Trebbanio Dahlia and Toad Lily Whiskey Barrel

This year I planted my Trebbanio dahlias in two whiskey barrels on my deck.  These dahlias start out as nearly black and gradually the outer petals turn a ruby red.  I adore them! I also planted Elephant Ears and toad lilies  (Tricyrtis) in the barrels.




Last year I had the Tricyrtis along a walkway in a perennial garden. But toad lilies bloom late--at a time when I rarely walk the perennial paths, so I decided to move them up on the deck when I could enjoy them every day. I think the color goes nicely with the Trebbanio dahlias.

But ,overall, l I find these barrel planters rather blah, so I added a flamingo to one of them.

That's a bit better. :)

See the pot of pink starburst 'Park Princess' dahlias further down the deck?  Over the weekend, I moved the rain lilies that Patti from Osage Bluff sent me in January of 2012 (read the post here) and put them right underneath the dahlias.

 

I think they make a nice complement down on the ground level.

Today we called a tree service to get a bid on removing 13 more trees from my front yard and perennial gardens.  Whooo hoooo! Can't wait to get rid of more scruffy trees!

 

A Few Deck Containers are Beginning to Bloom & Sedumn Autumn Joy is Looking Good

I have a lot less containers on the deck this year. I like having less.  My plan is to gradually work my way down to just six half whiskey barrels that stay out all winter.  I am no where near that minimalistic goal. It will take years.

I separated  two barrels of liatris last fall.  Some of them are just beginning to bloom.  These are perennial and stay in their half-whiskey-barrel containers out on the deck all year long.  It doesn't get much easier than that!

I never had much luck growing Liatris in the ground.  I was thrilled when I discovered they liked living in the whiskey barrels.

Many of my yellow calla lilies have huge blooms this year. It seems like they are  blooming later  (which, if true, is understandable due to the very cold spring & I brought them out two weeks later than usual).

In the front yard, I filled the border near the front porch with Sedum Autumn Joy last year and am thrilled that it is just about completely filled in so that you do not see individual plants--just a mass of Sedum.  That was my plan from the beginning . Once planted, Sedum Autumn Joy demands little attention--no watering, no fertilizer...nada....nada...nada!
I may have to divide it every three years, but that's  about it. It should look good all year long with no effort from me. I love the light green color with the darker green shrubs. 

This area will be completely pink in about three weeks.

 

I am not thrilled with the canna/calla combo under the window.

 

I like the foliage color combo, which I used to coordinate with the Ninebark 'Diablo' shrub, but the callas flopped over in the recent rain.  The Tropicana foliage should be much larger than it is.  If I do this next year, I will have to buy some green stakes for each calla. I suspect I will have to stake the Tropicanna lilies also --should they decide to bloom this year. At the moment it does not look like they will.  I hate staking because it is so ugly and it defeats my goal of less garden maintenance. I will probably be changing this planting next year.

 

The garage urns are still all foliage and I am really liking this one (the larger of the two identically-planted urns)

I will now start cutting back any further growth from the licorice plant and the ipomea. I don't want the whole urn to be covered.

 

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

 

(Almost) Autumn Deck Rearrangement

I spent a couple of hours on the deck this morning removing about a dozen ugly spent containers as well as the two framed planters on the lattice wall.  There was still a few weeks of life left in many of my planters, so I reorganized those.  I clustered the ones that still looked decent to show off their best sides.  I even reused the green picture frames.

I love this Proven Winner Colorblaze Keystone Kopper coleus with the autumn-acceptable clash of the orange croscosmia.

Here is the whole container cluster:

I did a second cluster arrangement around the whiskey barrel on the opposite side of this entrance. 

It has red Rembrandt dahlias.

I just pulled the red dahlia containers from this corner crate display of red and pink dahlias.

 All of the pink were hit by whatever  bug has been destroying all my dahlias, so I cut those back and just left the red with the sweet potato vine.  This area is now home to my white glider.

I did a blue/green table arrangement in the area where the white glider sat all summer.

I have since decorated this area a bit, but the sun is washing out pictures, so I will have to show that on another post.

I think I should get at least a month of enjoyment from this new deck-or-ating.  I am hoping to have at least one meal out here on the green table.

Look what DH found today:

A humongous bright green caterpillar!  I think it's one of those tomato-eating horn worms. Am I correct?

