Annuals in Pots

Not all the plants are still here, though – I removed a couple to make room for a red cabbage – because mixing ornamentals and edibles is ever-so practical, right?  Except that this cabbage has clearly fed the cabbage loopers and no one else.  Next year I’ll try some Bt, or switch to spinach, a fall crop that the loopers disdain like kids and broccoli.  But look at those Cali’s, will ya?  That’s the nickname for Calibrachoas, which I won’t even try to remember.

Potted Annuals

Some night soon this nonhardy Euphorbia will bite the dust – or I could bring it indoors and use it to doll up some pointsettias.  (Photos of that combination coming soon).

 

 

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Readers may remember when Homestead’s Kerry Kelley selected plants for my containers, after which I dutifully followed her instructions?  Well, it’s time for my promised update on how they’re faring.  The tension mounts:  Have I killed them yet?  And the honest answer is:  Only one of them – yay!  Details coming right up.

Container Garden

First I have to gush about this dramatic focal point in the middle of a new border in my back yard.   Plants in this large Mexican-style pot include Lantana ‘Pot of Gold’, a chartreuse sweet potato vine, a couple of Angelonia ‘Serena Purple’ and for the “thriller” in this collection, a Canna ‘Emerald Sunset’.   And I’m indeed thrilled with the height on the Canna – rising about four feet out of the top of the pot – and would have been even MORE thrilled if the stalk holding the actual flowers hadn’t broken off somehow.    That stalk added about three feet, so we’re talking seven feet total, y’all, on top of the height of the pot!  I’m betting that the stalk wouldn’t have broken off if I’d planted this baby in the ground where it really wants to be.  Also notice some sunburn on one of the Canna leaves – perhaps unavoidable in this brutal summer we’re having.

Gardening

Now let’s move on to the pots sitting on my front porch, where they receive intense afternoon sun.  This first one includes one Purple Fountain Grass, two Calibrachoa (a ‘Double Yellow’ and a “Compact Orange”), one purple sweet potato vine, and to trail down the sides of the pot (the “spiller”), a Lysimachia ‘Walkabout Sunset’.   With daily watering occasionally amended with a fish-based fertilizer, these all look terrific  – to my eyes.  (And who else needs to love them, after all?)

On the left you see one Calibrachoa ‘Compact Orange’ doing a great job of spilling, two ‘Vancouver Centennial’ geraniums for “filler,” and for the vertical element, one ornamental millet ‘Jade Princess’.   Wild, huh?  All plants I’d never grown before, but will grow again.

And lastly, the all-one-type planting of three Geranium Grandiosa ‘Merlot Red’  has also held up well, with scattered reblooms at all times.

Now for the failure – if it really is one.  My Orange Osteosermum and Burgundy calibrachoa bloomed, then dried up, apparently for good. (You can see them newly potted-up here on my original post – on the right in the second collage.)  I’m hoping that Kerry will solve this mystery for us for us (while hopefully leaving me a shred of gardener dignity when it’s all said and done.)  So, Kerry?

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In the cute little shed surrounded by annuals at the Davidsonville location, you’ll find container-designer Dena Cameron creating some wild-looking designs, if you ask me, using some plants I’ve never seen before.  So naturally I asked for photos and here’s a few by store greeter Rita Roche.  To see even more designs, check out Melanie McCabe’s photos here are Flickr.  The designs also made a big splash in the Baltimore Sun.

Dena

Dena tells me she pots up containers bought at Homestead OR brought from home – either way.   And in order to customize people’s designs she asks all sorts of questions:  how much sun will it get, is fragrance important, do you have favorite colors or flowers, will the pot be around kids and dogs, and do you have a theme in mind (maybe the ever-popular “cottage”, “tropical” or “beachy”).  You can even ask for evergreens, or perennials instead of annuals.  Lots of choices.

Dena’s available Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays from 9 am to 5:30 pm.   The descriptions below were provided by Dena.

Above, the brown/bronze leaf plant is graphtophyllum pictum, ‘bronze variegata”.  The red flower is salvia, ‘flame’.  The white flower is euphorbia, ‘silver fog’.

Above, the tall green plant is cypress or dwarf umbrella plant.  The yellow flower is a canna. The trailing plant is Lysmachia, ‘goldilocks’.  The two grasses in the back are wire grass.  Other than the wire grass , the other plants could grow in a water garden.

Above, the maroon leafy plant is perilla – it can handle a sunny location.  The other plants are pansy and petunia.  This container was assembled in the spring.  The perilla and petunia will continue on, but the pansy will need to replaced with a sunny, trailing plant, such as lysmachia , dichondra or vinca.

Above, the yellow trailing flower is calibrachoa, ‘million bells’.  The grass is the middle is pennesitum ‘fireworks’.  The silver trailing plant is dichondra, ‘silver falls’.

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The Front Porch Container Challenge

Twice a year the pots on my front porch are transformed – from easy-care prostrate junipers in winter to the boldest, baddest collection of blooms I can possibly find in the summer, and then back to junipers in early winter.  Yet for years I’ve been suck in the Wave petunia/sweet potato vine two-step.  Colorful, yes, but frankly, I’ve been there and done that too many years to get excited about repeating that particular combination, no matter how successful it is.  (And don’t let me discourage you from using them together because they’re do-ers!)

So this year I enlisted some help – from Homestead Annuals Manager Kerry Kelley – because I needed to think outside the box and when it comes to annuals, I’m woefully ignorant.   But armed with information about available sun, pot size, and what other colors are happening elsewhere in the front yard in the summertime, Kerry suggested a slew of plants I’d never heard of.  She even planned the arrangement in each pot and you see the results here, watered them in and hopefully ready to thrive.

In the top photo you see, on the left, 1 Calibrachoa ‘Compact Orange’ (which trails to 40 inches), 2 ‘Vancouver Centennial’ geraniums, and for the vertical elements, an ornamental millet ‘Jade Princess’.  The very existence of ornamental millet was news to me, and this one’s supposed to grow to 3-4 feet tall!  On the right are 1 Purple Fountain Grass, 2 Calibrachoa (a ‘Double Yellow’ and a “Compact Orange”), one purple sweet potato vine, and to trail down the sides of the pot, Lysimachia ‘Walkabout Sunset’.

Above left, I’m trying a single-species effect with 3 Geranium Grandiosa ‘Merlot Red’.  On the right are 2 Orange Osteosermum and 1 Burgundy calibrachoa.  Now geraniums I’m certainly familiar with,  but “Calis” and Osteos?  Never heard of ’em!  But I’m totally psyched about trying them because like most annuals, they’ll grow fast, bloom continuously, and maybe even create some drama.

Lastly, here’s a pot that’s not on the front porch but near the front of a sunny border in the back yard, where I’m hoping to create an eye-catching focal point.  So Kerry suggested a Canna ‘Emerald Sunset’ as the vertical element, with some Lantana ‘Pot of Gold’, a deep purple sweet potato vine, and a couple of Angelonia ‘Serena Purple’.   More names I’ve never heard of and can’t wait to grow.

Updates Coming

I’ll be recording the progress of these containers throughout the season and posting photos here.   I figure I can’t be the only one whose repertoire of annuals is old and tired and in need of some new (to us) plants to try.  Though now that I’ve announced the plan the pressure’s ON to keep them alive.   Kinda like announcing publicly that you’re quitting smoking – succeed or be publicly embarrassed.  My plan?  Water, water, water, and always with some half-strength liquid fertilizer.

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