Ask JOHN NEGUS
How can I brighten up a new patio?
Q I have a new patio and am planning to break up the edges with containers and pots. What plants would be best for this?
David Bellairs (via email)
A I suggest that you combine a selection of low-growing evergreen shrubs with radiant summer-bedding plants. The following will be ideal:
■ Choice evergreens
Lavender ‘Hidcote’: Silvery leaves and blue flowers; summer.
Cotton lavender (Santolina chamaecyparissus): Filigree of silvery foliage and yellow buttons; summer.
Mexican orange (Choisya ternata Sundance): Golden foliage and scented white blossom in spring and autumn.
Ceanothus ‘Blue Mound’: Massed blue flowers in spring and late summer.
Cistus x purpureus ‘Alan Fradd’: White chocolate-blotched flowers all summer.
Hebe ‘Great Orme’: Cones of bright-pink blossom in summer.
Pieris ‘Flaming Silver’: Silver-variegated foliage’ with young leaves red.
Yucca flaccida ‘Golden Sword’: Leaves striped golden yellow.
Daphne odora ‘Aureomarginata’: Strongly scented purple flowers from February-March, yellow-rimmed leaves.
Sarcococca confusa: Scented white flowers in winter.
Myrtle (Myrtus communis ‘Variegata’): Fragrant white flowers with fluffy stamens from July to September. Silver variegated leaves.
■ Summer bedding plants
Visually appealing among a huge range are petunias, ‘Silver Shield’ and tagetes. Ideally group containers rather than arrange them in serried rows. Make sure that each pot is ‘crocked’ before adding loam-based compost. It should also stand on ‘feet’ to allow surplus water to freely escape.
