Kerry's Garden 2012, June through...

You hear me talk about my garden every month in the newsletter, so I thought I would show you a few photos so you could actually see what I am doing.  I will periodically add new photos.  You can also see photos of my garden from  2009 and 2010.  Please note that most of the plants in my containers will not be available at retail garden centers until spring 2013.  The photo at left is of Miranda and I in April.

Kerry lives and gardens in central Missouri on 10 acres, half of which is a rocky wooded hillside. She and her husband bought their house in 2005.  They now live mere miles from the small family farm where she grew up, near her hometown of around 300.  Both of her grandmothers and her mother loved flowers and passed this passion on to her and she plans on passing this on to her daughter.  She expects her garden to continue to grow as she has time to add to and improve existing beds.  Kerry has a BS in Horticulture from the University of Missouri and an MS in Horticultural Science with a minor in Plant Breeding from the University of Minnesota.  After graduation she lived for 5 years on the Central Coast of California before returning to the Midwest.

Click here to see photos from January through May, 2012.

November 9, 2012

The leaves were at full glory for just a few days in mid-October, before two days of wind followed by two days of rain ended that.

On the other hand, Miranda rather enjoys playting in the leaves!

September 13, 2012

Ok, I couldn't resist using two photos if Miranda.  First of all, I've just realized that I have a lot of pictures of her in her high chair.  I think that might be because it's one of the few times she's actually still.   Second, I think they're both cute:-)  So, a photo of her trying on daddy's boots and one of her eating her favorite food, sweet corn (grown by grandma and grandpa).  Trust me, you don't want to get between her and her sweet corn.  She will ONLY give up the cob when it has been completely stripped of all kernels and gnawed on for good measure.

We had a storm blow through about a week ago, it was super windy and knocked over the coleus and Senorita Blanca^™ Cleome.  It's a bit hard to tell from the photos, but they were really lying down (left and middle).  I trimmed them back pretty hard (right).  If this was a month ago, I would feed them and wait for them to bounce back.  However, it is the middle of September and I really don't see us having enough good warm weather to get a payoff from the regrowth.  I think I am going to go ahead and put them in the compost pile and store most of the containers until next spring.  I might replant a couple of them with fall plants. 

Not all of the containers had plants that blew over, so some of them still look fine.  

 You might remember from last month that the Coffee Cups colocasia had gotten spider mites.  I was going to trim some of it back and treat the rest with a soap and water solution.  Once I started trimming it back, I went ahead and cut off all of the stalks.  It is coming back nicely (left), but I'll need to keep a close eye on it and spray if I see the spider mites making a comeback.  The hanging baskets are still looking very good (middle and right.)

 Señorita Rosalita^® Cleome continues to make the comeback from being trimmed back after the power washing.  It is full, a gorgeous green and has lots of color.  Supertunia^® Vista Bubblegum is still going strong in this bed too.  This is my favorite in ground bed right now.

The corner pot is still looking good, although if you look really closely, you can tell it is hungry and I should fertilize.  The honeysuckle bed is looking a bit tired and I'm thinking of pulling up the zinnias and planting pansies.  Now I just need the time to do it.

The bed on the left side of the porch is getting a great infusion of color from Neon Sedum. The zinnias here are also looking a bit tired.  I do want to change some things in this bed, so if I get time, I'll pull the annuals and move some of the perennials.  Since the sedum are blooming now, I won't move them.  It is best to dig and/or divide perennials when they aren't blooming.

The bed to the left of the porch is looking tired (left).  As soon as I get a chance I am going to pull out the annuals and start thinking about moving the perennials.  I haven't been happy with this bed for two years, so it is time to take some drastic measures and move or remove some of the plants.  The shade bed is looking tired too, but after the drought of the summer that is to be expected.  I think all of the plants will live, which really was my goal for this bed.

The 'Limelight' Hydrangea bed actually looks better in the photos than I think it does in real life.  This is the other bed where I want to make major renovations.  The namesake 'Limelight' shrubs had a tough summer.  The extreme heat and drought and the grasshopper invasion really did a number on them.  I think I might actually lose some of the plants.  I'm going to try and transform this into a mixed shrub backdrop.  The Luscious^® Citrus Blend^™ Lantana is looking great and the Illusion^® Emerald Lace Ipomoea has made a great comeback from the deer munching from earlier in the season.  

