HOW TO CHOOSE AND STYLE GARDEN POTS LIKE A PRO
It’s safe to say that gardener, teacher, nurserywoman and broadcaster Sarah Raven loves pots.
She says they’re essential to the character of the one-and-ahalf acre garden at her home, Perch Hill in East Sussex, which is also the base of her garden school – and over the years, she and her team have trialled thousands of container plants, working out design rules for planting combinations in the process.
Now, she’s shared her knowledge in a beautiful new book, A Year Full Of Pots, which covers pots for every season and palette.
She reveals that the most common mistake gardeners make is picking up random plants in garden centres which they think look pretty, but without a design in mind.
“I’m very strict. I just give you the recipes and I say, ignore them at your peril,” says Sarah.
Here are some of Sarah’s top tips for perfecting your own pots... Colour palettes
Sarah uses four colour palettes for her pots.
1. Dark and rich
“I use crimsons and mahogany, deep purple and bronzes,” says Sarah.
They suck up the light and she thinks of them as the velvet colours you envelop yourself in. They might include deep red dahlias, or tulips in shades of burnt orange and almost black.
“The dark and rich have to be in quite a well-lit place because otherwise they can form a bit of a black hole and be a bit on the sombre side,” she adds.
“They need to be front of a border or front of yard space, and be quite well lit, or backlit, or planted with something sharp in colour behind them, like a euphorbia, so they are highlighted.”
2. Boiled-sweet brilliant “This includes really radiant, stained glass colours,” Sarah explains, incorporating blackcurrant, strawberry, raspberry, orange, lemon, lime and cobalt blue.
It might feature everything from zingy orange gerberas to raspberry red tulips and acid green euphorbias.
“I use this in one particular part of the garden that I walk through a lot and I want it to be stimulating and cheerful. Again, it needs good sunlight.”
3. Soft and warm
“I call these the cashmere jersey colours, so it’s pastel, but in the warm palette.” Think peach, milky coffee, ivory, faded coral and apricot.
“I love this palette in spring, particularly in my rose garden because the rose foliage, when it first emerges in spring, is copper and bronze and it really is beautiful with either the dark and rich or the soft and warm (colours) growing through it with pots of tulips.”
4. Soft and cool
“These include mauves and pale blues,” says Sarah. “Blue-pinks, primrose yellows and off-whites which get paler until you reach the pure white flower, could also feature.
“I tend to stick with one palette. I tend to grow three ingredients in a bigger size pot together, or if they’re smaller pots, I’d have them in three neighbouring pots.
“These are fantastic for shining a torch into dark areas, so we have those all the way along the north face of our barn. We use this palette out into the view, so where we have a garden that tumbles off into the distance.” Choosing plants Sarah likens her choice of plants to wedding attendees – the bride, the bridesmaid and the gatecrasher. “I’d go for what I call my bride, which is the dominant, most sumptuous one, then I would go for the bridesmaid, which is the same colour as the bride but a little more recessive, and more background.
“Finally, I would use a bit of colour contrast for the gatecrasher, but often sticking to the same palette, so I might use orange and orange for the bride and bridesmaid and blue or purple for the gatecrasher.
“I always use two-thirds to three-quarters of one colour and a third or quarter of another colour. Gatecrasher is not as dominant as the others. I think of it as a squeeze of lemon over smoked salmon.”
I just give you the recipes and I say, ignore them at your peril... Sarah Raven on her planting schemes
A Year Full Of Pots: Container Flowers For All Seasons by Sarah Raven is published by Bloomsbury, priced £25. Photos by Jonathan Buckley. Out now.