WINTER WARMERS

Shorter days and sinking temperatures signal an end to the abundance of summer in the container garden, but don’t take this as your cue to put away the pots. A bit of effort replacing tender summer plantings with hardy plants and bulbs will give you a display that tempts you outside all the way through winter, before erupting with colour and fragrance as the days lengthen.

I like my pots to keep giving, and I encourage this by packing most of them with layers of bulbs plus a selection of perennials, shrubs and even trees, often filling gaps with hardy bedding plants such