What to plant in pots for now leading into autum winter.

There are so many different combinations possible and also I'm not sure if you have a particular "look" in mind.

I gave my brother and sister in law two hollies in pots with wintergreen Gaultheria procumbens at the base for Christmas last year and they seemed to like them - my sister in law had hinted she would like a holly though! I got them one dark green one that was self fertile as apparently the variegated ones don't have as many berries. I think I also bought the female "Golden King" for them. At home I have Silver Queen ( a male) and Golden King too in pots and I particularly enjoy them over the winter period, although they are not mature enough to have berries yet.

Another slug proof plant idea would be a pot with a dwarf conifer with heather or ivies at the base.

Euonymus is a good winter shrub for pots and there are different varieties, also Mexican orange blosson - choisya ternata "sundance" is evergreen and gives colour.

Cyclamen are sold at this time of the year and may give you flowers into winter, various heuchera varieties are available and mostly evergreen , azalea are evergreen and many flower in spring.

I have bugle and it is evergreen and comes in different varieties for contrasting colour effects. My snails leave it alone.

Hardy carnations/ garden pinks are evergreen, one of mine flowers in December ( or did last year) and mine are mostly left by my army of snails.

There are also herbs like thyme that give colour and the curry plant is evergreen, I think rosemary is too.

If you also plant in some early bulbs ( eg snowdrop, crocus, some daffodils) and later flowering bulbs ( eg later flowering daffodils and tulips) you could have a fantastic display. There are also the ornamental cabbages - I'm not sure if the snails and slugs eat them, but they should go into hibernation over winter, so should not be too much of a problem.

That's a brilliant list - I also use grasses like Festuca glauca, and I have a Photinia 'Little Red Robin' which looks great with red pansies! Small Skimmias are also good amongst other plans - I also plant little bulbs underneath to pop up in the spring.

Garden Centres have sets of plants put together in a pack if you go and take a look - to get other ideas, or to buy for one of your containers. They're quite good value set against the cost of individual plants.

Thanks for the replies I stop work for a week next week so I will get going then!

Being from Glasgow too I may try some of these suggestions..
Ppr, try some wd40 on your pots, someone suggested it stops slugs getting into the pots on another post.

Will do! Thanks for the suggestion and thanks for all other suggestions. I'll let you know how I get on.