Our guide to creating beautiful festive home decor
With the festive countdown now on, the next few days are the perfect time to add last-minute Christmas touches and decor to your home. With a little creativity and some simple DIY projects, you can transform your living space into a winter wonderland. Your local British Garden Centres stores will provide some inspiration and fun and easy ways to create beautiful yuletide ideas for your home.
What plants to choose?
Our plant team can help you illuminate your garden in winter with colourful foliage, grasses, evergreen shrubs, and conifers for height and structure at the container's centre. Complement them with vibrant winter bedding for an impressive display. Our picks for this season include:
Winter blooms: Pansies, violas, cyclamen, winter Jasmine, hellebores camellia, winter aconite and primroses for a kaleidoscope of colour on shorter days.
Evergreens for all year round: Viburnum, buxus, holly, mahonia, skimmia, heucheras, rhododendron, azalea, and hebes green leaves contribute to winter interest. Winter-flowering heathers, daphne, and sarcococca also can add fragrance and visual appeal.
Berried plants: Callicarpa, gaultheria, holly, pyracantha, cotoneaster and snowberry provide shiny, bright fruits for a January container. They also provide a valuable food source for birds in the winter.
Potted spring bulbs: Your local centre may have flowering bulbs in stock to add beauty to your winter planter. Snowdrops, crocus, daffodils, and tulips signal spring's arrival after a long, dark few weeks.
Aromatic herbs: Rosemary, sage, thyme, lavender, parsley, chives and mint add fragrance and can withstand chilly weather, offering utility in winter comfort food.
Which container
Your local store will have a wide range of planters for you to choose from, whatever your garden style. Look for a container that is sturdy and durable for the chillier weather and year-round use. Terracotta, wooden, earthenware, and glazed ceramic pots are resilient enough to endure January’s wintery conditions, surviving frosts, snow, rain and whatever the UK weather can throw at it.
Ensure chosen containers have ample drainage holes at the bottom and consider using pot feet or stands during the coming weeks to aid drainage, prevent waterlogging, and deter pests. For the ultimate winter planter with multiple plants, we advise choosing a sizable container with at least an 18-inch diameter, comfortably accommodating around ten plants.
Create height and depth in your winter container
Select plants that naturally grow tall or have an upright habit such as focal shrubs like cordyline, dwarf conifers, or ornamental grasses. The vibrant insignia of Cornus stems, underplanted with winter bedding, perennials, and small shrubs, guarantee an illuminated outdoor space. We recommend creating a layered effect by placing taller plants at the centre or back of the container and gradually decreasing in height towards the edges. This helps establish a sense of depth and structure.
Winter care for your planters
As sunlight levels decrease, position containers where they receive maximum sunlight. Group several containers together in a sheltered spot, mulch for insulation, and protect individual pots with horticultural fleece or bubble wrap to keep plant roots warm. While feeding is unnecessary, grouping plants with similar needs together will make maintenance more manageable. Additionally, water the containers appropriately, as winter winds and lower temperatures can lead to soil drying out more slowly than in warmer seasons so check with your finger the moisture first.
Thanks for reading.
