Many of us love to witness a sea of colour emerging in our gardens to mark the beginning of spring, following that period of winter dullness. However, while a rainbow of hues is eye-catching, you might be wondering if there’s a more cohesive way to arrange your colour scheme to create more of a flow to your garden…
Patio pots: The easiest way to create a colour scheme
You can think of each patio pot like its own mini gallery, filling it with beautiful plants that complement each other in shape, size and colour. Or, you can view your pots as a whole, assembling them in a way that contributes to a bigger picture. So whether you’ve got one, two or many patio pots, there’s always a chance to play around until you find a colour scheme that suits your garden.
What to plant in your patio pots
You’ll want to pick plants that bloom around the same time, so that you can max out your pot with colour! Here’s a patio pot combination that will produce spring-to-summer blooms to fill your patio with joy:
- Calibrachoa
- Verbena
- Bidens
- Petunia
- Lobelia
Water, earth, wind and fire (no, not the band)
Unsure which colour scheme to settle on? Try going back to basics with the first ever recorded colour theory!
Invented by Greek philosopher Aristotle, this theory centred on the elements: water, earth, wind and fire. He believed that all colours originated from lightness and darkness, and as a result he created a linear scale depicting white at one end, black at the other, and several colours in between. This theory was widely upheld for centuries, until Isaac Newton proposed the theory of a non-linear spectrum of colour, which we use today.
Just because we’ve progressed in terms of colour theory, however, doesn’t mean you can’t be inspired by Aristotle’s elemental colours! Let’s take a look at which hues might fit with each element:
Water
- Blue
- Green
- Indigo
Earth
- Brown
- Green
- Orange
Fire
- Red
- Orange
- Yellow
Air
- Indigo
- Blue
- Violet
Curated colour collections ready for your containers
Choosing plants to fit a colour scheme – as well as having a similar blooming period – can be a headache. However, QVC has two amazing collections of colourful plants that will bring your patio pots to life.
Each collection features 10 x 9cm garden ready plants, selected for their superior breeding to give fabulous garden performance, longer flowering periods, ease of care, plant habit to ensure an evenly balanced display and fantastic weather tolerance in the British garden.
Each pack contains two plants of five different varieties selected to fill your pots and containers, spill over the edges and give a stunning overall effect. They’re ready to be planted straight out upon delivery and are ready to flower all summer long providing instant results.
The pink collection (perfect for fire element):
2 x 9cm Calibrachoa Chameleon Tart Deco
2 x 9cm Verbena Mickey Magenta Pink
2 x 9cm Bidens Yellow Sunshine
2 x 9cm Petunia Designer Cherry Medley
2 x 9cm Lobelia Hot Snow White
The purple collection (perfect for air element):
2 x 9cm Calibrachoa Calistastic Bordeaux Star
2 x 9cm Verbena Mickey Blue Lavender
2 x 9cm Brachyscome Surdaisy White
2 x 9cm Petunia Crazytunia Blue Picotee
2 x 9cm Lobelia Hot Electric Purple
Each collection also comes with a care leaflet and planting guide to help your containers thrive.
Available at QVC here!
Which element suits your garden best? Let me know in the comments section below!

Michael has been involved with gardening and plants since he was just five years old. He is a self-professed Plant Geek, and was listed in the Sunday Times top 20 most influential people in the gardening world, thanks to his plant hunter role at Thompson & Morgan.
Michael was responsible for new plant introductions such as the Egg and Chips plant and the FuchsiaBerry and keeps busy travelling the world in search of new plants as well as lecturing worldwide, including stints in Japan. He is very active on social media – so why not give him a follow at @mr_plantgeek or Facebook. You can also listen to The Plant Based Podcast with Michael and co-host Ellen-Mary on iTunes, Spotify and Google.