Large pots. What plants?

If Acers hate one thing it's wind as you've found.

Rosemary might be a good bet. Drought tolerant, scented, pretty flowers and you can eat it!
Cordylines might be a good idea too.

Pleased to hear the 'pants' in your soil are doing well .

A Fatsia Japonica would fit the bill and be a statement.

Verbena bonariensis surprised me by doing very well in pots this year.

I bought a packet of 40 seeds, expected maybe 4 or 5 plants as I'd heard that they were 'difficult' but the whole lot came up and I ran out of garden space! I put five plants in each of 2 self-watering troughs and they have flowered away all Summer. Underplanted with bright red pelargoniums for full shock effect.

Rosemary was my first thought when I read your message, maybe underplanted with a thyme?

J52

A Fatsia Japonica would fit the bill and be a statement.

Agree. Easy plants tho hate it too hot as I found out for the first time this summer.
Also expensive but looks great. (British weather tolerant ) Palm tree slow growing just occasionally feed.

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How about a cherry tree for one of the east facing pots. We have one which does very well. Our house faces east. Here are a couple of photos of it. One spring, the other autumn.

MiniMoon how gorgeous..was it very expensive..small budget

How about bamboos? The clump forming ones, not the giant running types...

Rosemary or lavender

Bea65, sorry I have no idea. It was an anniversary gift from friends.
It's been in that pot for about 5 years and is doing really well.

Thank you for all your replies. I have rosemary in the ground at the front, it is thriving and I never watered them

I had verbena B in the ground but got fed up of it bending right over. I bought if to support butterflies but no longer needed it as my whole garden is maturing as butterfly and bee friendly

I emptied those two big pots and consequentially have done some shuffling on the patios. Big and L shaped. A lot of patio faces south. Those pots are now s facing and in front of a pale wall

I spent the morning filling all my 5 large pots with a mix of JI3 and grit and decided to take the easy route as I want to be able to leave the pots alone for years. I ordered some more agapanthus fireworks. I need to look ahead to hot dry summers and the agapanthus I already have in smaller pots have not needed any care, as well as looking lovely

I will now have 4 large pots of fireworks and one pot with a brown turkey fig. Fireworks is hardy and max 60cm tall so the fig will be accomodated nicely along the wall as it grows

I am really grateful to you for taking the time to give me your thoughts

The plants are in and look lovely. The brown turkey fig was an excellent buy via ebay. I have never grown a fig but the leaves look perfect in that position and it will eventually be tied to the trellis

It was a really good year for figs around here this year - here's hoping yours is productive too. It should do well sheltered by the wall.
I have a mini-fig that I acquired this year so I'm looking forward to seeing how that goes next year.

Some really good ideas here - my verbena B was given the Chelsea chop and that stopped them getting so tall...

I for one would love to see a photo of the finished project, karmalady. I at all possible?

Lovely cherry minimoon, especially the autumn foliage. Hasn't it done well in that pot?
Do you know the name of it?