Life

Gardening advice: Tips on how you can jazz up your front door with pot plants

Hanging baskets are making a comeback
Hanging baskets are making a comeback Hanging baskets are making a comeback

1. Think about colour: There's a massive range of cheerful colours available throughout spring, from zingy primroses and rich pansies, to heathers, acid green miniature lemon scented conifers, and bulbs, which if you forgot to plant in autumn are widely available to plant in pots now. Have you thought about doing it in black and white, using deep foliage plants contrasted with white flowers?

2. Check out smaller plants: If you haven't much space, you can now find smaller varieties of plants that won't grow too big around your front door area. Smaller types of shrubs, climbers and roses are widely available. If you want a climber in a pot, consider breeder Raymond Evison's clematis varieties 'Josephine' and 'Doctor Ruppel'. Climbing versions of David Austin old English roses are popular too too.

3. Make it personal: Flowers create more than just a 'welcome mat' to your home, and what you create should match your personality. "Consider the type of container you're choosing – that says an awful lot about you. The container needs to complement the brickwork and the design of the front door. If it's contemporary, it could be minimalist, such as spiralled or lollipop topiary," says Mark Sage of Wyevale Garden Centres. You could use box, Ligustrum jonandrum, the very small-leaved privet, or bay, or lavender if you want flower on there too.

4. Look at pairs: Some householders with little time for deadheading flowering plants are going grand and opting for pairs of evergreen standards in pots, where the foliage at the top is the focal point and is often shaped into a ball. Twin bay trees remain a favourite for adding structural impact, while new container-friendly bamboo varieties such as the red-stemmed Fargesia 'Red Dragon' are to be introduced to Wyevale this year. Garden centres have also noticed an increasing demand for evergreen box and topiary in all shapes and sizes, which create a focal point either side of a front door.

5. Be inspired by social media: Front doors are being turned into social media sensations – so check out how other householders are accessorising their front doors. Once perceived as a more old-fashioned feature, hanging baskets are making a comeback.