Scarecrows and liatris added to Planters

Thanks for your visits the past week.  We have been out of town for 5 days, so that is why you have not heard from me.  I had a couple of posts scheduled.  I hope to get around to visiting everyone soon.

When I removed the hostas from the deck planters, I also removed some liatris (gay feather).  I put a couple in this whiskey barrel on the deck.

They go nicely with the Buddelia (butterfly bush in the background).

I cut off the ugly dahlia leaves from the garage urns this morning.  I was left with a lot of bare stalks, though there are new dahlia leaves coming out near all the spots I cut.  Still I needed something to fill in the bare spot--I went to the basement and brought out some scarecrows to fill in the space.

 This dahlia is way too tall and I plan to cut it shorter as soon as the big bud on top blooms.  It is the only bud I see and I want to know what color dahlia I have in this urn. I can't for the life of me remember.  I also stuck some liatris in this urn. Can you see it?  Here is a close up:

Here is the second urn flanking the garage door:

and the close up of the cute little scarecrow:



I also added a scarecrow to the porch planter.

  The pink Park Princess dahlias in this container  really looked bad, so I cut them all the way down to the soil.  I also had to remove a few Cordayline leaves as a fuzzy worm was eating them.  I picked off and stomped on 5 fuzzy worms crawling on the leaves.

See the sedum Autumn Joy at the bottom of the picture?  It's only the beginning of all the SAJ's I have in this front garden.  Take a look:

There are even more on the opposite side of the driveway.  Can you see the hint of pink? In  a few weeks it will be a mass of pink (and bees!) in this area.

Thumbs UP for HD Returns, Buddelia Visitors & Peruvian Daffodil

I am happy to report that we did find the correct Home Depot receipt and I was able to painlessly return the two dead plants (scroll down a few weeks if you don't know what I am talking about).  The lady at the return desk did not hassle me at all. Thumbs up to HD!

My Buddelia bushes have been hosting dozens of attractive visitors.  I just went out and counted 12 butterflies and one hummingbird moth. I snapped pics of just a few visitors.

I have not seen a hummingbird yet, which is disappointing.  Most years I see hummers all the time.
This Peruvian daffodil is also a bit disappointing.  It has only one bloom. As lovely as it is, I was hoping for many more.

We have not gotten any of the rain predicted for the past week or so.  I finally had to go out after work today and spend about an hour watering the plants I recently moved in the main gardens.  I am only trying to keep them alive until it rains.  At this point I am pretty tired of caring for my plants.  Once my grass dies out, I have no desire to waste my energy caring for the gardens.  Without green grass, they do not look good. 

I do keep my deck containers watered. My Tropicanna whiskey barrels are looking good right now with their first blooms.

Up near the Tropicanna flower, you can see a dahlia that I inserted yesterday. I like to grow small containers of plants that I can use in my larger containers.  This dahlia is gold with red stripes. I think they are  perfect with the Tropicanna leaves.

That is about all the garden news in my parched Michigan garden.  I hope your garden is doing better.

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:

'Green Jewel' Coneflower & 'Cherry Brandy' BES

I bought two new perennials today for my whiskey barrels.  The two older barrels on the other end of the deck have two different varieties of  coneflower. I love to have perennials in my barrels. It is a saving of work and money. Coneflowers don't grow for me in the ground,  but they seem to love to grow in the barrels. I thought it would be nice to have 4 different coneflowers as the main perennials--a different variety  in each barrel. 

So when I saw this gorgeous mahogany-colored flower In Home Depot today, I grabbed it, knowing it would be perfect with Tropicanna--and it is:

 It was not until I got home and removed the tag, that I realized it is not a coneflower!  It's a black-eyed Susan called 'Cherry Brandy'. 

Coneflowers and BES are related, so I don't feel too badly that I was fooled. :)  I still think it's a knockout color with those striped Tropicanna leaves.  I think that the nasturtium that I planted here should be a similar color when it blooms. This may be my favorite color combo for 2012.  There is no way that I can dig in the barrels to plant this right now, so I just stuck the container inside and will do the permanent planting this fall.

The second perennial that I bought today was the coneflower 'Green Jewel'.  I have been admiring that green color for the past few years, so when I saw it for sale, I did not hesitate to get it.  Too often I have waited for a better price, etc. and then my chance was gone. 

