EP305 - Christmas Planters For The Festive Season & Beyond!!

Your front door deserves more than a week of glitter. We break down how to build Christmas planters that look festive now, thrive in deep shade, and transition smoothly into spring without waste. The secret is designing for longevity: choose a strong evergreen centrepiece, layer hardy winter colour, and add seasonal touches you can lift out in January.

We start with structure. Skimmia japonica tops our list for glossy leaves and vibrant buds that read instantly “Christmas” yet stay handsome for months. Holly brings classic winter mood, while taxus and box cones or balls give clean shapes that handle outdoor lights beautifully. We also explore pieris and compact conifers like junipers and cryptomeria for texture that stands up under a porch with minimal winter watering. If you want to keep them in pots, match compost to plant needs and watch moisture as days get longer.

Then we build colour that lasts. Violas and pansies in deep reds and purples are cold-tolerant and cheerful well into spring. Cyclamen adds drama if you’re happy to deadhead, and primroses, polyanthus, and bellis round out a soft, friendly palette. For the long game, tuck bulbs beneath the bedding; hyacinths or dwarf narcissus will push through late winter and extend the show. Prefer zero maintenance? We share a cut-greenery planter: damp compost, layered evergreens, red-stem dogwood or birch twigs, pine cones, and warm micro-lights for a lush, foam-free display you can compost after New Year.

We make a strong case for skipping sprayed or painted plants. They look dated by mid-January and usually end up in the bin. Instead, use simple picks—a small robin, a subtle Santa, tiny parcels—to add Christmas notes you can remove later, revealing a timeless winter container. By repeating two or three colours, mixing glossy leaves with soft blooms, and scaling pots to your doorway, you’ll get a display that feels fresh, natural, and welcoming every day.

If this guide helps you rethink festive containers, follow the show, share it with a gardening friend, and leave a quick review. Got a planter you’re proud of? Tag us with a photo and tell us your go-to winter centrepiece.

Chapters

• 0:12 Listener Question: Christmas Planters
• 2:59 Designing For Longevity And Shade
• 3:59 Please Skip Sprayed And Painted Plants
• 9:12 Live Planter Centerpieces And Structure
• 13:06 Evergreen Choices For Shape And Texture
• 18:29 Winter Bedding And Bulbs For Colour

