New bedding plant inspiration: top picks for autumn 2026

As summer blooms begin to fade, your garden doesn’t need to lose its sparkle. Preparing your pots, borders, hanging baskets and window boxes for the colder months is a rewarding task that keeps your patio brimming with personality from now until spring. 

Here, our horticultural expert Lance Russell shares five of his favourite winter bedding plants from our brand new collection, along with four tips to help you care for them…

5 Standout new bedding plants to try now

For me, the best autumn bedding combines reliable garden performance with varieties that bring something genuinely distinctive to the display. I think these five new bedding plants offer something unusual that really sets them apart.

1. Pansy ‘Select Orange with Purple Wing’

For high-impact contrast, this vibrant new Pansy ‘Select Orange with Purple Wing’ is hard to beat. Featuring extra-large orange petals topped with deep, velvet-purple wings, its eye-catching colour scheme really cuts through grey winter days.

• Flowering Period: Autumn through to spring.
• Best Used For: Containers, window boxes, hanging baskets, and front-of-border planting.
• Key Feature: Compact growth habit smothered by extra-large blooms.

2. Primrose ‘Pom Pom Mandarin Mix’

I love traditional single primroses, but ‘Pom Pom Mandarin Mix’ delivers colour and volume. This mix features double, pom-pom-style flowers in warm mandarin orange, deep red, and bright yellow tones. The dense, rounded form gives a plush, premium look to winter containers.

• Flowering Period: Late winter through to spring.
• Best Used For: Patio pots, trough planters, and window boxes.
• Key Feature: Unique, ruffled, double blooms that last longer than single varieties.

3. Viola ‘Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow’

If dynamic displays are more your style, our new colour-changing Viola ‘Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow’ is a must-have. Individual flowers open in delicate off-white tones, deepen into light sky blue, and mature into a rich, dark blue. Because blooms from each stage appear simultaneously, it creates a multi-tonal effect that looks like several varieties planted together.

• Flowering Period: Late autumn through to spring.
• Best Used For: Mixed flower beds, borders, and patio displays.
• Key Feature: Ever-evolving bloom colours on a single plant.

4. Viola ‘Teardrops Pink Baby Face’

If you’re looking for something new to fill your hanging baskets, Viola ‘Teardrops Pink Baby Face’ produces vast numbers of the most charming, small cream and lilac blooms. Complete with cheerful ‘babyface’ markings, this neat variety adds instant warmth and playfulness to bare spaces.

• Flowering Period: Autumn through to spring.
• Best Used For: Hanging baskets, patio pots, and small garden borders.
• Key Feature: Highly floriferous, tight habit that stands up to harsh winter weather.

5. Viola ‘Terracotta’

For a warm and sophisticated palette, Viola ‘Terracotta’ is one of my favourite choices. Opening in deep copper-orange, it softens into shades of smoky apricot, peach, and light purple. These multi-hued blooms give patio pots a rich, autumnal feel.

• Flowering Period: Autumn through to early spring.
• Best Used For: Small space gardening, tabletop pots, and window boxes.
• Key Feature: Well-branched, compact growth with soft, blended autumnal tones.

Four expert planting & care tips for autumn bedding

Available as plugs and garden ready plants, our autumn bedding is relatively easy to plant and look after. Here are four of my top tips to get the most from your display:

1. Use fresh compost & ensure good drainage: Choose a good-quality peat-free multi-purpose compost for containers, and make sure they have adequate drainage holes. Avoid letting pots sit in water, particularly during wet winter weather.
2. Raise containers off the ground: Plant with the top of the rootball level with the surface of the compost, then raise your pots onto pot feet or bricks. This improves drainage and can help protect containers from frost damage.
3. Deadhead regularly: Remove faded flowers to keep your display looking tidy and encourage plants to produce more blooms. Some winter bedding, such as pansies and violas, can flower intermittently throughout mild spells.
4. Hold off feeding in winter: Winter bedding grows slowly during the colder months, so there’s generally no need to feed. But as growth starts to pick up in spring, container plants will benefit from a suitable liquid feed.

Keen to fill your garden with colour this winter? Read our advice on how to grow bedding plants for practical planting tips, and visit our dedicated advice hub for a wealth of bedding plant information. 

Lead image: Viola ‘Terracotta’ from T&M