Containers Filled

As work on the garden expansion continues, I decided today would be a good day to get all my containers planted.

 

True to form, I did purples and pinks across the board.

Like last year, I put in a few perennials, which I plan to plant in my flowerbeds come fall. 

Here's what we've got:

 

#1: Tall & Skinny Blue Pot

This is all herbs this year.

I've got a pineapple sage (just for fun), plus one sweet basil and one purple basil 'Amethyst Improved.' I wanted rosemary, too, but have yet to find it for sale.

 

#2: Dark Blue Pot

Carpathian Bellflower (Campanula carpatica) in the middle, with 3 wave petunias spaced around it. Yes, it looks a little strange right now, but soon those petunias will start billowing, and I wanted something tall enough to still be seen over the petunias.

The bellflower will go in my front flowerbed this fall.

I already have the perfect spot picked out!

#3: Round blue pot

Loaded with pinks this time--literally!

Every year a dianthus practically leaps into my cart. This was the one!

Also in this one, 1 wave petunia in purple, light pink calibrachoa, and a few deep pink stems of stock.  I'm hoping once the dianthus is done with its main blooming, the rest will keep it going through the summer.

 

#4: Gray-Green Pot

These are "Regal" geraniums. They were each going to go in a separate container, but as the name might suggest, they did not play well with others. At least not the others I already had purchased. The pink has some deep red undertones that clashed with my other pink stuff, once I brought it home.

So they got their very own container, with only a few white lobelia on either side to share it with.

I hope Their Majesties are satisfied, and keep giving me those gorgeous blossoms all summer.

 

#5: Green Pot

 The tall plants sticking up are Snapdragons, 'Rocket Mix'. I have never tried snapdragons in a container before--or at all, actually. So I have no idea how this will go.

Also in there: white stock, deep pink & yellow calibrachoa, pink petunia.

I don't love it, but we'll see how it looks when things start to fill in a little more.

 

#6: Blue Boat

Last, but certainly not least, is the succulent boat.

No petunias this time to steal the show!

Clockwise from top left:

Blue Chalk Fingers 'Serpents' (Senecio vitalis). The tag says it produces white flower clusters and it's actually supposed to grow 12-18" high.

Jade 'Hobbit' (crassula ovate)

Zebra plant (Haworthia fasciata)  This one is my favorite!

Hens & chicks, which survived the winter in my back flowerbed.

Senecio 'Blazin' Glory' (Senecio cephalophorus) Supposed to have bright orange blooms

Aeonium 'Tip Top' (Aeonium arborescens)

 

I may move them a little closer together and put a couple others in there, as well.

And yes, I am planning to bring most of them inside this fall.

 

Do I really have SIX containers?

It's more than I thought, but still doesn't seem like enough!



A Few Hardy Souls: November GBBD

Hello Bloom Day friends!

I didn't think I would have anything to contribute this month.

But despite most nights below freezing, and even a couple solid days of snow cover, I still have a few blooms hanging in there!

 

Winter--what?

 

A virtual round of applause for these tough beauties:

 

I knew unassuming salvia could take the heat.

It looks like the cold is also just a minor irritation at this point.

Even the leaves are still green and fresh-looking.

The dead, yellow phlox in the background is how just about everything else looks right now.

 

I had an inkling this hollyhock was tough as nails when it lived on our back deck this summer. It had died completely, I thought, so I stopped watering it. Two months later, I noticed small leaves and buds forming around the base. So I started watering it again.

Now it is out front in its new home and blooming like all I've done is treat it right.

Now that's my kind of plant!

Of course, the mums are hanging in there.

The colorful foliage almost swallows up the blossoms.

 

Almost as good as blooms this time of year:

the last of the fall colors.

This the strawberry patch.

It is easily visible from my kitchen window and I just can't get enough.

Those brilliant colors make me happy.

I was excited for the fruit.

I had no idea a gorgeous fall display was part of the package!

Thank you, strawberries!

 

 

The delicate leaves on this hardy geranium are a little harder to see, but they also have some multi-toned fall colors going on. Love it!

These pretty purple 'Hens and chicks', along with the Echeveria, just got replanted in my back flowerbed, in the dry strip along the house.

Not a moment too soon, either, as it is snowing right now.

 

Happy Bloom Day!