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0 Comments | Daily Post; Liverpool (UK), Nov 21, 2009 | by HANNAH STEPHENSON

IF you’re looking for colourful pots which will last a bit longer than a few short lived pansies this winter, it’s worth shopping around for evergreen and berried shrubs and grasses. Garden centres are awash with winter cherries (solanum capsicastrum), bearing large bright-orange berries which look tempting but may not last too long outside unless you give them a really sheltered spot.

A better bet for a splash of colour in a contemporary pot would be callicarpa bodinieri Profusion, a hardy shrub which produces bright-purple berries in winter, standing out among underplantings of ivy and winter-flowering heather.

Some shrubs last well in pots and can then be successfully grown in the garden. Skimmia reevesiana, a hermaphrodite producing vibrant red berries, looks wonderful in pots, as does its relative S japonica Rubella with its deep-red flower buds, which can be a vibrant focal point in any container.

If you transfer skimmia from their pots to your borders in spring and you want berries in future years, make sure you grow male and female plants together. Foremanii is female and produces large bunches of berries, while Fragrans is male and recommended for its floral fragrance.

Deep-coloured heucheras also remain pretty hardy over the winter, contrasting well with variegated euonymus and seasonal accent plants including cyclamen from the Miracle Series, which will flower for weeks and tolerate mild frosts.

Viburnum tinus is another reliable evergreen shrub which can comfortably fill a winter pot. Its buds reveal a dark pink tinge when they open, later lightening to pure white as the flowers open between late winter and early spring.

When planting your winter pots, buy a container labelled ‘frost- proof’ rather than ‘frostresistant’, which will withstand the British weather more effectively. Line the inside of the pot with plastic bubblewrap to prevent compost from freezing and damaging the roots, but don’t cover the drainage hole. Line the base of the pot with crocks or chunks of polystyrene to ease drainage.

Half-fill the pot with compost. For permanent plantings of shrubs and perennials, use a soil-based compost such as John Innes No 3, which holds on to water and nutrients while encouraging good air movement and drainage. Sit the rootball of your main plant about 2.5cm below the container rim, initially sitting the plant in its pot in the container to gauge the right depth.

Knock your plant out of its pot and position it in the container, holding it steady as you add more compost to secure it, and raise the level of compost to suit other plants
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