I am sure you can tell from the dearth of posts this week that I am in the thick of the spring planting season. Every year at this time I have the opportunity to experience in fresh detail the meaning of the word seasonal. Though I have a number of landscape projects underway, and the shop is incredibly busy, I make time to plant summer annuals for clients. These tree ferns which have belonged to my clients for years come under the heading of annual flowers, as we have to winter them indoors in an unheated space. They are a very unusual and unlikely summer annual-I like this about them. The wild lime coleus planted underneath, and the begonias in the chimney pots will have much more to say in 6 weeks than they do now.
We have wintered this pair of waxleaf privets for the past 10 years. I think this is the last year for them-in these pots. I love how overscaled the tops are as opposed to the green glazed bottoms, but I have root pruned them for the last time. I dare not go one bit further with that. We were barely able to get the lavender scaevola and lime licorice skirt in the pot. I advised my client that she either needed bigger pots, or new topiaries. Somehow I doubt she will give up the privet standards.
The largest of the two second floor decks has a number of containers which we plant with herbs. What herbs? Lots of sweet Genovese basil, lemon basil, several kinds of variegated culinary thyme, gold marjoram, garlic chives, oregano, and both flat and curly parsley. These are her favorites. At the corners of the big pots-strawberries. They do not bear for long, but the leaves and trailers are beautiful in herb pots. One pot not seen in this picture is entirely taken up with an old rosemary. Just for punctuation-some flashlights millet. They will take a while to grow on.
That old wild rosemary is visible in the top left of this picture. We store this plant over the winter; the storage is worth the trouble. The big planter box, which separates the deck from the walkway that traverses the entire rear of the house, gets flowers. As I had a request for lots of color, the box is planted with red and dark red violet dahlias. The cool color of variegated licorice and lavender star verbena makes all that color seem all the more saturated. As I like my mixed colors in threes, the border also includes Caliente Dark Red geraniums.
Several years ago, at the Independent Garden Centers convention and trade show in Chicago, I heard Alan Armitage speak. He trials bedding plants at a garden at the University of Georgia in Athens. There were lots of plants he had issues with-as in poor color, substance or performance. But he was highly complimentary of the Caliente geraniums. If he liked them, I was sure that I would too. Interestingly enough, he recommended that gardeners in southern states plant them with afternoon shade. I wondered if they would tolerate a little bit of shade that marks the locations of these boxes.
I asked my grower to grow 10 cases of each color for me last year. I planted lots of the orange variety in my roof boxes. They bloomed non-stop in that very hot and very windy location. They were virtually self-cleaning. That vivid color was readily visible from the street. Caliente geraniums are a cross between an ivy geranium, and the mop headed zonal geranium. They are vigorous growers; the colors are clear and intense. The flower heads are loose, like a typical ivy geranium.
Years ago we built 2 very long boxes that are attached to the outside of the†railing of the walkway. This means the boxes drain to the terrace below, not onto the deck walk. This year I planted caliente geraniums in dark red, coral, orange and pink. The flower heads are much more informal than those of zonal geraniums, but I wanted an even looser look. I planted diamond frost euphorbia between each geranium. The edges of the box are planted with white and lavender star verbena, variegated licorice, misty lilac wave petunias and creeping jenny.
The landing of the staircase that goes to the ground floor has a pair of English lead pots. A pair of Daniella are ringed in pink and red solenia begonias. They will easily handle the part sun conditions of this terrace. The lime green variegated leaves will have some company from the creeping jenny in the boxes above, once it grows in and starts to trail.
So many places I plant have pairs of pots in different light conditions. I try to pick plants that are the tolerant sort. These plants will grow in a fairly uniform manner, though one box gets noticeably more sun than the other.
The small terrace at the far end of the house is off the master bedroom. An old varigated abutilon with peach flowers in the pot on the left came out of winter storage. A red mandevillea is paired with a new petunia variety whose petals are splashed with pink and lime yellow. The center pot is stuffed with a dahlia favorite-Hypnotica lavender. This dahlia is about the strongest performing dahlia I have ever grown. The right hand pot features an Orange Punch canna, accompanied by lime nicotiana.
On the ground floor, a swimming pool is encircled by roses, perennials, small growing shrubs, and old viburnums. We added verbena bonariensis, sonata white and Rosalita cleome, lime nicotiana, heliotrope, and surfinia sky blue petunias. They are steadfast in delivering color all summer long, while the perennials come and go. Will I come back later in the summer to take pictures? Of course.
