Garden designers: especially those of us that install many container garden plantings throughout the seasons; are you often left with a few extra annuals after installs? The “oopsies” that you had to have but don’t really fit? Or, the “better get a few extras just-in-case?”
Don’t you end up using these extra plants in your own container gardens (once you finally get around to planting your own towards the end of June)?
This is a story of my last pot: the pot of ill repute.
It starts on a rainy cold day sourounded by several weathered cardboard flats full of outcasts and a few things I bought for myself. Plants were going together really well for most of my pots. I’ve been digging bright orange for the last few years and slowly I’ve been replacing yellow with dark purple. I love it!
Now I’ve come down to the last pot. Ugg, just plant it and be done. The pot holds one random perennial salvia which won’t start to bloom till August, but whatever. Add a couple Petunia ‘Night Sky’ (awesome), and a Dahlia Starsister ‘Orange Stripes’ (How did I miss the tag showing the white stripe? Drag). Then some unknown Coleus and “Voilà.” I still have a ton of room left… Ok, in goes an Ipomoea batatas ‘Blackie’ because black potato vine is always a good addition. And then, two rouge Diascia barberae ‘Darla Red’ (OMG, they are soooo bright hot pink against the bold orange, royal purple, AND the white. Gasp). But wait, there’s still more room and only one garish Heuchera x ‘Georgia Peach’ (What are you thinking?), but I did it. Then I had to wait (because annuals have to grow in for a few weeks to look good, I wish they came with that as a warning on the label).
Only one word can describe the final result: bad ass.
Bright garden colors that work.
Petunia ‘Night Sky’ steals the show.
Steal this look for your garden.
The Urban Gardener 