August 24, 2012

A month can make such a big difference.  Miranda has two more teeth, is walking pretty well (although she does still crawl when she wants to get somewhere fast) and is eating big people food, sometimes all by herself.  She ended up with spaghetti sauce covering half her face and all the way to her elbows, but she did it all on her own:-)

The hanging baskets around the porch are still looking very good.  I can't say the same for the grass though.  We haven't watered, despite the drought and we'll see if it survives or not.  Most of the porch counts as part sun to sun, but one side is in shade.  For years I tried to use matching baskets on the porch.  Three years ago I gave up and raided the houseplant section of the garden center to make up a basket.  I bring it in for the winter and put it back out in spring.  I know there are annuals that would look great in this spot, but I found it hard to match a shade basket to the look and feel of the sun baskets, which change every year.  With the foliage plants for shade they blend with whatever I happen to use for the other six baskets.  Plus it looks so lush and is SUPER easy to care for.

Senorita Blanca^™ Cleome has performed like a champ all summer long.  However, I do have a nice little demonstration going of what happens when a full sun plant is placed in a part shade spot (around 4 hours of sun a day).  The photo on the left shows the container in the corner of the porch.  Senorita Blanca^™ looks good, and if I didn't have a full sun version to compare her too (the photo on the right) I would be very satisfied with how she looks.  However, when you look at the one in full sun, there's no comparison.  When grown in part shade conditions, she is smaller, lighter green and has fewer flowers.  The plants both received water as needed and the same amount of fertilizer.  The only real difference is sunlight.

 On the left is the bed by the steps to the kitchen door.  You might notice that the bed looks different with Señorita Rosalita^® Cleome looking a lot different than usual (scroll down to see what she looked like a month ago.)  Well, Bryan has been working on power washing the house, which included spraying the skirt under the porch.  While he tried his best, Señorita Rosalita^® ended up leaning away from the porch.  I decided to give her a pretty drastic trim back.  That was about two weeks ago and she has already started pushing new growth and in another week or so should be back in full flower.  She'll look better than ever as we head into fall.  Sometimes it is best to sacrifice some flowers now, for a better payoff in the long run.  Supertunia^® Vista Bubblegum on the other hand survived the spraying in perfect form.  The middle photo shows the corner bed.  I really like the Zahara Fire zinnias, which continue to flower well.  I wish I had planted them closer together and this was a mass of color, rather than individual plants.  The container on the corner is still looking great with Summerific^™ 'Summer Storm' Hibiscus and Supertunia^® Vista Bubblegum providing the color.

I've mentioned before that from my desk I have a view of the deck.  In case you were wondering, this is what I see.  August came with MUCH cooler temperatures.  A few days even topped out in the 70's and night temperatures have been mostly in the upper 50's or low 60's.  It has been wonderful.  I've been leaving my office windows open as much as possible.  It allows me to listen to the drone of the summer insects, the chirps of the birds and the distinct whir of the wings and chitter of our resident hummingbird pair as they visit the flowers on the deck.  One more critter story. Earlier this week as I sat in my office with my windows open, I noticed one of my planters across the desk was rustling, but there was no breeze.  Then I heard the crack as some of the stems of the Coleus broke off.  I suspected a squirrel at work, but wasn't sure.  Not too much later, the container right outside my window started rustling and heard another coleus stem break.  I got up and peaked out the window into the combination and sure enough, there was a squirrel. I yelled and he jumped out, dropping a walnut as he scampered away.  I guess the planter looked like a good place to store nuts for the winter.  The really good thing about the squirrel is that he (or she, who can tell at a glance?) was a native grey squirrel, not one of the accidentally imported red squirrels which are unfortunately taking over.

Ever wonder what the back of deck looks like?  Wonder no more, the flowers spill through the railing!

What plants in my containers are looking the absolute best after this long, trying summer?  From left to right, Superbells^® Lemon Slice Calibrachoa, Supertunia^® Watermelon Charm Petunia. 

