Anticipating sunny lunches outdoors for the next few months – and inspired by some clever pot planting seen on a recent tour of Victorian gardens – the pots on my terrace are about to get an overhaul.There are several schools of thought when it comes to planting up pots. The minimalists choose a single plant and a single pot style and repeat it. Think red pelargoniums in terracotta on Italian terraces.
Conversely, the garden school of container planting does one different plant per pot and combines them as you would a garden bed. The master of this style is Fergus Garrett and his team at Great Dixter, where the arrangements can run to a dozen or more differently sized terracotta pots, all with different plants.
The floristry style treats the pot as a giant vase of flowers and stuffs it full of complementary plants.