When the sun shines on a February day, you can almost imagine Spring is in the air. I like to add a little bit of colour to my structural plants in pots to lift the spirits until the bulbs do their thing.

Here soft pastel shades of pinks and mauves look good in the gentle light – easy on the eye and pretty. Plants include sweet smelling lilac Erysimum, yet to flower, Ranunculus and Saxifraga arendsii.

Yellow and green are the classic colours of Spring –  the obvious primroses and early daffodils are a welcome splash of brightness. I use lots of old containers, as well as the standard pots – things like baskets, old feeding troughs – just make sure they have drainage holes.

or let the pot provide the colour – here, white Bellis reside in a lime-green pot, toning with the light green foliage.

I always keep some evergreen and structural plants in pots to bulk up the display.

Viburnum tinus

Choisya

As well as winter scented shrubs .. something to draw you outside to sip your coffee

Daphne od. “Aureomarginata”

Deliciously scented Sarcococca confusa

Hamamelis x intermedia

Cyclamen have been busy flowering throughout the winter, the foliage almost better than the flower colour.

It helps drainage in wet winters I think to lift some of your pots onto tables or chairs, and all the better to view them.

Take the tones of your permanent plants to choose the colour of the flowering plants. Here the silvery tones of Euphorbia characias ‘Silver Swan’ look good against the white of the bellis.

Whereas the reddish tones of Euphorbia amygdaloides are here picked up by the orange of the ranunculus, which do well in mild winters, their vivid colours and crepe-paper type flowers are great in small doses. They make long-lasting cut flowers too.

Hope I’ve provided a little inspiration. If you have a large terrace, it helps to make mass groupings of similar colours along with evergreens for greatest impact.

These pots will see you through until the  gardens return to life. I hope that’s quite soon for you.