Yep, I’m writing this on Friday. Seems I’m not the only one though. And I’ll be checking before I publish this post that everything is still there “tomorrow”.
Thanks as always to The Propagator for hosting this meme. I’ve realised he doesn’t have a “logo”. The other memes I join in do and you’ll find their logos (clickable with links) on the right. Maybe I’ll design a something so I can add this there. Or there this. I digress. On with the motley as they say.
Uh? I hear you say (well I don’t cos the hearing aid isn’t in). A water butt? Ah, I answer. This is a Rainwater Terrace water butt. It has planting opportunities. Pelargoniums around the sides and Impatiens in the top. The Impatiens are common or garden walleriana. It’s a test to see if downy mildew is still in the area. So far, so good.
Rainwater Terrace make rather nice water butts. They look a lot different from your usual butt – which is, well, butt shaped. Mine holds 200 litres and looks nice. Have a butchers at their website if you’re interested (NB I NEVER promote things for any reward – see my Ts&Cs – only because I bought one and I like it).
This lovely beastie is Begonia “Impressionist Picasso”. I’m not a fan of these leafy begonias, preferring the flowering types, But this pot fills a temporary hole. Between two hedging shrubs. I need that gap to clean windows. But a potted plant fills the gap when I’m not cleaning windows.
Now this is more my taste in begonias – fibrous ones. I’ll be planting a bed with a few hundred of these today. That municipal bedding effect. But I also plant some baskets with single colour ones. This is red flowers/green foliage. It’ll fill out into a lovely ball by the end of the month and then look great until November.
I say November but it may well be December before the first frosts hit here. I have other hanging baskets filled entirely with white or pink begonias. And foliage may be green or bronze. Which makes a total of six baskets of monochromatic colour. Or is that dichromatic?
But that doesn’t mean I reject tuberous begonias. Who can complain about the redoubtable Apricot Shades. Here they’re filling out the bottom bit of a basket whilst red pelargoniums establish in the top.
Good old Lucifer. I’ve planted a narrow border with a variety of crocosmia. So far, only Lucifer is flowering. The rest are sprouting. Along with several mystery daylilies which I haven’t planted but which are flowering as if they’ve been there for years.
But that’ll be a separate post. I don’t want to be picked up again for bad mathematics.
And so number six. This is Helenium “Short and Sassy”. My Heleniums are usually tall and yellow but this is a container variety. In its first year. Looks good.
That’s my six for this week. Numbers seven et seq may be the subject of later posts …….
Oh Lucifer. Wonderful plant except I don’t like the foliage that flops all over the place either. Or the fact it flowers for a week and that’s your lot till next year. Or that it seeds all over the place and throws up inferior seedlings that flop even worse and flower for less than a week…..
But the Helenium gets my attention, must look that up. I like Heleniums but find slugs play havoc with some varieties and leave others alone.
As I said to Nick, I use peony supports which look ok and do the trick. I find Lucifer spreads underground but just dig it up and split the clump every few years. And mine’s been flowering for a few weeks and has more flowers yet to open. I usually get about a month and a half out of it which is as good as most plants give. Although my Heleniums were marketed as “Short and Sassy”. most places list them as “Short n Sassy” (with or without hyphens) and they’re good growers too.
Lucifer is certainly old reliable. It’s blooming here too. The only thing I don’t like about it is the big, coarse foliage that gets floppy and tends to fall over onto paths and other plants once flowering is done.
Yours waits till flowering is done before flopping over? You are very lucky! I use peony support frames from the outset because they’re both wide and tall enough and the curve out at the top allows controlled flopping, without which any crocosmia would look odd.
Oh Lucifer. Wonderful plant except I don’t like the foliage that flops all over the place either. Or the fact it flowers for a week and that’s your lot till next year. Or that it seeds all over the place and throws up inferior seedlings that flop even worse and flower for less than a week…..
But the Helenium gets my attention, must look that up. I like Heleniums but find slugs play havoc with some varieties and leave others alone.
As I said to Nick, I use peony supports which look ok and do the trick. I find Lucifer spreads underground but just dig it up and split the clump every few years. And mine’s been flowering for a few weeks and has more flowers yet to open. I usually get about a month and a half out of it which is as good as most plants give. Although my Heleniums were marketed as “Short and Sassy”. most places list them as “Short n Sassy” (with or without hyphens) and they’re good growers too.
Lucifer is certainly old reliable. It’s blooming here too. The only thing I don’t like about it is the big, coarse foliage that gets floppy and tends to fall over onto paths and other plants once flowering is done.
Yours waits till flowering is done before flopping over? You are very lucky! I use peony support frames from the outset because they’re both wide and tall enough and the curve out at the top allows controlled flopping, without which any crocosmia would look odd.