Containers This Year

These have filled out nicely.

I never did fill up my other 2 pots.

With our kitchen remodel, the back deck was full of cabinets for most of the summer, so I didn't put any back there.

Maybe it was a good thing.

With the hot summer we've had, I have had a hard time keeping these three watered!

They really need it every day.

They get it...every 2nd or 3rd day, depending on when I notice the wilting.

Terrible! 

 

Those red petunias were a fluke!

I certainly didn't think I was buying any red petunias!

I really like the way the sweet potato vine has been spilling over the sides.

 

As predicted, the osteospermum has gone dormant in the heat.

The dahlias still bloom, as long as I'm consistent with the water.

These make a welcome bit of color and texture as you go up the stairs to our front door.

I think as far as design, these are the best I've put together so far.

I love the mix of textures, with the feathery asparagus fern juxtaposed with the bold sweet potato vine. The flower colors complement each other as well.

 

Maybe next year I'll assign a child to water them every day.

 

Containers out Front

We had a new porch built this year, including some built-in platforms for flowers.

Yay!

So I rounded up some of my blue pots and got to work.

 

 

I decided to do these ones in front all the same, which is quite unlike me.

Since they're on the stairs going up, I thought it would make more of an impact to have similar plants in each one.

 

For height and color, and those awesome spoon-shaped petals, I put in Osteospermum 'Flower Power Spider Purple.'  It says it blooms spring and fall, if you cut it back late summer. I hope it won't go completely dormant in between but I guess I'll find out.

To add another punch of color, I put a dahlia in each as well, 'Dahlinova,' variegated petals, pink/purple/white.

Fuschia petunias round off the flowers.

For greenery, each container has an asparagus fern 'Sprengeri', and a purple-leaved sweet potato vine, Ipomea batatas 'Sweet Caroline Red.'

I'm already liking how they look together.

I hope this combination powers on through until fall!

 

I still need to plant my other containers for the back deck.

That will probably happen this week. 

They made it!

 I revamped this small flowerbed next to the porch last summer, pulling out dead bushes and improving the soil, before adding some new plantings in: hydrangea, astilbe, a couple of hostas, and some heucheras.

I also put in one dicentra--bleeding heart.

I tried planting dicentras in my back shade bed a few years ago, but they didn't survive.

This poor thing was transplanted from a friend's yard to begin with, then moved AGAIN when I realized that it was too far out and would be walked on. I didn't get my hopes up.

 

By the end of last summer, I wasn't sure which of my new plantings had survived.

The astilbes had withered away to practically nothing, as had the dicentra, and the ferns.

I knew heucheras and hostas were as tough as nails and could take dry shade, so I wasn't too worried about them.

 

This spring I have been pleasantly surprised to see all of the plants in this bed coming back!

 

Well, well, well. What have we here?

Hooray!

This euonymous wasn't in danger of dying off, but I'm delighted to see how much new growth it is putting on this spring! It looks better than it ever has.

Astilbe! Yes!

Astilbe number 2 (in back), plus 'Lime Marmalade' heuchera.

Oh and a few dandelions. (ahem). I guess they made it too.

 

The 'Ruby Slippers' oakleaf hydrangea is also putting out new leaves.

 

May they all live long and prosper!

(Except the dandelions.)

Flowerpots' Last Hurrah

We had some good times this summer, these flowers and I.

 

[These pictures were taken about a month ago, before hard frost had set in.]

 

 The succulent boat in front sent up alien stems with strange little blooms on them.

 

The geraniums (middle) were awash with color at several different points, despite uneven watering.

The herb container didn't do much of anything, actually.

It smelled nice for a few months.

And would you look at that asparagus fern?

Incredible! It almost makes the dead bellflowers look picturesque (or so I tell myself.)

The round blue pot in front obviously gave up quite some time ago.

These were pretty awesome while they lasted.

Now in death, they too have taken on alien life forms.

 

I might have mentioned it [twenty times] before, but the decision to get our yard done pretty much sucked the gardening life out of me there at the end of the summer.

I didn't have access to water outside for a good month and a half while the yard was graded and the sprinkler system put in. This all coincided with a decent heat wave. By the time the thought occurred to me that I could actually water these containers with a pitcher of house water, it was too late for most of the flowers.

 

I did finally get them all winterized a few weeks ago (before hard frost killed off the succulents.)

Go me!

The succulents now live inside as houseplants, where the lack of water will probably not come as a shock to their systems at all. I couldn't willfully kill off the asparagus ferns, so in the end I planted them all in my vegetable garden, bottom terrace, front and center.

They are still green, even after 2+ weeks of below freezing temperatures!

 

All the flowerpots are now tucked safely away in the shed.