The last three, also from left to right Luscious^® Pina Colada and Luscious^® Berry Blend^™ Lantana and Señorita Blanca^™ Cleome.

Poor Coffee Cups Colocasia came down with a pretty bad case of spider mites.  The leaf on the left is infested.  See the color and stippling?  You can't really tell from the photo, but the leaf is covered with webbing that looks a lot like a spider web.  The one on the right is not infected.  I am going to remove the foliage with the worst infestation and then spray the rest of the plant with a solution of luke warm water and a couple of drops of liquid dish detergent (Dawn in our case).  I may have to spray it more than once, but it should take care of the problem.

July 25, 2012

Miranda is really too big for her bouncy seat and she doesn't really use it anymore.  But, every now and then she'll go over to where it is, crawl in and hang out for a bit.

A friend sent this to me, it pretty much sums up how I feel about the weather this summer and it made me laugh:-)

 The weather has continued to be pretty much brutal, highs in the 90's with over 100 temps reached quite often and rain has been minimal.  You can tell that despite all of that the containers on the deck are really still doing well.  We just had a stretch of 5 days or so with highs over 100.  When it got that hot, my container plants needed water more than once a day and they would sometimes wilt even though they had water available.  They just couldn't uptake water fast enough to keep up with the water they were transpiring.  From a distance the plants look really good.  Up close the coleus are looking a bit burnt and the colors aren't as rich as they should be.  The photo on the right shows the two containers that are against the wall of the house.  The sun shines onto the deck at an angle that has sun bouncing off the wall, which ups the heat even more.  Despite the abuse they get, the plants still look good.  You might notice a branch of Senorita Blanca^™ that has broken and is listing.  We must have had wind last night (I slept through it. Bryan is out of town so us girls have been on our own this week), this happened to two of my containers.  I trimmed the branches off and you can't really tell.  I love Senorita Blanca^™, but she does use a lot of water so I'm not sure I would use her in a container again.  I think because of her water needs I would use her in a landscape bed that I could water easily.  I will say she has been in perfect, constant flower since I planted her.  I've watered and fertilized, but done nothing else to help out.  She just thrives!

 These are the containers that line the railing on the deck.  You can no longer see spaces between the containers.  It is a wall of color.  Recently I have really noticed that the insects and hummingbirds are working on the plants.  Every time I step out of the office door (it opens on to the deck and I have a view of the deck from my office chair) I can hear a pleasant buzzing sound that indicates the bees are doing their thing.  I can also see two hummingbirds that visit the plants regularly.  Seeing and hearing the residents that share my garden with me makes me really happy!

I don't usually photograph this part of the porch.  Other than the hanging baskets, I don't have a lot of color along here.  However, the Adirondack chairs my brother made me are super comfy and Coffee Cups^™ Colocasia is doing great.  Miranda likes it too!

 The hanging baskets look good.  They are getting larger now and are more difficult to keep sufficiently watered.  Still, I like the colors and they are easy to care for.

This bed by the porch is doing great.   Señorita Rosalita^® and Supertunia^® Vista Bubblegum are still looking great and flowering like crazy.  You might remember from way back in May when I planted, there are 3 Señorita Rosalita^® plants and two Supertunia^® Vista Bubblegum plants, one of either side of the Cleome in this bed.  The mass of pink you see in the photo on the right is a singe plant of Supertunia^® Vista Bubblegum.  Really how can you beat that performance?

 The honeysuckle bed (left photo) is doing OK.  I do wish that I had planted the Zahara Fire zinnia closer together.  I would prefer they be more of a solid mass of color rather than individual plants.  It is hard to tell in the photo, but there is one dead zinnia in there too.  I'm not sure what happened to it, but the others are doing fine.  The other two photos are of the container on the corner of the sidewalk. Summerific^™ 'Summer Storm' Hibiscus started blooming about a week ago.  Fantastic!  The blooms are huge and I love the dark foliage.  The plant was small when I received it this spring, so I put it in a container where it could get a good start.  I'll need to find a more permanent home for it this fall.  This is another spot where Supertunia^® Vista Bubblegum is doing great.