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:12

How's it going everybody and welcome to episode 305 of Master My Garden Podcast? Now, this week's episode is answering another listener's question. And it's actually I have a about six questions from this particular listener, and a lot of them are brilliant questions, and they will lead to further topics in the springtime. But for now, this one relates to Christmas planters. And it's probably something that I've actually covered already in sort of the winter containers, but more specifically now this one is aimed at the Christmas at Christmas. And the this listener wants to put nice pots at the front door, nice Christmas displays at the front door, very shaded spot, doesn't get sun, and and so on. So that's you know that's the starting point. And I always, you know, when I'm talking about these things, I always sort of recommend the that you get plants that are going to give you a little bit of longevity. So maybe your centerpiece can stay in the pot for a long time, or your centrepiece can stay in the pot for a certain period of time and then move on to your garden, and so that you're getting longevity into it. So that's kind of the topic of this week's episode. Likely won't be a very, very long episode, but still one that you know most people do try and spruce up the front door or the entrance point or you know the the patio doors or the viewing areas at this time of the year. And you can of course add a Christmas twist to them that you know that will last going over all over the Christmas period and then going into into the springtime. And I suppose the the the types of plants that we're looking at, there's you know, there's a nice mix, but we are relatively limited. And the fact that this listener says that they have a very, very shaded front door, that's not uncommon, uh, particularly people with porches and you know, anyone that has a bit of a of an overhang at the front door, those pots tend to be shaded, generally speaking. They sometimes tend to not get you know, not get much moisture. And that's at this time of the year, it's not that big of an issue because they won't have a huge requirement for that. So it's it's quite easy to do it at this stage of the year. Um also the plants that you'll get at this time of the year that are growing well at this time of the year, they tend to be plants you know, they tend to be plants that don't require huge amounts of sun anyway. So, you know, if they are in a shaded spot, they'll generally do okay in there, and they'll certainly look look great over the Christmas period. So we will look at that. Uh before I get into that, one thing I've mentioned before, I just think it's important, especially at Christmas, and there's a few reasons for it. Painted painted shrubs or sprayed shrubs, please don't put any of those into your planters. I suppose from my perspective, I just cannot stand them. I can't understand why you know someone would feel the need to spray a little conifer in fake snow. Um I just think it just it's ridiculous. There's enough of nice plants out there without doing something like that. But if you know, if you did choose to use that plant, it looks festive, you know, you have that snowy look on it, it looks festive for the next couple of weeks, takes you through the Christmas period, but very quickly then that real realistically becomes something that doesn't make sense. So you're going into the springtime and you have this snowy looking plant in your container, and it doesn't make sense, it doesn't align with the with the season at that stage. So inevitably what happens with them, 99% of them I would say end up getting chucked into the bin very shortly after Christmas, or certainly not long into the new year. So for that reason for that reason the fact that they're getting chucked, that they're not being grown as as a plant afterwards, I just don't get why you would why you would do that. Now, I will you know give you a couple of ideas of something that might do the same trick without having to be a sprayed plant. And you know, it they can look equally as well. So let's the way I'm gonna kind of structure it is I'm gonna talk about your plant possibilities first for a live plant, for a live planter, or also one that we can make up, you know, with um sort of greenery from the garden or from outside of the garden and you know, flower something up in that way. So giving you kind of two styles, two styles of planters that you can do here. Um these can obviously be dressed up then for the Christmas period. You can put in your little picks, you know, your little robin picks or your little santes or whatever it is, something that can decorate it that you know ties it to the festive period, then those little things can be taken out once you pass the Christmas period, and now your planter still looks like a nice planter that can move forward into the spring, as opposed to yeah, to harp on again about those sprayed little conifers. Um they look so out of place anyway, but they look twice as out of place when when we're gone into you know end of January and into February and so on. So the first thing is again with all of the planters, and and I would have mentioned it before, with all of the planters, you're kind of having an eye on the longer term as well. So while we're looking for this instant beauty, something that might look a little bit festive, we're also looking at something that will last in the pot or can be moved out into the garden afterwards. And with that in mind, I suppose just sort of centre pieces that we can use initially to start off. And to be fair, there's lots of options out there. If you go to any of your garden centres or nurseries, they'll have great