I AM DOING SOME SLIGHTLY LATE POT-PLANTING, piecing together plants gathered from here and there this spring into some impromptu designs I think I’ll like once they grow in. You? How about a show-and-tell?
The Acalypha ‘Giant Leaf,’ splashed with pinky-peaches, gold and green, and my beloved Calibrachoa ‘Terra Cotta’ that I’ve grown flats of each year since it was introduced not long ago, seemed an obvious pairing. The Acalypha, a tropical shrub in its native haunts, will get 2 or 3 feet tall by summer’s end. You probably know what the million bells will do, much like a tiny petunia. I love how it, too, has a mosaic of color…two chameleons in a single big pot.
The barrel below, beside by barn, is barely getting started. But in it is a canna called ‘Grande’ with red edges and giant green leaves (I remove the flowers if they ever form), a couple of gold leaf Helichrysum and two of my favorite Pelargonium, ‘Vancouver Centennial,’ with chartreuse and red leaves and the hottest of orange-red flowers. I tucked a ‘Terra Cotta’ million bells in for good measure. Stay tuned.
I’m going to post some more photos of combinations I’m trying in our Urgent Garden Question Forums, where you have photo-uploading privileges, too, in the hopes you’ll share some design concepts of your own with all of us. Then we can watch our pots together this summer and see what we’ve all cooked up.
Welcome, Romy…nice to “see” you again. How big is said pot? How many total plants spaced how far apart? And what kind of potting mix? Questions, questions.
I am not laughing. The one time I laughed was when my best friend forced paperwhites and called me eventually to say “Why do mine have white spaghetti instead of flowers?” because she had planted the bulbs upside-down.
I pre-wet my potting mix in the bag or in a wheelbarrow or bucket, as it can sometimes be hard to water otherwise, it’s so dusty-dry.
Seven plants might be a lot in that pot, esp if one is a cleome (which gets big/tall), but sometimes things simply wilt when transplanted to kind of express their shock at the situation, and then eventually stand up again when they feel able. Stress does it to the best of us…and we’d LOVE to see the pix on the forums, yes.
OK, don’t laugh but here goes… about a 14″ pot, probably 7 total plants (not exactly sure how far apart but this may be the problem) and regular old Miracle Gro potting mix (is that bad? Novice, here.) And it’s not the salvia that are wilting; it was the Angelonia. But today they looked perky. I’ll post a photo. Don’t worry about indulging me if this is a silly waste of time — I really just wanted to say hello and let you know that we are gardening here and loving every second of it. Our vegetables are doing fabulously already. It’s nice to be in touch with you…
UPDATE: A few brave souls have in fact accepted my invite and shared pix of their pots on the Forums, so maybe you want to have a look (and even add to the portfolio)?
Ah, here we are, the containers… I have almost all pansies, yellow, still going strong in about 6 containers. You raise the bar for me with this post. I will have to drag myself away from the kiln and go plant up a couple of containers! thanks for the reminder…