This year my botanical obsessions have been largely satisfied with houseplants, but not entirely. I had two hanging baskets outdoors to test the sunlight intensity on my porch (as well as the security of my apartment complex). Starting mid-May, I planted one basket with flowering tobacco, coleus, and petunias...
...and the other with two coleus and this Parrot's Beak 'Amazon Sunset', which had a picture of the red, tubular, hummingbird magnet-looking blooms that I hoped it would be
covered with very soon.
Thay didn't look like much at first, but that's my favorite part of annuals-watching them grow and fill out the planters. If I go for the "instantly lush" look, it feels like cheating (or at least spoiling the surprise.)
Besides, there's still enough instant color for my tastes.
By September the baskets are certainly filled out...
...with plenty of color. Well aside from the parrot's beak, that only managed a couple meager
orange flowers all summer. Meh.
There are even several volunteers/escapees on the ground below, too.
Although combining the spotty coleus with the stripey petunias kinda reduces the impact of both. But hey, more color is all good as far as I'm concerned.
Peak color and fullness was in August...
...especially for the tobacco.
By October 9th the coleus are done in by an evening cold snap, but the other plants are hanging tough...
...even the tobacco which usually dies back fairly easily for me. Coleus are doomed by all the water in their stems, so it doesn't take much cold for them to give up.
Now to see how long the rest can last...
2 comments:
I may have said this before - You have a talent for putting together baskets, window boxes and such!
Very pretty!
v.
Aw thanks! I'm looking forward to mixing it up with veggies next year!
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