options on sort of evergreen structural plants, some with kind of berries and flowers on them or bracts on them at this time of the year, and that's you know, that's kind of the starting point. And to be honest, one of the very best is Schimia Japanica. So schimia is the one that you'll see there at the moment. It's typically either a red or a white uh flower on it, and that's male and female, and they're they're superb, so they're evergreen, really glossy-looking leaf. Obviously, the red one looks really Christmassy, really festive. So that's a good a good addition. The great thing at this time of the year in your garden centres is that they are, you know, they're typically seen as a kind of a Christmas style plant, and because of that, you'll get them in all sizes from a nine centimetre pot right up to big kind of big sizes for for planting out. And again, that plant will be perfectly happy in the container right over the Christmas period and into the spring, but also if that if you decide to leave that in the pot, it'll be it'll be fine there for you know for years to come, or it can be moved out into the garden. So centrepiece, skimmy, skimmia japonic, a brilliant, brilliant option. Elix, which is your your holly, uh, again another very good option. Now, sometimes it can be tricky to get them to have berries, you know. If you go to your garden centre, they'll have lots of holly plants, but to have them with actual berries on it can be tricky. You will find it in certain places, but can be generally tricky to find that. But either way, a holly is synonymous obviously with the Christmas period. So you can get your variegated ones, they're not as nice for the Christmas period because it is that traditional that dark green uh leaf. That's kind of what we associate with with Christmas, and obviously that that looks extremely well. Uh, another good option is Pierre's, so they have that fiery, that fiery red look. They are a ericaceous plant, so they'll they'll like an ericaceous compost if you're going to be leaving them in that pot long term, or if you're going to be planting them out in the garden, they're going to like ericaceous type soil. So, but it's another good option. Skimia is, in my opinion, the best option, the most flexible option. And definitely looks, you know, with the red, particularly the red one, looks really Christmassy. There are other options then in terms of greenery, in terms of structure, um, and then we get into flowers as well. So other options, you know, taxis bacata, we mentioned that on the hedging episode. You can get those in cones, you can get those in in ball shapes, uh, you can get those pretty much any size style, and they're a really tight evergreen. They can look really good in the centre of a pot with colour planted around it, uh, with some of your picks, and even adding the addition of some outdoor lights to it. So you can get a really nice display, and obviously, then that plant is superb for going on, staying in the planter in the planter or going out into your garden. So that's a really good option. Uh, another good option, of course, is the boxes. So, boxes again, the boxes cones, boxes balls. The only thing I would say about any of these, just be conscious, and and I will cover an episode, you know, for all year-round door planters. I think that's you know, that's kind of the one of the listeners' questions. Um, but for now, just be conscious of these that you're going to have them sitting, particularly if they have if you have a porch at your front door, that they're not going to get moisture. Now, the requirement for moisture over the next few months won't be a lot, but as you get into next spring, just watch out for that. So, taxes picata, uh boxes, they're all really good options. Then there's lots of really good conifer options, so things like junipers, uh chamisyparus, cryptomarias, they all have you know nice structural looks, evergreen, and they do look Christmassy. I do think though that the Skimia sort of fits the bill really, really, really well there. Um available in so many sizes, that colouring, that dark leaf colouring, and that red or white flower, but red particularly suitable for the Christmas period. And they're a brilliant centrepiece. There is other ones there little little grey silvery ones which are affectionately known as brownies. They're um callow, callusciferous, um brownie is is the is the sort of nickname on them. They're really good for kind of not for flower but for the the leaf look at this time of the year and they have that silvery sort of grey look about them. And yeah, they look like little when planted in a big planter, particularly around the edge of it, they kind of look like little balls of snow or something along those lines. So yeah, they're they're quite nice at this time of the year as well. Another good option is you know the Erica Carnias, which are the winter flowering headers, they can look really good at this time of the year. Uh brilliant in a in a pot. Don't necessarily look Christmassy, but they just give you a nice, a nice look at this time of the year. And you know, they're kind of the they're kind of the the leaf uh or the structural elements of it. You know, you can have also ivies that will hang down over the edge of the pot, and they're gonna give you the you know a little bit of evergreen as well. So they're they're kind of your structure. And then out from that you can you can get lots of colour at this time of the year. So you're talking about bedding plants and so on. And these these are brilliant again because they're gonna give you that splash of colour around your your entrance for for Christmas and so on, but they'll also last into the spring and right up until summertime, early