Plants with Pink Flowers for Romantic Containers

Last week I shared some ideas for creating summer planters featuring hot colours. This week I’m turning my attention to containers with a softer, more romantic, cottage garden look. To achieve this I’ve mostly used plants with pink flowers.

Get the Container Right

But before I delve into the plant detail, I should say that the loveliest plants in the world won’t work for you if you don’t get your container right. Romantic pots look generously filled. Often they’re overflowing. So if you are using a combination of plants, you will need a good sized container. Indeed, I’d rather have one large container (at least 40cm diameter) than two small ones.

• A large container gives you more planting options
• It’s more of a statement
• It doesn’t dry out so quickly – so less frequent watering is needed
• You can create almost a mini garden in the one pot!

Going for a large container doesn’t necessarily mean spending a heap of money. There are lots of things you can use other than expensive terracotta pots from garden centres. Disused china sinks, old chimneys, salvaged metal tubs, old packing cases, disused wicker baskets – you name it, I’ve tried it. The trick is, if you can, go large and be generous with your planting!

My Romantic Planter

For my romantic planter, I’ve used an old wheelbarrow. Mr F-W spotted it on eBay and thought I’d like it. How right he was. Not only is it a decent size and an adorable shape (slightly square) but I can easily trundle it around the garden, positioning it in different places as my mood takes me! The beauty of the old wheelbarrow is that it’s pretty leaky too. So we didn’t need to drill holes in it for drainage.

Plants With Pink Flowers – and Other Colours Too!

So what have I put in my container? As with my hot coloured combinations for summer planters, I’ve mostly gone for perennial plants. That’s because:

• They come back year after year – so you plant the container once and enjoy it for years!
• You can take cuttings from the perennials – I always do this as an insurance policy, in case a plant suddenly dies.
• Or you can often divide them, to increase your stock of plants for free

The plant combination I’ve chosen also provides a reasonably long flowering period – crucial if you are going to have a big container. It needs to earn its place in your garden. I’ve also taken care to choose plants which like the same conditions in terms of moisure, soil type and light.

As you will see, I’ve gone for three plants with pink flowers but I’ve also chosen some other colours to soften the effect and break things up. Lastly, my plant choices are great for bees, butterflies and other insects – this is absolutely crucial.

For the barrow I’ve chosen:

• Salvia Fashionista Pretty in Pink
• Salvia Rose Marvel
• Helianthemum Ben Hope
• Salvia Fashionista Vanity Flair
• Briza Golden Bee

Salvia pratensis Fashionista Pretty in Pink

I’m a big salvia fan and discovered the Fashionista range of salvias last year. I think they’re really effective for a feature container as they have very large, open, frothy, well defined flowers. Salvia Fashionista Pretty in Pink grows to a height of around 60cm and has vibrant lavender pink blooms from late spring and through summer. It’s pretty easy just give it well drained soil and it will thrive in sun or partial shade. My kind of plant!

Salvia nemorosa Rose Marvel

This summer flowering dwarf salvia is much smaller than the Fashionista varieties, growing to just 30cm. But there’s nothing small about its blooms. It produces ultra large blossoms in a gorgeous deep rose colour with purple detailing. These run right through summer into autumn. Trouble free, easy to grow, it’s showy but not a demanding prima donna. I love it!

Helianthemum Ben Hope

I have this vigorous evergreen rock rose romping away in a number of spots in the garden and for good reason. It produces a profusion of hot pink coloured saucer shaped flowers with yellow centres, from late spring to mid summer on a mound of lovely deep green leaves. So when planting up my barrow I dug up a clump and popped it in feeling its height of 15cm and 60cm spread would work well with my other planting.

Salvia pratensis Fashionista Vanity Flair

With three pinks in the container, I felt one more would have been too much. So I next went for something pale blue. I felt it important to choose a pale shade as it ensures the look remains soft and romantic. The blue works beautifully with the pinks. Furthermore the blue plant I’ve gone for is once again a Fashionista salvia. Indeed it is just like Pretty in Pink, in terms of its size and habit, but it’s a sky blue colour. By having the same type of plant it means that although I’ve introduced a major new colour to the mix, the plants look like they belong together.

Briza Golden Bee

To provide a little variety in the container, but a neutral, soft tone, I then added a grass. As you will know, if you regularly read my blog, I’m an ornamental grass enthusiast. But for good reason. For instance, this British native quaking grass has dainty fresh golden flowers which fade to beige and as the name suggests they shivver in the breeze – they’re wonderful. The plant isn’t showy. But with those gorgeous salvias to compete with any more ‘show’ would be too much. Instead, the grass provides movement and with its upright habit it perfectly mirrors the other plants – so they all look like they belong together. The grass only grows between 40-60cm tall, perfect for the other plants in the barrow, and it’s happy in sun or light shade.

So how does the whole barrow look?

Big Reveal…my container featuring plants with pink flowers

Other Plants with Pink Flowers

Obviously, there are plenty of other plants with pink flowers I could have gone for. Here are some worth considering:

Geranium Pink Souffle: a ground cover plant with delicate pink flowers but it works well in container.

Scabious Flutterby Pink: with their pretty domed heads and long flowering period, scabious are brilliant workers in a garden and this is a lovely soft pink variety, which looks wonderfully romantic. I think these paler pink plants look really good in metal containers accompanied by silver foliaged plants such as cineraria (just keep cutting the flowers off the cineraria as they’re yellow!)

Pelargoniums: Although I’m not a huge bedding plant fan I concede that pink pelargoniums can look incredibly romantic and effective planted in a wooden case like this with a pale mauve sage.

Sweet peas: There’s nothing quite as romantic as sweet peas climbing an obelisk in a container. And there’s an abundance of pink varieties to choose from. The salmon pink variety called Alan Titchmarsh is a beauty. I also like the paler rose and cream sweet pea Anne Barron or Audrey Kirkman, which has marbled pink flowers.

Gaura: A large clump of gaura with its softly swaying butterfly-like blooms, looks so soft and romantic in a container. Siskiyou Pink and Rosy Shimmers are both good pink varieties.

Geraniums: My final plant suggestion of plants with pink flowers is the hardy geranium. There are so many varieties to choose from but my absolute favourite is Geranium macrorrhizum ‘Ingwersen’s Variety’. As well as the palest of soft pink flowers in May and June (mine actually blooms beyond this), it has lovely green foliage that spreads slowly but steadily. Deeply romantic and soft in the summer it leaves turn an eyecatching red in autumn. Tough as old boots but as pretty as a peach, it’s my ‘go to’ geranium. And if you don’t have a massive container, but want impact, it won’t let you down. This is an old chimney pot full of the beauty which sits on my patio. It’s not a huge container, but wow – what a statement. It’s literally overflowing with va va voom!

Plants With Pink Flowers = Romantic Containers!

So there you have it, some plants with pink flowers to help you create the most romantic of containers for your garden. What do you think? Have I missed out your favourite? If I have do share… happy gardening x