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

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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.