 This bed on the left side of the front steps is looking the best it has all summer.  The 'Goldsturm' Rudbeckia is in full flower and looking great.  I love the mixture of 'Goldsturm, Diamond Frost^® and Neon Sedum.  About the time 'Goldsturm' finishes, Neon should start blooming.  I do think I'll try to find the time to shake up this bed a bit this fall or next spring (if we don't start getting rain I'll certainly wait for spring).  While I love daylilies I don't think they are a good choice for this specific bed.  This bed just isn't very deep and every plant needs to really pull their weight, colorwise.  The daylilies here just don't have color for a long enough period of time, so it is time to try something new.  Not sure what I'll try yet.

 The bed on the right of the porch isn't looking as good.  It's just a bit of a mess.  First, there are the weeds I haven't made the time to pull, then there are the sunflowers that I added because my 7 year old nephew is fascinated and I want to keep him interested in gardening.  Add the Señorita Rosalita^® that is planted only on one side (I ran out and couldn't find three more plants when I went looking).  It's just not as good as it could be.  Back to the drawing board for next year.  I think adding landscape blocks to define the bed would help.  That is on our to do list, but building the wood playset we got Miranda is up first.  I will say the Double Play^™ Big Bang Spirea I planted is looking great and taking the adverse conditions with ease (photo on right).

The shade bed is in survival mode.  I'm not even trying to keep it looking good, I am just hoping for survival.  The heat and dry conditions are certainly taking their toll, but so are insects.  I can see big differences in the hosta for how attractive they are to the insect pests. Some of the plants are eaten to tatters, while others really look pretty good.  Oddly enough the deer have left the hostas alone, even though they taste tested the bed below.

The namesakes for the 'Limelight' Hydrangea bed are really struggling.  Our lawn is huge and it is on it's own when it comes to moisture, thus the brown you can see in the right hand photo.  You can tell that I water the flower bed though by the green grass along the edge.  It is hard to tell from the photos, but this bed desperately needs to be weeded.  I have been lazy.  I would claim that I haven't had time, but really I haven't wanted to get out in the extreme heat and weed.  I'm going to try to do that on Saturday morning.  Maybe.  The bed looks OK, but not great.  I did find out that my local deer population loves Illusion^® Emerald Lace since they munched it almost to death, browsed lightly on the 'Limelight' and left everything else alone.  I am sad to say, that despite watering regularly I think I'm going to lose as least one of the 'Limelight' shrubs.  I'm choosing to see this as an opportunity to mix up the plants I'm using in this bed.  While I've loved the 'Limelight' hedgerow that backs this bed, I'm not sure 'Limelight' is best grown in full sun in our climate.  I think it would benefit from afternoon shade.  I think I'll try to integrate some more drought tolerant shrubs into this bed in place of some, certainly not all, of the 'Limelight'.  I'll have to see what survives and what my options are for redoing this bed.  If we start getting rain I'll try to redo it this fall.  If not I'll have to find a way to squeeze it in next spring.    

 The veggie garden has weeds only along the row of beans, tomato and peppers because that is what I water.  Another spot I need to weed.  I am getting some tomatoes and peppers, although it is too hot for the beans to set.  Between heat, drought and critters that got in one night when the electric fence stopped working I got no sweet corn at all.  I did get a really good take from my three rows of potatoes - nearly three 5 gallon buckets full - that I've sorted and stored in our nice cool basement.

June 29, 2012

Hmmm, what do I do with this?  Is it tasty?  I can't believe she's 1.

Señorita Rosalita^® and Supertunia^® Vista Bubblegum are still doing great (left photo).  They are really full and lush.  In most summers I can water my in-ground beds once a week using soaker hoses and my plants will be perfectly happy.  With our drought conditions and extreme heat, however, I am going to water every 5 days.  The soil scientist from Mizzou says the top 5 feet of our soil is dry and that 1/4 of inch of soil dries out each day without rain.  YIKES!  The honeysuckle bed (right photo) is coming along nicely.  Diamond Frost^® and Zahara Fire zinnia have put on good growth in the past two weeks.  They need another few weeks to look really full, but I like the colors.  It'll be interesting to see what effect this next week of upper 90's and low 100's have on the plants.  I think as long as I can keep them (and the rest of the garden) watered they should keep looking great.

