How to master the dramatic art of growing in pots

Brighten up your garden or balcony with beautiful containers – and enjoy a show of colour all season long.

Two wooden chairs and a table outside surrounded by plants in containers

By Lucy Hall | Published - 14 May 2026

Everyone who gardens feels like Alice in Wonderland at some point. Your space is either too big and overwhelming for the time and energy you have or – especially if you’ve downsized – too cramped and limiting to meet your ambitions. But there’s a solution that answers every gardener’s love of cultivating plants, putting on a show and improving the view, without spending too much time, energy or money: containers.

Growing in pots of every size gives you drama, intimacy and a host of characters to arrange and recast in every season, creating a living, breathing theatre set right by your back (or front) door, but without being overwhelming. It’s certainly not all about high-maintenance divas – a potted display also relies on hardy supporting players and a colourful chorus line that won’t let you down to ensure the show goes on all year.

It’s an approach to growing described as “addictive” by expert horticulturist Harriet Rycroft, who’s made container gardening her signature style for 40 years. “The appeal is you get an instant effect from a limited space that’s not overwhelming,” she explains.

“Pots bring the garden right up to the house, setting the mood before you’ve even stepped outside – immediately making a place more welcoming.”

“And they have disproportionate impact for their size: they raise up plants, frame them and make you notice them.”

A courtyard filled with plants in a variety of pots — GAP photos

5 tips to master the art of planting in pots

1. Pots of inspiration

Harriet learned the dramatic art of container gardening as long-serving head gardener at the world-famous Whichford Pottery – whose colourful displays at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and its Warwickshire demonstration garden became legendary. With every size and scale of pot at her disposal but almost no budget, she improvised with seeds, cuttings and cast-offs.

Beyond basic container plants, Harriet learned to be creative with trees, grasses, shrubs and even exotics like bananas. “I tried growing everything I could get my hands on in pots,” she says.

It forged her number one design rule for container gardening: go big, with tall plants, the largest pots you can afford and move, and generous groupings of containers. She found that arranging mismatched plants boldly, with clear focal points around star plants, creates a more vivid scene than a cluster of samey pots.

Harriet puts this into practice at her own home, where she actively tends more than 700 pots like a performance space that shifts with the seasons.

“Group pots like you mean it,” she advises, explaining that placing them in straight rows tend to emphasise the rigid lines of patios and houses. Curves, semi-circles and clusters, meanwhile, soften spaces and draw you in and beyond. Varying the height – with bricks, pot stands, or staging – adds depth and drama.

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An arrangement of Terracotta pots in an English garden, planted with succulent plants — Getty

2. Plant picking

Harriet has her go-to plants that create the perfect ensemble container cast. The natural stars are the bold, dramatic dahlias, architectural abutilons, and the brooding rosettes of Aeonium “Zwartkop”.

Around these are the supporting players: salvias that hum with colour and wildlife, fuchsias that sway gracefully, reliable pelargoniums for shape and stature. Silver leafed plants add light to the scene, while grasses bring movement. Foliage is vital, but the key is variation in leaf size, structure, and texture. Don’t have everything fluffy, she warns: think big leaves, spiky shapes and contrasts.

Through changing her displays regularly, Harriet quickly spotted that plants not only benefit visually from being in groups, but also physically. Standing pots close together creates humidity, buffers wind and eases heat stress – making a large collection of containers easier to maintain.

Choose the right pot for the plant

Her second rule of container gardening is sorting the basics – with the right pot and compost, then careful watering.

“What matters most is using the right pot size for the plant, especially in summer,” she explains. “You want the roots to reach the edges and bottom, but not be cramped.

“For compost, I go by texture. Ideally it should look like muesli, not flour – not too fine, with a mix of particle sizes as roots need those air and water gaps. I usually buy the second-cheapest peat-free compost with added John Innes, which retains nutrients and doesn’t dry out as fast as those without.”

Good watering, she insists, should be slow and thorough. “Imagine filling a bucket half the size of the pot,” she says. “That gives it a proper soak.”

Katerina Kantalis sitting on a chair surrounded by plants in pots — Rachel Oastes

3. Grow what you want

Rule number three is to keep it simple. She never uses layers of crocks or pot feet for drainage, nor saucers or water-retaining granules to hold water, and she doesn’t add grit or sieve compost: “life’s too short for all of that”. Her only addition is fertiliser, to power the display – pelleted chicken manure in spring and liquid seaweed in the summer.

