what will grow?

[evedawn]

i want to plant some medium and large pots on my patio sized garden. It gets lovely morning sunshine and shade by the mid afternoon. It is sheltered. I live in the South East.

Any good ideas?

(PS - would like something with a bit of colour)

[hammerman]

Are you looking for permenant evergreen shrubs such as fatsias and phormiums or seasonal plantings such as bulbs, pansies and summer bedding plants.

I have a mixture in exactly the same situation as yours (and in the SE)....some shrubs (fatsia, golden Catalpa, black bamboo, tree ferns.), a lot of bedding and a few exotics such as gingers and japanese bananas (musa basjoo).

I find that planting the bedding ones up with dark blue petunias which give a lovely sweet scent and orange marigolds is a lovely display. Add a few small pots of night scented stock for those warm summers evenings and you can't loose.

[evedawn]

hammerman - your garden sound lovely,.... I think one of these weekends SOON I am gonna take a walk around the garden centre with some of your suggestions in mind... I am determined that THIS is the year my gdn will grow.

[May1982]

Check out these gardening videos, maybe you'll find something interesting; http://www.sutree.com/videos/Garden/125

[hammerman]

You could also join one of the superb and very friendly gardening forums http://gardenworld.proboards103.com/index.cgi? and ask their advice too....you'll get some excellent advice