What a difference two weeks make. Daisy May^® Leucanthemum was in full bloom on the 14th (left photo), a hot days later and I was left with just the seed heads.  I'm not usually very good about deadheading, but there were so many over-the-hill flowers I went ahead and grabbed my sheers.  This corner is a bit drab now (middle photo).  I'm curious to see how much re-bloom I get. 

The container on that corner of the sidewalk, however, is looking fantastic.  Supertunia^® Vista Bubblegum and Littletunia^™ Sweet Sherbet Petunias are flowering like crazy.  Summerific^™ 'Summer Storm' Hibiscus has really taken off in the last few weeks.  I was afraid Supertunia^® Vista Bubblegum was going to overwhelm it, but Summerific^™ 'Summer Storm' has made a comeback.  I love the dark color of the older foliage contrasted with the light green new growth.  I can't wait for the huge pink blooms!  

The front of the porch is also coming along nicely.  The bed to the left of the steps (left photo) has daylilies blooming and the Goldsturm black-eyed Susan's are just starting to pop.  The next time I take photos they should look great. The containers by the front steps are OK, nothing to write home about, yet.  The bed to the right of the stairs (right photo) is also getting some good color.  I don't love it yet.  I'm not sure why.  I'll have to see if I can put my finger on why...

 The hostas are suffering a bit with the heat and drought, but really the bed looks good - all things considered.

The 'Limelight' bed is still looking good, although 'Limelight' is suffering.  They just need more moisture than I'm willing to give them.  They don't look horrible, but the dry and hot conditions along with the "natural pruning" supplied by deer this spring have conspired to leave the plants quite short.  They definitely aren't what they usually are.  On the other hand, Supertunia^® Vista Bubblegum and Illusion^® Emerald Lace Ipomoea are doing fantastic, as is Zahara Fire.  One of the fun things about Supertunia^® Vista Bubblegum is that if it encounters a plant that is a bit taller than it is, she will "climb" the other plant. She isn't truly a climber, but she will kind of creep over other plants.  The past two weeks of heat and dry have  Señorita Rosalita^® looking Ok, but not great.  She seems to need more water than most of my other plants.  I still love her, but the dry weather has been a bit hard on her.  I think Karl Foerster Calamagrostis is a fantastic plant. I've come to appreciate it even more lately.  If you want movement in your garden, this is a great plant to provide it.  I'm not sure I really like where I placed the plant, but I do love how he looks.  I'm starting to contemplate ways to get better impact from the plants I have.  I think a row of them at the back of a bed, might be really interesting.  Maybe I'll try that in one or two of the beds along the porch...

 The veggie garden is doing well enough.  We did get an electric fence installed to protect it from critters.  Basically we are safeguarding the sweet corn from deer and those master marauders - raccoons.  It's easier to install it around the entire garden rather than just the corn.

The hanging baskets around the porch are looking good and filling out.  I took this batch of photos early in the morning when the sun was just up.  I'm beginning to understand why photographers really love early morning light.

Here are a few other containers scattered around the porch.  On the left is Coffee Cups Colocasia.  The middle photos shows Sunpatiens along with the new Senorita Blanca^™.  This spot gets around 6 hours of sun a day, so it qualifies for full sun, while the rest of the porch would have to be considered shade.  The host on the right, is till looking good also.

The containers on the back deck are growing and looking good.  The two I show here (middle and right) are, as you can tell, up against the house.  They get blasted by all afternoon sun that bounced off of the house and reflects even more heat.  With our extreme heat, breezy conditions and low humidity (we are usually quite humid in summer, with the drought not so much this year) they suffer a bit.  In fact, the Senorita Blanca^™ Cleome (left photo) and ColorBlaze^® Marooned^™ coleus wilt in the afternoon, despite having moisture in their containers.  They simply cannot take up enough moisture to replace what they are losing.  They bounce back quickly, but that is tough on plants.  The Luscious^® Berry Blend^™ and Luscious^® Pina Colada Lantana in these containers have no such problems.  They are just much less water needy than the other two plants.

