Three pots for summer colour

Permanent plantings of trees, shrubs and perennials will have key seasons of impact, but most gardens have lulls. Pots and containers packed with colourful bedding plants can be positioned exactly where you want them to keep the garden looking fresh all summer and beyond. If well looked after, they should last until the first autumn frosts.

The great benefit of bedding plants is that nothing is permanent, so don't be afraid to experiment with colours and textures. For more summer colour, take a look at these midsummer plant combinations.

Discover three pots for summer colour to plant up, below.

Bright whites

• 2 x Cosmos 'Sonata White'
• 2 x Helichrysum 'Silver Mist'
• 2 x white diascia
• 1 x Calocephalus brownii (cushion bush)
• 1 x 30cm white-glazed pot

Perfect purples

• 3 x purple surfinia petunias
• 3 x Verbena 'Magelana Midnight Blue'
• 3 x Ipomoea batatas 'Bright Ideas Black'
• 1 x 30cm terracotta pot

Go for gold

• 4 x Zinnia marylandica 'Zahara Yellow'
• 2 x Lantana 'Lucky Pure Gold'
• 2 x Bidens aurea
• 4 x yellow tagetes
• 2 x Helichrysum 'Silver Mist'
• 2 x Cosmos 'Sonata White'
• 1 x 45cm terracotta pot

Top tips for maintaining your containers

• Water regularly. Soak the pot thoroughly, let top layer of compost dry out and water the pot thoroughly again
• Feed with a diluted feed such as seaweed extract every two weeks or so to keep plants healthy and flowering. Feed when the compost is moist
• Deadhead to trick the plants into producing more more blooms. Regularly pick off faded flowers with your fingers or a pair of scissors
• Protect if late frosts or winds are forecast, by covering the containers in fleece in situ, or by placing them under cover
• When it's finished pull the plants out and put them on the compost heap. Then clean the pot ready for a winter display