Culinary container

A practical take on an elegant container
Time to plant: spring

A clipped bay tree makes an attractive container look good all year round, but if you underpiant with shrubby herbs and flowers you can make a front-door feature a useful one, too.
Fresh bay leaves have a stronger flavour in cooking than dried ones, which makes this a great plant to have to hand. Evergreen bay trees look great when clipped into formal shapes such as cones and balls, and they grow extremely well in containers of all sizes for many years. They can be planted alone for a very formal look, or underplanted with more herbs as well as a few flowers to brighten up the show in spring and summer. Try underplanting with rosemary, sage and thyme for the perfect array of culinary herbs, or grow with bedding plants such as pansies, pelargoniums and even pots of bulbs for a seasonal splash of colour.

TIP Trim formal bay trees back into shape in spring before they put on new growth.

references: BBC 2011 gardeners book
image: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/df/c2/98dfc2e78188148ba57cc4366c4008af.jpg