I have noticed that Senorita Blanca^™ uses a lot of water. It is a larger plant (see it in the thee containers in the middle photo), so that is one reason it needs more water, but I think it just also uses more water.  These three containers dry out more quickly than the other similar sized ones near them.  Still the planters look really great and are holding their own with our challenging conditions.  I do have to water every day though!  Those masses of bright yellow you see?  They are Superbells^® Lemon Slice Calibrachoa which continue to perform like a champ!  Scroll down to the previous batch of photos to see a close up of her yellow and white striped flowers.  So cheerful!

Here are a few highlight plants for this week. ColorBlaze^® Marooned^™ coleus.  Here it is a burgundy red color, but the photo doesn't capture the true color.  This is a deep, velvety burgundy-black.  Really a beautiful color and an excellent, densely branched plant.  On the right is one of my favorite new plants, Blue My Mind^™ Evolvulus.  Yes, that photo is true to color, at least on my computer screen.  The plant has true blue flowers!  Southern gardeners are most likely to already be familiar with Evolvulus, but other gardeners might not know this plant.  It is heat tolerant and will bloom all summer, with those fabulously colored flowers.  The new Blue My Mind^™ has better branching, larger flowers and more flowers.  The blossoms do close at night, but WOW.  Wonderful.  Every plant I have is doing great.

June 14, 2012

Love her gardening hat!

Señorita Rosalita^® Cleome is looking fantastic. The glossy green foliage and abundant blooms are gorgeous.  Supertunia^® Vista Bubblegum has also really kicked in and is adding a lot of size.The photos don't come close to capturing the true color of the flowers of either of these plants.

Diamond Frost^® and Zahara Fire zinnia are coming along well.  The honeysuckle bush is blooming nicely and the hummingbirds are loving it (left photo).  The container on the corner of the sidewalk is really filling in (center, photo) Supertunia^® Vista Bubblegum and Littletunia^™ Sweet Sherbet Petunias are both growing and flowering like crazy.  Summerific^™ 'Summer Storm' Hibiscus is planted in the center of the container.  I can't wait for it to really take off.  Daisy May^® Leucanthemum is still in full bloom.  This corner is one of the most flowerful areas of the garden right now.

The flower beds on either side of the front steps are both filling in.  The daylilies are blooming and adding a pop of color and the 'Goldsturm' Rudbeckia are budded and should pop soon.   Diamond Frost^® and Zahara Fire, in the bed to the left of the porch, are adding some color and will add more as the summer goes on (left photo).  In the bed on the right hand side (middle and right photos), Supertunia^® Vista Bubblegum is looking well here as is Señorita Rosalita^®.  This bed is a bit uneven, the Supertunia^® Vista Bubblegum on the left was planted several weeks before the plants on the right (I was a couple plants short, my usual garden center was sold out and I had to go on a plant hunt.)  They will even out over time, but at the moment they are uneven. 

The 'Limelight' Hydrangea bed is coming along nicely, although the namesake 'Limelight' hedge row is lagging behind.  The extreme dry weather is holding them back, I'm curious to see how they will do this year with our unusually dry weather.  Supertunia^® Vista Bubblegum has really taken off in this bed, Illusion^® Emerald Lace Ipomoea is also doing well.  It isn't as large as Supertunia^® Vista Bubblegum, but it is also doing well as is the Zahara Fire.  Señorita Rosalita^® is doing fantastic in this bed as well.  I'm still super excited about how this bed is looking. Karl Foerster Calamagrostis is also looking really good.  I love to watch it sway in the wind.

This container on the corner of the porch includes Sunpatiens^® Impatiens and Señorita Blanca^® Cleome (new for 2013).  It gets strong morning sun, I love the orange and white together (left and middle photos).  The hanging baskets are growing well.  I need to go out and rotate each basket so all sides receive the same amount of sun.

