty, wispy flowers.  There are hundreds of varieties of heuchera to choose from, ranging in shape, size and colour.  So whether you prefer zesty greens, autumnal reds or darkest purples, this hardy perennial will not disappoint.  Heuchera ‘Wild Rose’ is ideal for adding both colour to patio pots all on its own, or as an accompaniment against brighter toned plants.  With soft, maroon-coloured foliage and sprays of rose-coloured flowers on the crest of hair-thin stems, this is a stunning variety to add to your planters.  Keep in a shaded spot and in loam-based, moist soil.

 

Pearl Anniversary

Choose the right rose variety and they can make one of the best plants for patio pots.  A miniature or patio container rose like Pearl Anniversary is an exquisite choice.  This floribunda rose bursts into life in late summer, producing masses of small, pearly pink clusters of semi-double blooms.  This lovely rose repeat flowers and has a mild fragrance, as well as near thornless growth.  There’s very little not to like.  Perfect for those who love roses but have limited space.  Position in a sunny spot in loam-based compost boosted with a balanced rose fertiliser. 

Hosta

Colour in the garden doesn’t always need to mean vivid and flashy.  In fact, hostas, with their fresh, green foliage, can easily introduce a beautiful range of colour into any outside space.  Hosta ‘Lady Guinevere’ has oodles of punchy, creamy-lemon foliage with deep green margins.  Planted in almost any soil, this busy and hardy herbaceous perennial adds uplifting colour to any shaded spot.  But it’s during the summer, when this lovely hosta really comes into its own, producing lavender coloured, bell-shaped blooms.  A low maintenance hosta variety that rightly deserves its Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit.  This is definitely one of the best plants for patio pots.

What are good evergreen plants for patio pots?

Evergreen plants are ideal for ensuring year-round colour and interest in your garden.  There are plenty of evergreen shrubs for every size and style of container.  Opt for a fully hardy variety that will tolerate fluctuating weather and temperatures throughout the year.

Euonymus

If you’re looking for an evergreen container variety, Euonymus japonicus ‘Kathy’ is a failsafe shrub that is one of the best plants for patio pots.  It’s attractive, glossy green leaves with creamy edges that are densely packed and easy to prune.  But it’s this hardy evergreen’s resilience that makes it such a gem in the garden.  Tolerant of most soils, it prefers a sunny spot but will grow perfectly well in shade.  And when it comes to enduring harsh winters, this euonymus japonicus will take it all in its stride.  Easy to maintain and incredibly low maintenance.

What are the best tall patio plants?

Choosing a few tall patio plants and placing them behind smaller varieties is a great way to create interest and structure.  Two of our favourite tall patio plants are:

Stipa tenuissima

Perennial grassses are perfect for adding height to planted displays, and ‘Mexican feather grass’ Stipa tenuissima has to be one of the best plants for patio pots, for this very reason.  This glorious variety has a Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit, and there’s no surprises why.  In summer its delicate upright green stems become covered with tufts of feathery seed-heads that add both elegant interest and a lovely sound when carried by the wind.  A very low maintenance, semi-hardy grass that’s drought tolerant and easy to divide and propagate.  Leave the seed-heads on as a nutritious food for garden birds, or cut and dry them for use in cut flower arrangements.

Agapanthus

Adored for its spherical flower heads, African Lillies are perfect for adding dense foliage as well as height to patio pots.  Agapanthus ‘Brilliant Blue’ is a giant of a variety and can reach up to three metres in height if given the chance.  Its mildly scented, brilliant blue blooms are elevated on long, sturdy, bright green stems, and appear in mid to late summer.  Plant a few bulbs with other white or blue flowers for a dramatic display and position established plants in a hot, sunny location.