How to make your container displays last through winter

Add conifers, evergreen shrubs and filler plants to the mix, as expert Harriet Rycroft tells Hannah Stephenson

How to make your container displays last through winter (Harriet Rycroft/PA)

There’s still time to plant winter containers before it gets too cold, as garden centres are awash with violas, pansies, skimmias, berried plants, evergreens and much more. Yet so often when winter sets in, colours fade, cyclamen rot, pansies and violas sulk, and containers can look a little lacklustre.

“Conifers are great because they come in so many shapes, sizes and colours and give you structure right the way through the season,” says plantswoman and container expert Harriet Rycroft, whose new book Pots offers practical advice on all aspects of container planting.