Our recent project that I showed you a couple of weeks ago featured a good deal of pots on the roof garden, it was an amazing garden but the nature of the roof garden means that pots and planters are the only options without far too many issues regarding weight and moving excessive amounts of soil, frankly just not an option, financially or otherwise. I digress, I am currently working on another lovely project this time for in hospitality where again they are using pots and planters on a restaurant terrace and once again we are using the majority of the Fibreglass planters, they are just a lovely product to work with.  I found the manufacturer of these in Holland several years ago and they have been a staple on the nursery ever since, they just work.

The manufacturer produces a range of planters in different materials as well as fibreglass, aluminium, corten steel and Hardwood timber but the fibreglass ones are the most popular by far for this kind of project as you can do very large pots without the excessive weight. This project is also calling for Hardwood pot too and these will give a different look to  the area, adding texture and warmth that only natural products can do and this hotel is in a wonderful location with amazing views so it will be nice to keep that natural look where possible.

Our pot range is extensive and we would have pots from 60cm cubes right through to the long trough planters or the huge terracotta pots that we could bath the whole family in! Our 60cm pots are ideal for front doors or along a terrace and being fibreglass they can be moved even when filled. The fibreglass planters are very practical and come in a range of 5 colours but our most popular by far is the anthracite.

At front doors and terraces still the most popular is the formal looking box balls and half standard trees like the Photinia Red Robin or the Bay laurel. For a recent public house garden we mixed up a little and used a very natural planting of viburnums, grasses, paniculata hydrangeas and sedums which created a lovely soft look, not for everybody but it did work especially well in this garden.  When we showed this to one of our local pubs in Naas they loved the look and we recreated a similar display for their window boxes at the front of the premises and again it looks great, a very different look from the usual bedding plant display.

In another hotel that we design and plant we used grape vines in the planters on the bar terrace, these look just stunning and it is always nice to keeping finding new options and giving something unique. These look amazing and although they do lose their leaves in in the winter the stunning foliage (and hopefully some grapes) look so beautiful in Spring and Summer and the bark and unusual shapes that they create in the winter makes up for its lack of foliage.

In some of our designs we have used the trough planters as small divides just planted very simply with hedging and they look formal with their clean lines and some of our larger sized pots will be more than suitable for a medium sized tree so you can do much with these pots.

Still the most popular those is the pots for an entrance and we have always so many ideas ready planted for inspiration for you on these. I have my own two pots on either side of my terrace planted very simply with agapanthus for the summer and a mass of green/white parrot tulips for the Spring, its really simple but so effective and I love the contrast between the two options, it is very easy to do just planting the tulip bulbs in and around the agapanthus while planting those and Voila you have a fantastic display that is almost year round.