The majority of my container plants are on the deck.  You can see most of them in the photo on the left.  The containers are growing really well and the plants are starting to grow and flower very well.  All of the containers on the deck contain new introductions (not available until spring 2013).  The container in the middle photo has Supertunia^® Watermelon Charm Petunia, Blue My Mind^™ Evolvulus, Señorita Blanca^™ Cleome, Littletunia^™ Sweet Sherbet and Luscious^® Berry Blend. The container in the photo on the right also contains Supertunia^® Watermelon Charm and Luscious^® Berry Blend, as well as ColorBlaze^® Marooned^™ Coleus, Superbells^® Lemon Slice Calibrachoa and Frosty Knight^™ Lobularia.  While these two containers don't match, they do have enough common elements to compliment each other.

The three upright containers in these containers all use ColorBlaze^® Sedona Sunset^™ Coleus as the thriller, they also have Supertunia^® Watermelon Charm Petunia, Superbells^® Lemon Slice Calibrachoa, Luscious^® Berry Blend^™ and Luscious^® Piña Colada Lantana.  The two metal containers have ColorBlaze^® Marooned^™ Coleus, Superbells^® Lemon Slice Calibrachoa, Frosty Knight^™ Lobularia and Blue My Mind^™ Evolvulus.

These three containers in the corner of the porch are made of Señorita Blanca^™, Supertunia^® Picasso in Pink^™ Petunia, Superbena^® Royale Silverdust Verbena, Blushing Princess^® Lobularia, Supertunia^® Hot Pink Charm  Petunia and Whirlwind^® White Imp Scaevola.

I'm going to highlight some of my favorite new plants for 2013.  The first one is this super cool Superbells^® Lemon Slice Calibrachoa.  The yellow and white pinwheel pattern is unique and completely stable.  It is a great color with an excellent habit.

Supertunia^® Watermelon Charm Petunia has petite, bright watermelon colored flowers and a dense habit with a vigorous plant.  I love how it mixes with Superbells^® Lemon Slice.

Supertunia^® Picasso in Pink^™ Petunia is similar to Supertunia^® Pretty Much Picasso^®.  The newest Picasso has true pink flowers with a smaller green edge than the original.  The plant has better branching and a tidier habit. I'm really excited about it.

Blushing Princess^™ Lobularia is a sister to Snow Princess^®, she has blush purple blooms instead of white, a somewhat smaller habit, about 2/3 the size of the original.  She has dark green foliage and is fragrant.

We've loved Señorita Rosalita^® Cleome for years and have wanted to add more colors, but were unable to find one.  We finally found another Señorita.  Other than the silvery-white flower color, Señorita Blanca^™ is Señorita Rosalita^®.

June 1, 2012

Late last week (May 25th) I potted up all of my containers.  This is an overview of most of the ones on the back deck.  I didn't go an actual count, but I should have about 2 dozen containers.  Ok, I went and counted and the grand total is 28 containers.  There are 10 on the deck, this photo shows 8 of them.

I have to say, I'm pleased with how quickly the containers are growing.  For the container pictures, the photos on the left are from May 25th and the ones on the right are from June 1st.  The coleus are really growing.

Again, May 25th on the left and June 1st on the right.

 Here you can see that flowers are starting to show up in the photo from June 1st.

Another one where you can tell that the coleus is really growing.

This one lost flowers in the week since I planted it.  It will bounce back, I'm sure.

This planter uses Sunpatiens, which are in our Proven Selections line.  You can really see both plant growth and flowers popping.

The container on the corner of the sidewalk is also really starting to show some color.

The pot in the foreground has Sunpatiens and you can see they are really coloring up well.  The other two pots haven't grown much.  However, the day after I finished potting them I went outside and something had been digging in them, I put the soil back, but the critter didn't do my plants any favors.

Another one where the Sunpatiens are growing nicely.

I think I'm really going to like the red begonias with the cobalt container.  I would have preferred three plants instead of two, but you go with what you have.  

Last, but no least are the hanging baskets.  This year I used a white, chartreuse and black theme.  The white comes from Diamond Frost^® Euphorbia.  The chartreuse is from Illusion^® Emerald Lace Ipomoea (Sweet Potato Vine) and the black is from another Sweet Potato Vine, Sweet Caroline Raven.  I think they are going to look great.  I do need to get out and water them though.  I put slow release fertilizer in all of my containers when I planted them.  However, the plants for the hanging baskets were sitting in the shade on the porch for a long time before I got them planted.  I think I am going to give them an extra boost of energy by using a weak water soluble fertilizer when I water today.