I have high hopes that next year will be better all around.

We'll have a lawn that we can walk on!

That makes a pretty good starting place, I'd say.

March Flowerbeds: Shade

By the fence, looking out toward yard. 

 

Heuchera and fern 

 

Heuchera and red-twigged dogwood

New Growth:

 



Lady's mantle

Heuchera 'Georgia Peach'

 

 

March 15:

 still pretty quiet back in the shade garden

 

Shade garden update

Lovely, airy little flowers on the heuchera  

I didn't realize it was a flowering plant until now. I guess with the other one up on the slope higher I just didn't notice the flowers last year.

Just a glimpse of viola purple under the apple tree.

New additions from the neighbor:



hellebore

It's planted on the right-hand side, just above the shade-bed proper.

Big healthy fern--it's the one on the left.

So far it's done the best of all the ferns--maybe because it was so well established in her yard before transplanting it over.

Not sure the cinnamon fern is going to make it.

Kind Neighbor

Our next door neighbor is selling their house. She knows all about plants and planting. Guess what she's giving me?!

Already, several sedum starts (hooray), and some lavender starts. Also, bachelor button starts, with pretty purple blooms and those fancy-looking buds. And a purple coneflower from one of her planters (I think it will go in the front flowerbed, next to the one on the far right that's all alone currently), and a fern if I want it. And some mint and marjoram. Oh yeah, and a hellebore. Possibly some campanula (bellflower) and wild geranium (?) I think.  I am loving it! She is so gracious about it, too. She compliments my flowerbed, and says I can just come dig up what I want of these things she has shown me.

And she knows the names of lots of the weeds/plants I've been trying to identify lately.

Awesome!

New Shaded Flowerbed

So this is along the wall behind the shed.

I'm excited to have a little bit of beauty back here--if I can keep these plants alive through the hot part of summer this year.

The bed isn't completely finished yet.

There's about 8 more feet or so to the left of the big hosta on the left, including space for one bigger bush than I need to pick out still.

What we've got so far.

L-R:

Hosta 'Captain Kirk', 24" x 36", pale lavender flowers

Tiarella 'Mystic Mist' (variegated foam flower), pink fall color, 7" x 16"

Heuchera 'Georgia Peach' (Alum root), bred for heat & humidity tolerance, 14"x24"

L-R:

(the Heuchera again)

Dicentra 'King of Hearts' (bleeding heart), 15"x24", pink flowers

Osmunda cinnamomea (Cinnamon Fern), 36"x48"

L-R:

another Tiarella, not sure variety

Matteuccia struthipoteris 'Ostrich' (ostrich fern), 36-48"x30", fiddleheads edible

Hosta 'Francee', 22"x18" (there are 2, one behind the other)

Dicentra formosa 'Aurora', (bleeding heart) 15"x15", white flowers, northwest native

Behind the Dicentra, not pictured because I hadn't planted it yet:

 Brunnera macrophylla 'Jack Frost' (Silver Siberian bugloss), blue flowers, 14"x24"

I also planted on the slope, just below the wild geraniums 2 more hostas, both 'Golden Prayers' variety, supposed to grow 12"x24".

I finally got the Brunnera and the last 2 hostas planted today, and got the bed mulched and watered as well. If you look back in the top picture, I put in a stepping stone in the middle of the bed, to allow easy access to the slope above, as I hope to continue removing weed grass and filling in with better plants and bulbs.

Since the wall went in Diamond has not been trampling the plants there as much. Hooray!

Garden Tour

We got the pots planted this week.

I read somewhere that pots should have a THRILLER, a FILLER, and a SPILLER.

Last year, with mums and pansies, we had beautiful color in the spring and fall, and mostly just green, sort-of dead-looking plants all summer. So this year I'm trying for color and scent that lasts all summer, as well as thrilling, filling, and spilling, as required.  Each pot had some combination of the same plants.

In the middle is a scarlet geranium, to be the star of the show (the "thriller") and the main color.

On one side is a miniature white wave petunia (combination "filler" and "spiller").

The diamond-shaped plant is a white Cuphea, which is supposed to be a small, bushy, evergreen shrub with flowers that attract buterflies.  It is also supposed to have excellent heat tolerance. (Another "filler".) 

Between the two is Bacopa Abunda Colossal White.  It should "spill" over the edge, and also has tiny white flowers on it.

One of the pots has vinca vine in it as the "spiller" rather than the Bacopa.

We'll see how it goes!

Front beds starting to fill out.

Hydrangeas in back, almost all leaves out. Ferns coming up, hostas and astilbe getting big.

purple phlox and asters (in front of the daffodils).

Aren't these mini daffodils sweet?  I had forgotten I planted them.