Winter plants for porch planters?

[Anonymous]

I have a couple of large flower pots on my front porch that contained impatiens in the summer/fall. I'm wondering ... is there anything I can put in them over the winter, or should I just empty them out and store them?

[Anonymous]

Small rosemary bushes or trees. You can transplant them in the spring if you want.

[Anonymous]

How about those cabbage-y looking plants? I think pansies also like cold.

[Anonymous]

Ornamental kale.

[Anonymous]

boxwood
evergreens (small)
cypress

Keep in mind they may crack/freeze - are they plastic or terra cotta or iron?

[Anonymous]

winter pansies for color

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How about those cabbage-y looking plants? I think pansies also like cold.

You're thinking of ornamental kale. Besides that and pansies, you could also get evergreens, holly, and/or Southern magnolia to make a holiday display. I think I saw some great photos like this in Fine Gardening or Garden Design (look online). It will probably look dried out and wilted at some point, so then you might have a period with nothing in your planters. In late Feb/early March, you could pick up some pansies and pots of forced daffodills to fill the planters out again. If you plant ornamental kale and/or pansies, they should last through the spring as long as you water them (the pansies will wilt below freezing and then revive when the weather is nicer).