French Urn Container Planting begins to Make Me Happy

This container is full of nasturtiums that I grew from seed and planted not knowing what the color would be.  It turned out that the golden yellow is just the right color (there could still be other colors as I just randomly stuck seeds in)

 Purple Shield,  and Purple Heart (unknowlingly overwintered from last  year), are three of the plants taking top honors right now in the urns flanking my garage.

 I had hoped there would be at least three yellow calla lilies, but so far only two and one is about finished.

I love how the Purple Heart grew down the front like that with the Creeping Jenny behind.   I wish the Purple Shield behind it was at least a foot taller.  Maybe it will take off soon.  I am not sure what dahlia I planted in this urn. I will know soon as buds are forming.  It's fun watching these urns change almost weekly as new flowers bloom.

I still can't believe it looked like this in mid-May:

In case you are wondering, I moved that grass over to the side. You can see a bit of it in the first picture.  It is still quite small, but I am expecting it to grow a lot bigger. I remember thinking that the tiny little piece of Creeping Jenny was probably not enough. I can't believe how it filled out so quickly.

Friday morning I was admiring how the sun highlighted these striped canna leaves and calla lilies on the deck:

Also on the deck, my second whiskey barrel of coneflowers has begun to bloom. This is the more common purple echinacea and is on the opposite side of the stairs from 'Hot Papaya'.

I am so happy that my containers are going crazy just as my main gardens are finishing with  the majority of blooms for this year.  Except for watering there is not much work to do on the container plantings. I can spend the next two months just enjoying them.

I have a lot of dahlias just beginning to bloom, too. I will show you those later this week.

Right now I have to get some work done while dinner makes itself in the Nesco.  Now that's a colorful meal!

I have had this NESCO for years, but rarely used it.  With this year's heat wave, I have started to use it so I don't have to heat up the kitchen.  It is a 4-quart -- perfect size for two people.

Echinacea 'Hot Papaya' in a Container

Last August I planted 'Hot Papaya' in a half whiskey barrel. It overwintered beautifully and I was so happy to see over a dozen buds on it this year.  It is advertised as Unique and Sizzling Hot... firey shade of red. When they all burst into bloom on July 6, I was disappointed.

 

 The flowers on mine were plain and uninspiring.  The center did not resemble a pompom.

On July 8^th, I felt better to see that the flowers had begun to form the drooping-petal shape I expected, but I would not call the color "firey and intense".

Day 3: Now this is more like it! ... drooping petals, hot red color emerges, pompom begins to stand out.

Day 6:

Love the color, love the shape...love it all!  I can now declare that 'Hot Papaya' performs just as advertised.  If you like bold, get this one.

7/15/12 Update

'Hot Papaya's' pompom changes to the color on papaya flesh as it ages.  This flower is 9 days old:

Echinacea 'Hot Papaya'

While walking through the 1/2 price aisles of hanging baskets at H*ome D*epot, I spotted a  shelf  full of tall orange/red color. Closer inspection revealed the blaze of color to be  a new echinacea called 'Hot Papaya' --don't you love that name?

There was no mark down on this stunning coneflower, but I had to have it anyway. I tossed my frugal flower buying habit to the wayside and picked out the nicest specimen to plant in one of my whiskey barrels on the deck.

'Hot Papaya' is a dramatic double-flowered orange/red color

with a skirt of flouncy petals and a purple-tinged center.

Another interesting attribute is that the flower emerges in a totally different color.

It's a golden light orange color that deepens as it ages. (Please forgive this terrible photo. Sun conditions were not ideal and this particular bloom is fading because I broke the stem on the way home)

As you can tell, I am excited about this addition to my deck garden. Does anybody grow this?

I also bought six hanging baskets of gerbera daisies mixed with this stuff. Anybody know what this is?

It is soft and fuzzy and reminds me of the licorice plant. I really hate when they don't have tags telling you the name of the plants.

Update:  Thanks to Sissy for leaving a comment that this is Plectranthus 'Silver Shield'.  I really appreciate you letting me know, Sissy.