Cheap and Easy to Tend seasonal plants for my garden tubs

I use Aldi, B& M and local outlets for cheap strips of bedding plants, loads at this time of year.
Geraniums, lobelia, cosmos, fuschia are some of the ones I’ve found slug proof, slugs love busy lizzies ime. I don’t like the look of begonias, though they too are snail proof.
Secret to plants not looking cheap is to keep within a colour spectrum eg pink, white, lilac.

Pelargoniums/geraniums are so easy to look after. I seen a tip on Facebook to overwinter outdoors . If you just take the pots down put them against a wall that has a radiator on,the warmth will add to protection. I covered the top with chipped bark and made sure they were raised off the ground. I have just top dressed with compost and have about 10 lovely flowering now.

I'd forgotten Marigolds, love them.

Nemesia? I have some lovely vanilla scented ones and they are trouble free - just water when the compost feels dry about 2 inches down. Although most people treat them as annuals, mine are in their third season. I just leave them in the pot in a sheltered spot over winter (Hertfordshire area).

Oh joy. I’ve just been to the village shop in the next village ( we no longer have one since they closed the post office down), you know, the sort of tiny shop that sells everything. Anyway it didn’t have what I needed but it did have four trays of snapdragons…I’ve been trying to get snapdragons with no success for two years now.

For a showy individual pot, I use New Guinea impatiens. They are bigger than the small bedding impatiens, and flower all summer.

A packet of nasturtiums; cheap as chips and you get loads. Quick to germinate, can be used on their own to tumble out of pots or baskets or, alternatively, used to bulk up with other plants. The flowers are edible too (lovely in salads, with a peppery flavour)

Honestly, you can’t go wrong with marigolds. The best £5 I think I’ve ever spent 3 years ago when Asda had a special offer of 3 trays of marigold seedlings for that amount. I am not an experienced gardener, but 95% of them grew into beautiful plants with flowers of different shades of yellow, orange and red. They made me happy just looking at them. They lasted months and then came up again the next year. I even had one or two last year as well. They brought me so much joy.

No-one has mentioned Heucheras, which come with foliage of all colours,. are very happy in tubs, like shade and some sun, flower from spring on to summer or longer, and will survive frost as evergreens or will come back every spring if they're the sort that will die back. I am mad about them. They are easily found in any garden-centre. Though the flowers are not the best virtue they have, they will thrive as a cut flower in vases.

Geums. They are gorgeous and keep on flowering beautifully.

keepcalmandcavachon And classy too, a great big mix of everything looks like a bowl of sick! 🤮🤮

Antirhinums; I forget to water and they still look lovely. They self seed so keep coming back. I love fuchsias too, lobelias (trailing and upright) seem to last until we get vicious frosts.

I also have some very short species tulips permanently in my troughs for spring.

I usually have a variety of plants but find that geraniums and verbena are really the best for summer, with small pansies and cyclamen for autumn and winter. The pansies usually last until I can put the summer plants out once the frost is over.

Ooh, I love deadheading! And pruning. 👀

I read a about a way to keep your plants moist, buy a kitchen sponge,cut it onto cubes and put it at the bottom of the pot on top of some soil, it holds the water and helps keep the plants from drying up.

Zinnia and cosmos, both tolerate drought and heat.

Busy Lizzies to me and Fuchsias are tops as you don't really need to dead head them like Petunias.
I combine them with small Geraniums tho you do have to remove dead heads to keep them at their best but they aren't too fiddly.

Nasturtiums on my goodness yes Blackfly.

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Fuschias, geraniums, petunia, lobelia, buzzyy lizzies.

Geraniums family, tough as old boots, mine are known to stay flowering until November /December.
I particularly like trailing ones, which I plant up into long planters, then I place to hang from my fences.
I'm fortunate I live in the very South, so we don't get frost very often which makes them last longer.
I only buy them from a well known German supermarket, brilliant value.

Erigeron are perennial and flower almost constantly. A quick trim in the spring and come back everywhere. They have small pink and white daisy flowers

Go for something tallish, mid high and trailing. Thos year I have centrally a heuchera wit taller tobacco plants and trailing geraniums in some pots and petunias in others. Growing on the petunias in the greenhouse they are now flowering and to my surprise, they are highly scented. The greenhouse smells glorious when I open it in the morning.

Don’t forget to harden off any plants you buy as they have had a sheltered life in a greenhouse and need to get used to outdoor living before you plant them out.

My go to plant is now always Bacopa. Sometimes last the winter if in a sheltered spot, too.

Pansies/violas are good and pretty much bomb-proof. I planted summer violas in pots three years ago in a dark purple/yellow colour. Ever since, they’ve self seeded in between the patio slabs, in the boarders and even in my trugs. They’re a rainbow of colour, too, from almost blue through lilac, bronze and a lovely cream. You never know what colour will come up next.

Oreo

I 🥰 nasturtiums but they always get blackfly.

If I've grown them, they end up full of caterpillars!
Cabbage white, nothing exotic.
They are supposed to be good for companion planting near brassicas but these were in hanging baskets just outside the front door.