Very good tutorial from a professional garden...
I have subscribed to access all the courses so have watched one on interior design and this one with Butter Wakefield who specialises in small garden design. She ...
Louise Brown
Apr 10, 2026
Grow a Spectacular Garden in Pots
Planting the big copper up for summer - part 3
with ARTHUR PARKINSON — Horticulturist, writer and container gardening expert.
Lesson 35 of 51
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Arthur shows how to plant up a large pot with a combination of grasses, foliage and prolific flowerers to ensure a riot of colour later in the summer.
From the Lesson Workbook
Planting the Copper for Summer - Part 3
There are different ways you could plant a pot like this for summer. If you're on a tighter budget, you directly sow seeds like cosmos or dwarf sunflowers 'Ms Mars' or 'Double Dandy'.
Arthur is planting a combination of home-grown plants, seedlings from the garden centre and little plugs that have come in the post from nurseries.
How many plants you fit into the pot depends on how much you're able to feed and water the pot through the season. Arthur knows he will be watering all through the summer so will be packing them in quite tightly.
Make sure that your seedlings and small plants are nice and watered before planting them into the bigger pot, as translating them causes stress.
Lightly water for the first couple of weeks until you see visible signs of growth, which is then the plants telling you they want water.
Plant Directory
Foliage
- Bronze fennel
- Panicum 'Frosted Explosion'
- Panicum red
Flowers
- Tagetes patula, 'Burning Embers'
- Black scabious
- Dahlia 'Bishop's Children'
- Cosmos 'rubenza'
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Mar 27, 2026
Very good tutorial from a professional garden designer
I have subscribed to access all the courses so have watched one on interior design and this one with Butter Wakefield who specialises in small garden design. She has a lovely personality and comes across as ...
Louise Brown
Apr 10, 2026
Time spent well
I love CreateAcademy. I came in for the gardening and floristry courses, but am also watching an interior design one at present. And the photography course is an absolute must, best I've ever done.
Wellesley
Apr 1, 2026
What a great investment
What a great investment, I have learned such a lot from the first three courses. My evenings have gone from not being able to find anything that captured my imagination on TV to learning and expanding my kno...
sojojo
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Your Instructor
Arthur Parkinson
Horticulturist, writer and container gardening expert.
Named one of the most influential young UK gardeners by Architectural Digest, Arthur Parkinson is a gardener, florist and author with a penchant for growing flamboyant blooms and raising chickens. After studying horticulture at the Royal Botanical Gardens of Kew, Arthur went to work for plantswoman Sarah Raven at her farm in East Sussex to pursue his passion for growing cut flowers. He later became head gardener for the potter Emma Bridgewater, which inspired his first book, The Pottery Gardener. Arthur also co-presents the popular gardening podcast 'Grow, cook, eat, arrange' with Sarah Raven and regularly appears on BBC's 'Gardeners' World'.
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