This bed by the side-steps to the porch is looking good (photo on left).  Señorita Rosalita^® Cleome is really growing well as are the Supertunia^® Vista Bubblegum Petunias. The Zahara Fire Zinnias are just getting going, but then they were planted a couple of weeks after the other two plants.  The Honeysuckle bed is getting more color, but developing a bit more slowly then the other beds.

Daisy May^® Leucanthemum (Shasta Daisy)  is looking incredible.  I have three plants (middle photo) on this corner.  On May 25th I took the photo on the left and then I counted the buds and flowers on each plant.  The plant on the left (left and right photos) had 5 dozen buds/flowers.  The plant in the middle had 6 dozen buds/flowers.  The plant on the right is a bit smaller and has "only" 2 1/2 dozen buds/flowers.  The middle photo and the photo on the right were taken June 1st.  I just don't think you could cram any more flowers onto these plants!  I planted these last spring, so year two is fantastic for these.

The beds in front of the porch are also starting to fill in.  The bed to the left of the front porch steps (left photo) is getting full. The perennials aren't blooming so this bed is mostly green, you can see the frilly flowers of the Diamond Frost^®.  The bed to the right of the front porch steps is deeper, has more annuals and so it is showing more color.  Señorita Rosalita^®and Supertunia^® Vista Bubblegum are both looking great here, as they were in the other bed.

The shade bed continues to look lush and lovely.  Last time, I showed you photos of the Jackmanii Clematis and commented on how I was looking forward to the orange lilies blooming, since I like the color combination.  Well on May 25th, the orange lilies popped out and for a few days I was able to enjoy the contrast of rich purple and bright orange.  The Clematis is mostly done blooming now, but it was great while it lasted!

The 'Limelight' Hydrangea bed is definitely my largest bed.  The Supertunia^® Vista Bubblegum^™ Petunias and Señorita Rosalita^® Cleome are really growing fast.  Illusion^® Emerald Lace Ipomoea and Zahara Fire zinnia aren't growing quite as aggressively, yet.  However, I have confidence that by the end of the summer this bed will be showpiece!

Patent Info:

Limelight' Hydrangea paniculataPP: 12874, Can.: 2319; Oso Easy^® Paprika Rosa 'ChewMayTime' PP: 18347 Can. Can.: 3401; Absolutely Amethyst^® Iberis hybrid 'IB2401' PPAF Can. PBRAF; Supertunia^® Vista Bubblegum Petunia hybrid 'USTUNI6001' PP: 17730 Can. Can.: 2871; Senorita Rosalita^® Cleome hybrid 'Inncleosr' PP: 19733 Can. Can.: 3290; GoldDust^™ Mecardonia hybrid 'USMECA8205' PPAF Can. PBRAF; Diamond Frost^® Euphorbia hybrid 'Inneuphdia' PP: 17567 Can. Can.: 2830; Daisy May^® Leucanthemum 'Daisy Duke' PP: 21914 Can. PBRAF; Double Play^® Big Bang Spiraea 'Tracy' PPAF Can. PBRAF; ; Illusion^® Emerald Lace Ipomoea batatas 'NCORNSP012EMLC' PP: 21744 Can. Can.: 4162; Luscious^® Citrus Blend^™ Lantana camara'2003301' PP: 19706;Sweet Caroline Raven Ipomoea batatas'NCORNSP015SCPI' PPAF Can. PBRAF; Summerific^™ 'Summer Storm' Hibiscus hybrid PP: 20443; Senorita Blanca^® Cleome hybrid 'USCLESNABL' PPAF Can PBRAF;  Berry Blend^™ Lantana 'LAN 876' PPAF; Supertunia^® Pink Charm Petunia hybrid 'USTUN19603' PP: 21675 Can.: 4079; Superbena^® Royale Silverdust Verbena hybrid'AKIV5721' PPAF Can. PBRAF; Summerific^™ 'Summer Storm' Hibiscus hybrid PP: 20443