The beauty of container growing, she believes, is that it’s fast, uncomplicated and universal. There’s a pot for every plant and place. And no room for snobbery about a right or wrong plant – where petunias, begonias and marigolds are as prized as any rarity because they’re simply good performers.

Harriet says: “Don’t take any notice of what’s deemed to be ‘good taste’ but grow what you like and works. Container gardening is democratic – anyone can do it, all you need is a doorstep.”

4. Building a balcony garden

It’s why the container gardens at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show have long been among its most popular attractions since the Whichford team pioneered creative container displays more than 30 years ago.

Returning this month, the show offers plenty of ideas for container and small space gardens, with the most eye-catching coming from gold-medal-winning designer Katerina Kantalis. Her balcony garden is designed for a retired couple with a passion for both gardening and travel, who’ve downsized to a space big enough only for containers – but who still want the joy of hands-on growing of both flowers and veg.

“Containers allow you to enjoy a vibrant garden, changeable with the seasons, even on a balcony,” Katerina says. “For anyone downsizing, pots still give you the pleasure of nature close up, as you raise seeds, bring on plants and grow food.”

In the limited space of containers, Katerina insists that every plant must have a role – ideally more than one. She seeks hard-working varieties that can be eaten or used in drinks, with colour and fragrance, or to give the space structure.

She’ll use nasturtiums for their vibrant flowers and edible leaves. Climbing beans scrambling up a frame provide flowering interest and a harvest. A grapevine lends dappled shade and edible leaves. Herbs bring scent, flavour, and texture.

She’s even built in pest control with roses, traditionally used in vineyards to monitor pest populations, and French marigolds to lure bugs away from crops. Strongly scented herbs like thyme and mint distract flying insects from succulent leaves.

“It’s about plants supporting each other,” she explains.

The leaves of a growing banana plant on the left and pink dahlias in a terracotta pot on the right — GAP photos

5. Combination perfection

Katerina is based in London but hails from Australia, of Greek heritage, so comes to container gardening with a mission to share how to cope in our changing climate.

“Firstly, it’s about plants, choosing ones that tolerate your conditions – like pelargoniums that are incredible survivors,” she says. “And don’t mix those with different needs – grouping drought-tolerant plants apart from shade-lovers simplifies their care.

“Your pots matter too. Natural materials like clay allow plants to breathe but prevent excessive evaporation. I line terracotta pots with hessian to reduce water loss and am trialling wool felt from the packaging industry, which absorbs water then releases it slowly.”

Katerina’s garden is inspired by her mother in Australia, who maintains an extensive pot garden into her late 70s. She’s determined to prove that containers are the ideal solution for gardeners in later life – adaptable to changing needs and creating an impact within hours.

“Just because you’re older doesn’t mean you should stop gardening,” she says. “Using pots lets you grow at any stage of life, giving easier access and demanding less time.

You may do it differently, but the joy is still there.”

7 star plants for summer pots

Harriet loves drama in her pots, with big players anchoring a scene and a strong supporting cast for colour and depth

1. Bananas – “I like the giants, so grow Musa sikkimensis.”
2. Abutilons – “For their big canopy, ‘Canary Bird’ and the stately ‘Red Tiger’.”
3. Dahlias – “Grow the ‘Honka’ series for bees, and vivid red pom-pom ‘Viking’ for fun.”
4. Salvias – “Try tough S microphylla types like ‘Wild Watermelon’, or ‘Nachtvlinder’ for easy cuttings.”
5. Succulents – “Full of character, like the near-black Aeonium ‘Zwartkop’ or purple plectranthus.”
6. Grasses – “Stripy Miscanthus ‘Zebrinus’, fluffy bunny tails or bomb-proof Carex 'Evergold’ for flow, Hakonechloa as a waterfall at the edge of a pot.”
7. Hardy fuchsias – “Brilliant for longevity, ‘Checkerboard’ has lots of small, elegant red and white flowers.”

Discover more in Harriet’s container book Pots (Frances Lincoln, RRP: £12.99)
See Katerina’s Chelsea Flower Show garden, A Little Garden of Shared Knowledge, sponsored by Viking:

(Hero image credit: GAP photos)

Written by: Lucy Hall

Lucy Hall is a garden expert, editor, presenter, podcast creator and writer. She's a trustee of the National Garden Scheme and formerly editor of BBC Gardeners' World Magazine and associate publisher of Gardens Illustrated.

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