summertime. And you're looking at things like violas, you can get you know your particular colours there. Uh pansies, again, there's a lot of pansies out there now that are a really dark, kind of purpley red colour, and they look really nice, really rich colour for the Christmas period, so they're brilliant. You have cichlamons, I mentioned them before, really nice flower, can be a little bit finicky when you take them home, but if you're going to mine them and you're going to be able to deadhead them and take off any dead leaves, they will last quite well, but they can be a little bit finicky, more finicky than any of the others. But of course, cichlamens you can get in lovely reds and whites, so you can make kind of you know the the red and white, like a candy cane type um colouring on your pot at this time of the year, which looks really good. Uh, other ones are polyanthus, uh, primroses, and so on. And they'll be flowering now, or you can get ones that are just starting to flower, and they will flower right through until April into early May. So, another good one as well is Bellus. So, Bellus is um like a little daisy style flower. You can get that in lots of colours pinks, reds, whites, and so on. And you get them in flower at the moment. So it's really, really easy to get a planter that you know that gives you nice colour, a live planter that gives you nice colour at this time of the year. Taking some structural plants that you can, you know, add your your Christmas lights to, or you know, that just gives you that look of a Christmas tree, and then filling around the base with with all of these flowers. I would always at this time of the year be adding uh bulbs as an addition to the to the planting because they'll just pop through, they won't give you any benefit for Christmas, but they'll just pop through in the springtime and they'll give you a nice splash of colour and they'll be a welcome, a welcome kind of colour in the early part of the spring. You can also get you know some hyacinths, keep an eye in your gardens and you'll get hyacinths maybe at this stage of the year that might be coming into flower, uh, and they can look nice in the planters as well. But between all of those, you'll get a really nice mix of various plants, structural plants, evergreen plants, plants with flowers on them, and bedding, you know, to give you a kind of a a nice planter. Of course, then you can add all of your little your little picks, as I mentioned, so a little robin. Uh these look so at this time of year they look so nice and natural. Get a nice little robin pick, stick it into your tree, stick it into the compost. You might have your little sandy or your little little uh kind of miniature versions of boxes of presents, they look really good. Uh but please stay away from the sprayed plants. I don't think there's any any need for them whatsoever. The good thing about your picks is that you can just once you once you come out of that Christmas period, once they're not relevant, you know, the the little Santa Claus, he's not relevant once Christmas has passed, but take that out, and now you have a spring planter as well. So you're just you're just dressing it up slightly for the Christmas period. Uh on a cut on the cut side, it's very, very easy to have a really nice planter that won't take any maintenance whatsoever, that's gonna look lovely for this whole Christmas period, and then can be just taken away and composted afterwards. And so to do that, you you can get your planter, uh fill it with nice compost, damp compost. Uh you don't need to use oasis because you're gonna use damp compost instead. And then you go get your greenery, and you're looking at things like you know, um a lot of uh pine pine cones, you're looking at any of the evergreen cuttings that you can get outside, your holly, your ivy, your you know, even things like the if you're cut if you have any evergreens in your garden like uh Castlewell and Gold or any of the ones I mentioned that you put into your pots like junipers, uh pine, chamoisyparus, any of those. Even the the horrible Lalandy hedge that we mentioned a few weeks ago, if you have that, that greenery can be quite useful around the base and you know just to create an evergreen look. You can also use things like twisted hazel, uh cornice, the dogwoods, especially the red ones of this time of year can look really well. So you're cutting off your your stems, you're sticking them into the pot. Another good one that I have in the garden here myself, Betula Jaclamonte, that ghostly white stem. So cut all of those, cut your cut your evergreens, stick them into the pot, and that's gonna give you your sort of green, you're creating like a wreath on top of your pot. Uh then the like secornice or the white stems of the of the birch are going to give you that kind of structure, and then from there you can add things again like your picks, like your your ribbons, your lights, your bows, whatever the case may be, and it just creates a nice seasonal display at your front door with greenery from the garden predominantly, possibly some red berries if you're getting able to get your hands on it'd be ideal if it's hollyberries, and it just creates a really simple and really easy planter for the for the Christmas period. Definitely don't need to maintain it, it'll look lovely there for the next few weeks, right through until after Christmas, and then you just take away anything that you don't want, compost it, put into your into your green waste bin, and away you go. Uh, you can your picks then can be kept up for the following year. So that's kind of two versions of it a live version of it and uh and a cut and a cut version of it. And both of them will look brilliant at this stage of