Getting ready for autumn with Amberol

Summer is such a busy time of year for many of our customers with preparations for Britain in Bloom judging, floral displays to be maintained and in some regions, a massive influx of seasonal visitors. It’s also the time when the results of all that hard work can be seen in all their glory. We are always delighted to see Amberol self-watering containers of all shapes and sizes full to bursting with beautiful blooms, shrubs and edible plants.

But as summer draws to a close, it doesn’t mean that the hard work stops, or that your floral displays need to look any less lovely. Autumn is a beautiful season and with a little planning and care, your self-watering planters can look stunning throughout autumn and well into the winter months.

It’s now that bedding plants can begin to look a little tired – even in self-watering containers - so it’s a good time to take stock and decide which to maintain and which to replace. If regularly fed and deadheaded, geraniums, Busy Lizzies fuchsias and petunias will maintain their bloom for some time to come, although any buds that appear now may not have time to flower before the cooler weather sets in.

Adjust to the seasons

So, as the seasons change, so should your planting scheme. Self-watering planters do lend themselves well to seasonal changes as they are easy to rotate and repot.

• Planting evergreens, variated and dwarf evergreens, ferns and grasses ensure year round foliage.
• Interspersing these with flowering plants such as pot chrysanthemums or late-flowering perennials such as dahlias and anemones and bedding plants such as winter flowering pansies ensures colour throughout the colder months.
• You could also include a more unusual plant such as ornamental cabbage to add variety and interest.
• A top tip picked up from observing some of the wonderful displays that our customers have created is to fill three or more of the same containers with the same plants to create a real visual impact.

It’s also a good idea to fill containers with fresh compost from time to time so this could be part of your autumn preparation. Plants in containers grow well in loam-based compost such as John Innes no.3 and of course regular feeding through a slow-release fertiliser will help to keep displays looking good all year round.

Cool in the summer, warm in the winter

We often mention the importance of our self-watering facility as a way of keeping plants well-watered during the warmer months. However our containers also offer great insulation with a double wall to keep plants cool in the summer and warmer in the winter, offering protection for plants during colder weather.

Made from recyclable polyethylene, our containers are also more robust than many other materials such as terracotta which is prone to cracking during sudden freeze/thaw conditions. So, with containers that look like stone, wood and terracotta, our self-watering planters offer the best of both worlds for healthy growth all year round.