Coral Nymph Salvia

full sun
height:  24"

Graceful flower spikes of salmon coral and white blooms until frost.

Euphorbia 'Breathless Blush'

Chamaesyce x hybrida
full sun
height:  8" - 12"
spacing:  10"

This elegant and durable new series includes the only red-flushed leaf form on the market plus a White with terrific branching and denser flowering. Heat tolerant Breathless fills in fast, makes stocky and mounded plants, and displays a showy mass of self-cleaning flowers all Summer across a wide range of conditions. The long lasting, free-flowering plants are well-suited to solo and mixed containers.  From BallHort.com

I will definitely use this plant again.  I loved the blooms!  These plants bloomed all summer long - (even through mild neglect) and who doesn't love self-cleaning flowers.  It's nice to know that some plants live up to expectations.   

Chocolate Mint

Mentha x piperita
full sun
height:  24"
spacing"  18"

I planted this in spring 2009 in my herb container for fun.  I had hoped to harvest enough to dry it for peppermint tea, but I think I had too many plants in the container because (amazingly, for a mint) it just didn't take off this summer.  This container got the best care of them all because it was on the deck just outside the kitchen door. 

I have only planted herbs for the past couple of summers.  Since I have no sense of smell I don't really remember to think about using them.  I'm trying to be more proactive in this area.  A. did like the scent once I led her to the whole "mint, mint & ...., choc-o-late...." 

Salvia 'Black and Blue'

Salvia guaranitica
full sun
height:  48"
spacing"  18"

Ansidontea 'Very Cranberry'

Cape Mallow
Proven Winners
full sun
height:  24" - 36"

heat tolerant, drought tolerant, deadheading not necessary

Since this plant (according to the Proven Winners website) prefers cooler temperatures it really did well this summer.  If I'd bothered to fertilize the containers regularly I think it would have been really spectacular.  I will definitely be looking for this plant again next summer. 

Here it is with Cordyline 'Red Sensation' and Coleus 'Tiny Toes'. 

Excuse the focus, I'm still learning how to use my camera and ended up focusing on the Cordyline instead of the flower.

Snapdragon

height 18" - 22"
space 9"
Best in fertile, well-drained soil kept evenly moist. 
Dead-head frequently or plants WILL stop flowering.

2009 was a very good summer for growing snapdragons; cooler temperatures, lots of rain. 

I grew them in two different containers (between the patio bed and the lawn - partial sun, and in front of the garage - full sun) and they kept growing strong throughout the whole summer. 

I was hoping to be able to use them in Emily's wedding bouquet, but it didn't work out.

Ipomoea 'Blackie'

Ipomoea batatas

Sweet Potato Vine

by Proven Winners

sun to partial sun

height: 6" - 12"

spacing: 18"

trailing habit

foliage color:  black / purple

Growing Tips from Proven Winners.  In fall before first frost, dig, dry and store tubers in dry medium (vermiculite or peat) in a cool dry corner of the basement.  When tubers sprout in spring, cut them into sections (at least one eye per section and plant the sections outdoors after last frost date.  Tubers can also be sunk 1/2 way into a large-mouthed glass jar of water in early spring to generate sprouts that can be removed and planted.  Container plants and or rooted cuttings taken in late summer may be overwintered indoors in bright sunny locations.

Look!  I actually got flowers on the sweet potato vine!

Easy Wave White Petunia

Wave Rave
sun
height:  6" - 12"
spacing:  10"
mounded, spreading habit

I put a couple of these in the containers with the roses and also with the black Sweet Potato Vine.  Our summer was just a little too cool and too rainy for the petunias to really take off.  I was also inconsistent with watering and fertilizing, due to our odd travel schedule and the odd weather so the flowers didn't really grow as well as I expected them to.

I did like the flowers and will use them again.

Senecio 'talinoids Blue'

Senecio talinoids mandris
by Proven Winners
full to part sun
height:  8" - 12"
spacing:  6"
habit:  mounded

Noted for its striking blue-green cigar shaped leaves which works well with other succulents.  Intermingles well with other plants as a filler in the middle ground of a combination.

