Allotments 4 All

I have an area of patio outside the windows of my garden room which never gets any sun & is also lower than the main patio, I would like some ideas of what to grow in staggered height pots to give colour next year, before anyone mentions geraniums - I can't bear the smell of them!

Do you mean Pelargoniums... Hardy geraniums don't smell do they?  :-\

hiya, poppy mole, welcome to the site  ;D
we've planted begonias in a shady place this year, they're lovely..one drawback, I think you have to dry the corms out each winter..maybe I'm wrong?

Hello.  I grow the following successfully in pots in the shade:

Aquilegia
Bergenia
Dicentra
Digitalis
Hesperis
Honesty
Liriope Muscari
Polemonium caeruleum
Primula
Pulmonaria
Tradescantia
Tricyrtis

Hope this gives you a few ideas.

G x

Many thanks - all I have to do now is find out what they are - wish I'd taken more notice while my husband was alive, he made it all look soooo easy!

In one word - Bulbs.

Can't go wrong & the shops are full of them right now. :)

Impatience does well. The only way to get tall imparience though is to raise the pot!

You could try looking in here and you will find ideas, what they look like and how to grow them;

http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Data/Plants%20by%20location/Plants%20by%20location.htm

Brilliant - what a useful web site