Containers For Decorating Doorways And Steps – Containers framing a doorway or punctuating a formal flight of steps have to be planned with great care. They set the style of the house and make an important statement.
A front doorway announces the style of the house and should be both welcoming and decorative. Many doors are framed by clipped bay trees grown in Versailles tubs. This can give rather a severe impression but the tubs can be brightened up in the winter by planting ornamental kales interspersed by winter pansies or sweet violets that flower in spring.
Other choices might include olive trees, increasingly being grown in containers, or tubs of citrus trees although these will need shelter in the winter in colder climates.
If the doorway is approached by a flight of steps, each step can be decorated by matching pots with displays of low-growing herbs that can be changed with the season. If the steps connect the house with another level in the garden then they too can be decorated with containers.
Match the style of the container to the steps, weathered terracotta and bricks go well together and each pot can be planted with an individual plant.
If the flight of steps is grander and leads, for instance, from a semi-basement area to an upper terrace, the steps should be punctuated with matching decorative pots, in keeping with the house.
These can be planted with a mixture of herbs or seasonal flowering plants. Try to preserve some symmetry and make a definite statement about the design of the garden, showing that it has been thought about.
Oleander
Evergreens in terracotta containers
Grecian urn planters