Alternanthera 'Royal Tapestry'

sun to part shade
height:  16" - 24" trailing habit
space:  20"
Multi-hued trailing foliage with deep burgundy stems (foliage color is darkest in sun). 
Can pinch foliage to maintain tidiness.

Cordyline 'Red Sensation'

Cordyline australis

full sun to part sun

bronzy red foliage

With it's long, tropical looking leaves, 'Red Sensation' is an exceptional plant to use for height and texture in container plantings.  The foliage is bronzy-red and grows to about 36 inches tall.  It's leaves are long and narrow.  'Red Sensation' needs good light to maintain it's color.  Don't let it dry out between watering. 

One of my favorite container combinations during the summer of 2009 included this plant.  I had it in combination with Coleus 'Tiny Toes'.  I loved how 'Tiny Toes' and 'Red Sensation' complimented each other.

this picture was taken in late May 2009

I must admit that due to all the wedding travel and other commitments during the summer my containers did not get watered or fertilized as consistently as they normally would. We also had a cool and rainy summer which impacted the growth of the plants. However, the Coleus and the Cordyline handled the odd weather and my mistreatment without showing any udue stress. 

Two BIG thumbs up for both of those plants.  I will be using them again in the future.

I read conflicting reports online as to whether it will live through the winter as a house plant so I think I'm going to try to bring it in. If I manage to keep it alive, it will eventually grow into a small trunked tree; similar to a Dracaena.

Gaura ' Corrie's Gold'

Gaura lindheimeri
full sun
height:  12" - 18"
spacing:  12"


Delicate flowers float above compact mounds of green leaves with variegated edges.  The open airy habit adds an informal touch to mixed planters or the perennial garden.


The tag states zone 6.  It was planted in spring 2009...we'll see if it comes back.

Coleus 'Tiny Toes'

sun to shade
height:  8" - 16" 
spacing:  20"

Tiny, very narrow whorls of green, deep pink, yellow and dark purple.
Very small grower. Tight mound like habit.

Silene 'Rolly's Favorite'

full sun to part shade
height: 15"
blooms: spring to summer

Bubble Gum pink flowers flutter above dark green, well-behaved plants.  This cross between Silene and Lychnis is smothered in pink blooms with white centers.  Blooms all summer if cut back after first flush.  Excellent in containers.

Suggested Companions:  Stonecrop (Sedum x), Hens and Chicks (Sempervivum ), Tickseed (Coreopsis ), False Indigo (Baptisia ), Blue Fescue (Festuca glauca), Garden Phlox (Phlox paniculata)

Fall Colors

I've always loved the colors of fall.  The fall we lived in Vermont we spent every weekend we could driving through the hills taking in the bright and beautiful colors. 

This Cranberry Bush Viburnum really shines in fall.  It barely flowers in springtime (not the shrubs fault - I need to find a complimentary viburnum for cross-pollination), and creates a decent privacy screen from the neighbors in the summer.  It also has been struggling with Verticillium Wilt but we like the mature size and fall color enough to keep it around. 

Here you can see the effects of the Verticillium Wilt.  We've lost a good half of this shrub on the east end of the patio to this disease.  I haven't been able to convince Rob to pull the whole thing out because the remaining part still offers a nice amount of privacy when we are sitting out on our patio.  I did plant a hydrangea in the space that is open.  Hopefully it will grow up nice and strong and offer privacy and  year-round interest like the viburnum but provide contrasting foliage and flowers to the Annabelle hydrangea's.

This shrub on the north side of the patio doesn't seem to be quite as badly infected.  I have only lost one or two major branches.  Mostly I end up pruning out partial branches and seem to be able to help it fight enough to replace what it loses.  You can see the branch that needs to come out at the bottom of the photograph.  

I love the color combination of the Cranberry Bush foliage with the green flower heads of the Annabelle's.  This view from the back deck makes me happy (except when V.W. rears it's ugly head and destroys yet another stem).  I could have cropped out the dead branch but I'm using these photos to track my garden progress and the truth is, I have V.W. in my soil or at least in the roots of these shrubs (and the maple tree - which is another story, for another time).