Friday, May 25, 2007

Whew!

I might be tired and I might be pregnant, but put a few new plants in my hands and I'm good for hours of planting fun!

Eric and I went to the Plant Mecca today since I determined that it was warm enough to pick out my pond plants, fuschias and something fun for my cool new ceramic pots out front. We were shopping for about an hour, looking at this and that when I decided on some succulent ground covers for my pots, a pair of fuschias for a hanging basket to go in my tree to lure hummingbirds (Still no sign of them! Argh!), a pair of hardy water lilies and 2 very odd water plants for my pond.

I have to admit that I was all giddy upon taking them home!

I didn't buy any plants at all last year except for tomatoes and since I'm growing piles of plants this year, I didn't know if I was going to buy any, but I did. After all, it's not like I can grow water plants from seed! The extra non-water plants were due to some fabulous photographs in the Summer 2006 Container Gardening issue of Fine Gardening magazine. There are some really nice combinations in there, but the main one that stuck with me was the image on page 90 of dichondra, echeveria, hens and chicks and thick plant all bubbling out of a footed urn together. It just looks lush without even a single flower in sight, so I thought it would be fun to try that. Unfortunately for me, I didn't notice the crazy selection of hens and chicks until after I'd seen the piles of succulents. Maybe next year! Or if I'm feeling wild and flush, I may go back and fill some other pot!

Here's what I picked up:
  1. Fuchsia Diva Rose/Blue (looks pink and purple to me!)
  2. Fuchsia 'Angel's Earrings Snow Fire'
  3. Sedum hispanicum 'Purple Form'
  4. Sedum album 'Murale' - says it's invasive! Good thing it's in a pot!
  5. Sedum pachyclados
  6. Sedum spurium 'Tricolor'
  7. One pink and one red hardy water lily
  8. 'Red Fox' curly sedge
  9. Hard rush - really weird miniature rush plant with curling leaf-type structures.

I'll take pictures of everything tomorrow so you can see. I'm excited to see how the main planter with the sedums fills in over the summer. Since they're perennials, I may be able to either overwinter them in the pot or pot them up and save them for next year. Same for the water plants - they're all perennials, I just need to figure out how to keep them alive over the winter.

I do have one large pot that I'll be filling with plants that I've grown from seed myself, this year. However, I ran out of potting soil before I could fill it, so I'll send Eric off shopping for a bag while I'm selling plants at The Market and then I'll fill the pot with Chinese fountain grass, dichondra 'Silver Falls', lobelia 'Riviera Blue Splash' and a heliotrope, because they smelled so nice last year! A photo will be available once I'm done.

Hurray for spring!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Oh, now I'm YEARNING to get my hands dirty. I was on jury duty all week (double murder & assault) and all I wanted to think about was planting things. Your descriptions have my gardening mouth watering (or something like that.) I've got to get my pots filled & tend to my poor, neglected beds out front. My problem is that I have so little sun since the trees have grown, so I must find more shady things rather than pining for sunny plants. Thanks for sharing your joy. I'll try to get to your plant stand soon.

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