Pots Of Colour At Easter

Add colour and drama to your container displays this Easter using bulbs, shrubs, alpines and annuals. Tamsin Westhorpe has some quick and easy ideas

EASTER day may fall on 1 April, but this isn’t an April Fool. You really can add colour to your pots now to celebrate the Easter holiday in style. If you’re anything like me you have a range of pots – some with tulips and other spring bulbs just poking out of the compost, others with now shabby winter bedding and plenty of empty pots crying out for attention.

I prefer to leave my pots of bulbs alone to avoid damaging the new shoots. For those who didn’t plant spring-flowering bulbs in autumn, there are plenty of potted bulbs on sale for planting in containers now.

Fading winter bedding pots are easily given a new look by removing plants that are past their best. Cyclamen can be planted in shady borders and ivy left in the pot but trimmed to encourage new growth. A fresh few inches of compost with slow release fertiliser mixed in, plus some new spring-flowering plants, and your winter look can quick turn into spring.