the year. You can get some extra benefit, of course, from the live pot. You're going to be able to, as I said, dress it up now and you know uh accessorize it for the for Christmas with your bows, with your little picks and so on, and then remove those as soon as Christmas has passed, and then that planter will last, and you'll have value for months and months to come, and also you'll have plants that can be planted out into the garden or keep them in that you know, keep them in that um planter for for months. So that's kind of hope that answers the question. I think it does. Uh it's pretty much one we've covered before, only this is specifically tailored to the Christmas period. Uh the podcast itself for now is definitely on the window for for the Christmas period. Definitely next week, next week's episode. I'll I I always do at this stage of the year, I always do a kind of a a yearly recap and then a kind of a look at the podcast, uh, the top episodes of the year, the sort of top ten of what has been listened to over the last year. I also talk about where people are listening, and that does be fascinating to look at. You get you know, you people from just so many different places, and it's fascinating to know that and to give you guys a shout out. And then podcasts will be finishing up for a couple of weeks around the Christmas time, and uh yeah, then we'll be back at it in the spring. Lots of topics so that people are have asked to be covered on the podcast, and a lot of them are as as you would expect, spring and summer related. So I've covered them at a more time apt period. Uh, the dates for my grow your own courses in the spring, they are finalised now, and I'll be able to announce those fully next week. So the dates are are set. Uh just working on back-end stuff and how to have a little wait list going and how to I'll put the wait list actually in the show notes for anyone that's interested. Um, but also next week I will have the live sales page ready to go. Uh very limited places, so this is going to be I'm just going two of the two of the grow your own food days. So this will basically take you from if you're a complete beginner, it'll take you from complete beginner to growing your own food all in one day, give you the confidence to go away and do it. If you're already growing and you just want to get better at it, or there's something you're struggling with, we do a lot of within the day, a lot of tailored one-to-one advice, and that advice then tends to help everybody in the workshop. So they always have a lovely vibe, these workshops, nice, kind of relaxed vibe, everybody helping each other and getting specific information for your garden as well. So uh limited spaces, there will be limited spaces on both, so it's going to be, I think, 12, 12 to 14 people on each. Um, so you'll get very much tailored advice. Um, but that I won't be doing any more of those, so it'll be two of those next year. Other workshops. I'm working on three other different workshops. On I won't even mention them yet, but two two of them are almost finalised, and as soon as they are, I'll be the I'll let you know about those. But delighted to be getting back at these workshops. I really loved them a couple of years ago when I did them. Kind of got away from them because there was lots of stuff going on, just personally at home with a lot of stuff going on. Uh, very, very busy, so definitely want to get back at them. And uh yeah. Wait list for the two grow your own ones is in the show notes of this episode, and then next, hopefully next week, I'll be able to actually give you this, you know, the sales page for those. Uh ideal Christmas gift for you know for people, if you know of anyone that would like that as a Christmas gift, they're an ideal Christmas gift. I mentioned them a little bit on the episode a few weeks ago, but I hadn't got all the details finalized. So, yeah, an ideal Christmas gift. A lot of people come with friends as well, so you tend to get people coming in twos or threes, so people that might have the same interests and they're maybe travelling from it. So the last time we had a lot of people that came in couples or pairs, and yeah, it it really is a nice day out, so yeah, those dates, those dates definitely available for next week. And if you want to know first about those, the wait list email for or the link for the e for the wait list is in the show notes. Uh, yeah, so that's pretty much this week's episode. I thought it would be a short one, and it and it pretty much is. Big thing, stay away from those spray plants, lots of other great options out there that will give you just more long-term benefit and are more natural and then can be moved on or can stay in the pots. So, yeah, just a way better options out there. No need to get no need to go for those spray plants. So uh, yeah, full list of those plants, uh, highlight them in the in the show notes as well if you want to if you want to grab those. But go to any of your garden centres, nurseries, you'll see those at the moment. That's what they're that's what they're stocking. They're stocking the skimmias, the hollies, uh, helibores, ericas, taxas picatas, junipers, chamois, all of those centrepiece plants, and then of course the violas, pansies, cyclones, um, bellus, primrose, polyanthus, all of those. That's what they're stocking at the moment. That's what you'll be able to get. And then obviously dicky it up a little bit for the Christmas period, but that'll look well at your front or back door, wherever you're coming in and in and out of your house, it'll look festive, but it'll also look nice, natural, uh, and definitely beautiful. So that's been this week's episode. I hope that helps. And until the next time, happy garden.