'Green Jewel'  does not really WOW me with the same Tropicanna I have planted in barrel #2 this year,

but I do like the complementary color scheme  in this container with Tropicanna 'Gold' and the yellow calla lilies.

 I like the green-tinged flowers with the Trop 'Gold' yellow veined leaves.

as well as with the white-splotched calla leaves:

So next year I just need to replicate this container in the half whiskey barrel.

No problem as long as I remember which container the Trop 'Gold' is in. So I took this pic to help me and I will save it in my "Remember Next Year" category. 

Note to self: Transplant everything from the big blue container in 2013 to the whiskey barrel with  coneflower 'Green Jewel'.

I hope you are all having a great 4th of July.  It is too hot here to do much.  I spent from 7 to 8 am outside and it was so humid that I came inside and decided not to attend any holiday festivities. 

 When DH got home about noon, we went to Home Depot to see if they had any stone pavers because earlier this week, I decided I need another path in the area where the yellow line is: 

These Lake Superior stone/cement pavers are heavy and by the time we loaded 16 of them in the truck bed, we were both dripping wet. 

I am hoping it cools off  early this evening so we can unload them and I can begin working on it tomorrow morning.  I promised DH that last year's path was the last one. Of course, this man who can't remember anything he says, remembered that pledge.

 I acknowledged saying it, but who knew then that the black-eyed Susans I hoped would fill the entire end of this garden,  would decide not to grow all big lush as they do in all the other gardens where I don't want them?

 Adding a path will open the planting possibilities--I can plant short items next to the path and I can get to the middle of the area to weed.   Every time I have added a path, the garden has improved.  The path I added last year, was this one:

It is by far, my best area this year!  So I am excited to get to work on the next path, which I really hope is the last one.  It takes a ton of hard labor to make these paths!

It Takes a Big Leap of Faith...

to believe this container will ever look awesome!  

 I have faith and I think it will. It is the container that I plan to put on the front porch right next to my entrance door. At this stage it is too ugly to put out for eveyone to see, so I will hide it until it begins to fill in.

To start this combo, I had to mutilate the beautiful Cordyline plant that I overwintered in my garage.
Most of the leaves were brown and brittle, so I cut them all off,

except for the top few, which still looked good.  It's a good thing I saved this Cordyline, because I can't find any red Cordyline to buy this year. That seems to be the norm for my small town. One  year it's available, the next three years it's not.

I added dark purple fillers—the same ones I put in my whiskey barrel on the deck--salvia & coleus.

I also used two pink perennials from my garden-- Sedum Autumn Joy and Guara to spill over the edge.--two high impact plants at zero cost.

 I know that some of my readers notice EVERYTHING, so I must let you know that in this pic, astute readers may recognize Purple Fountain Grass in the middle. It was there for a day, but then I pulled it back out, so I could use it in one of the deck whiskey barrels.  So at the current time, this container has no fountain grass.

Guara is to the left of the grass and it's the plant inside this milk can:

It gets long airy arms of tiny pink flowers that should shoot up and over the edge of the planter.

 It won’t be long and the “thriller” plants in this pot should cover the bare stalk.  As is always the case with my containers, you can't see any  “thrillers”, because they are under the soil.  Here they are:

 

What? You don't think these look thrilling?  LOL. As I said it takes a lot of faith...these should be pink 'Park Princess' dahlias. They are a lovely star shape. Here is what I hope I planted:

I also planted another dahlia, which I am hoping is this purple Rembrandt variety.

Unfortunately I did not mark the container I took the dahlia out of, so it could be anything. If it's purple, it will be perfect. If not, it will at least be a surprise to see what blooms.   Either way this container will look totally different when I show it to you in late July (at least that is what I am hoping!)

If you are looking for the recipe for this container, here is what I think I have planted :

1 Cordyline (saved from last year)
1 Guara (perennial that I save from year to year)
3 Purple Salvia
3 Dark Purple Coleus
2 Pink 'Park Princcess' dahlia (saved for the past umpteen years)
1 Purple Rembrandt dahlia (saved for the past five years)
1 Sedum Autumn Joy (yanked out of my perennial gardens--I have hundreds of these)
4 nasturtium seeds that I stuck around the edge to use a spiller

All I had to buy this year were the 3 salvia and the 3 coleus.  I forgot what they cost, but it was pure pennies in comparison to what one would have to spend if buying all of the plants... truly... maybe $2 total???  Gotta love that!