Vertical gardening and mixed containers will continue to be a trend in 2023. With house prices rising, the new generation of buyers will often settle for luxury apartments with spacious terraces or smaller houses with smaller gardens. With a growing trend of smaller gardens, we can see a pull from the market for plants that are easy to grow in containers. 

The traditional way of espaliering plants to grow upwards and across walls doesn’t suit the convenience generation: the next generation of gardeners. Even though vertical gardening is often a go-to choice, a green wall requires too much tricky maintenance. These future gardeners prefer to place climbers in planters, creating a sustainable and easy-to-maintain vertical garden. Slowly increasing the demand for climbers with little soil depth and width requirements and little further maintenance. 

Surely a generation submerged by trends they see on the internet might deviate from standard climbers such as English Ivy but prefer something a bit more exotic-looking, such as Clematis Taiga with its other-worldly flowers: ideal for vertical gardening. And then there’s the desire for evergreen plants that require little maintenance: a desire met by fast-growing, evergreen Trachelospermum such as Star of Milano®.

Another emerging trend is creating dedicated hang-out spaces in the garden. Be it a balcony or a patio, people want a cosy place outdoors to enjoy a coffee or barbecue. The demand for patio furniture, grills and even hot tubs has been climbing throughout the year, and all that’s missing is the patio plants. Varieties that thrive on a patio, but at the same time, don’t need too much maintenance and aren’t that picky about a spot in the full sun.

A patio attached to the house makes for a great place to decorate with Mangave, table-sized Echeveria or Aloe in containers. These varieties set the mood, require little maintenance, and thrive outdoors and indoors. When the patio season ends, such varieties make for spectacular houseplants. 

Terraces or hang-out locations in the middle of the garden require some height provided by varieties such as Agapanthus or other exotic-looking varieties such as low-maintenance Cordylines.  Containers on a balcony could be filled with low-growing and easy-care varieties, such as a combination of Sedum and Carex.