Alan Titchmarsh's gardening tips

Think in the box

Q: What plants would you recommend for a window box?

It depends whether the window box is in sun or shade. If it's shady, then busy lizzies are hard to beat for summer colour. I would always have two schemes in a window box - a winter-come-spring one, and a summer one. At the moment I've got universal pansies (winter flowering pansies) with little dwarf narcissi coming up through them. When they're all finished I'll whip them out and put in summer flowers. What you can also do is have some permanent residents, perhaps a few ivies trailing from the front that are left in for both winter and summer arrangements.