On 9th September 2025, Harriet Rycroft, often referred to as the ‘Queen of Pots’, gave an insightful and engaging talk to Ticknall Garden Club about her career in horticulture and her passion for pots. Her position as head gardener at the Warwickshire based Whichford pottery gave her the opportunity to develop her horticultural skills, from which sprung her love of planting in pots.
Whilst at Whichford, Harriet designed and planted pots for all-year-round displays in the grounds and also for Chelsea Flower Show. She now works as an independent horticulturist and writer (Pots – Fill containers with plants, tend to their needs, watch them flourish) and gives demonstrations and lectures to garden clubs and horticultural societies.
The background to her talk was the numerous photos of the pot display on the driveway of her home and the way in which she plants up the pots and planters (all 700 hundred of them) with shrubs, perennials, bulbs and bedding plants to give a beautiful display throughout the year. She writes down in her notebook the description of the specific pot, the surface plants and bulbs and where they were purchased from. Each season, she has a different colour theme and groups the pots and planters accordingly. The plants and pots are rearranged twice per year to provide a continuous colourful display. She often reuses the plants and bulbs (though not always tulips), carefully labelling and storing them when not planted up.
Her recommendations for a winter pot display included placing pots where you can see them easily from the house, raising them off the ground if needed, repeating shapes of foliage and colour in different pots and covering the surface with gravel to prevent them from becoming too wet. She often uses Christmas decorations to add interest and places the pots where they can benefit from the winter sun.
She finished off the evening with a display on how she would pot up a planter. She filled a medium to large pot with Westmorland peat-free compost with added John Innes. Starting with the plants on the surface, she potted a small fir tree, then 40 tulip bulbs, 3 hyacinths, 6 narcissi bulbs, 6 crocus bulbs and finished off with a hellebore, a small ornamental grass, some ivy and violas, and then filled in any gaps with compost. She recommended choosing plants without dense root balls, to plant the surface plants about one inch below the top of the pot and to choose bulbs which would flower at different times during the spring to provide ongoing interest and colour. The end result was an attractive and impressive pot which would provide interest from September to late Spring/early summer.
The impressive display and sheer volume of plants and bulbs in the pot generated lots of animated and positive discussions afterwards!
Leave a Reply