Soroptimist Garden Tour 2010

I love the annual Soroptimist Garden Tour. What a perfect way to snoop through other people's gardens without having to worry about  homeowners catching you poking through their yards and chasing you off with a pointy hoe. Because while they might like that you admire their garden from the sidewalk, they can get testy when you wander around their backyard. Especially when there is a fence. 

But the Garden Tour takes care of my voyeuristic needs by letting me tour local homeowners' gardens without fearing I'll be arrested. I don't care what anyone tells you, the garden tour is all about snooping. And it's fun. I love to see what other gardener's are doing and what plants they have. Often time plants I've turned my nose up at in the nursery looks completely different in the garden and I have to have it. 

This year was no exception and I came away with some pretty severe flower-envy and some not-so-bad pictures. A couple of plants I couldn't identify and the homeowners weren't available for questioning. The first one is this little beauty. I love the foliage on this plant. Dark green, glossy, gorgeous. It appears that it had or will have small white flowers. It was a ground cover about 6 inches high and in a fairly shady area. If you know what this is, let me know. I feel like I should know but I don't for sure (pachysandra?). If Google wanted to be really cool we would be able to search by photos!

The next plant I was unable to identify was this unusual plant. I asked my friend-boss (it's only pertinent that my friend is also my boss in this context because she has more years in the greenhouse business that I do and knows a lot even though she says she doesn't) and she had no idea. The top part of this plant looks not unlike a hypoestes (polka dot plant) but the base of the plant is green and bushy. It also has little pink flowers. From a cursory search on hypoestes I guess it could be a leggy version but there were no pictures of such a condition so I don't know. Anyone know what this is?

This next plant I absolutely have to have. Gorgeous! It looked like a hibiscus, was HUGE and covered with blooms. Fortunately there was a sign by this plant that said "lavatera". Now some of you may know what that is but I did not. A quick Google search confirmed this is Rose Mallow and an annual. AN ANNUAL! That grows 3 to 5 in one season. In Minnesota! I love it. It was gorgeous beyond words. We do carry mallow at the greenhouse but not one as gorgeous as this. You can be sure I will be requesting this plant for next year. I have many spaces that would do well with a giant annual such as this. And yes, it is related to the hibiscus plant as well hollyhocks. If it reseeds, I will just love it all that much more. At least for now...

These dainty little beauties caught my eye at several houses. The blooms are exquisite.  My friend-boss said they were Lisianthus and that I couldn't have them. At the greenhouse, she means. Apparently, we would have to seed them NOW to have them next year. And since overwintering annuals here in the Northland is cost prohibitive, we won't be getting this plant. Apparently, these are a good cut flower so she told me to go to the florist and get myself some and leave it at that. Sigh. Fine. And while these have extraordinarily gorgeous blooms, the plants I saw were very spindly and weak. Every one of them was staked. And that goes against my own garden rules. If it can't grow by itself, it can't be in my garden. Too bad...


Other plants I realize I NEED to have (this is an addiction, you know. I am powerless...) are poppies of every color and variety I can get my hands on. I ordered some Oriental Poppies some years ago but they never grew and I haven't tried them again. We had them at the greenhouse this year and I didn't even get any. I know! What's wrong with me? That won't happen again. In addition to Oriental, I discovered that I also need California poppies. Strangely enough, my boy-child picked out these seeds for his own container garden. His aren't doing so well but I was assured by a fellow gardener that they need the cold to germinate and if I toss them in the ground next spring, I will have poppies. DONE! I also need more Bachelor's Buttons, both the perennial variety and the ever-reseeding annual variety. I love them so much. And last, I need more coneflowers. I have quite a few already but they are all the purple variety which I love. I also need white and red and pink....They just perform so great in the garden and then there is this:

 Enough said.

Variation On a Theme: Shade Sparkler

1 Gartenmeister Fushcia
2 Non-stop Fire Begonias
1 Lysimachia
4 Lobelia Regatta Rose

What's with the shade combos? I know! And I don't even have that much shade at all. For whatever reason, my shade containers have turned out well this year. I first talked about this combo here. My mother put this together at my suggestion and I loved the way it turned out. And I have talked about my love affair with the Gartenmeister fuchsia here and here so it only seemed reasonable to me that I should have it. I don't know why I haven't except that I wasn't taking my own advice and was trying other plants that didn't work out nearly so well. 

At any rate, my friend picked my up these giant purple pots because she knows I love purple and they were on sale. Who doesn't love a friend like that? I do! I decided to put the containers on my deck to contrast with all the lime green I have going on out there and to fill in some otherwise empty corners. Sometimes, brightly colored containers can prove hard to work with because they can detract from the plants or clash so choosing what to put in them has another element to consider. I had already decided that I wanted the Gartenmeister which is an orangy-pink, dark green burgundy affair that is already difficult to combine with other plants. I love a challenge!

Rather than reinventing the wheel, I decided to do a variation on the Shade Sparkler combo. Because the container was such a brilliant color I decided I couldn't do pink although I really love the pink begonias. Instead I chose Fire Non-stop Begonias which are a gorgeous combination of yellow and pinky-orange. What better to go with the orangy-pink blooms of the fuchsia? Next came the lysimachia with it's yellow green foliage to balance out all that color and tie in with my lime-green theme on the deck. The pots are quite large and my flower expenditures routinely exceed my budget (even with my work discount!) so I filled in the container with a 4 pack of rose lobelia. 


I have to say, I love, love, LOVE this color combination. It may have something to do with these being some of my absolute favorite plants and getting to use them all together in a way that works. Who wouldn't love that? I especially like how the color of the lobelia actually matches the color of the pot. It ties the container together rather than working against the bold color. 


This combo really does pack a punch in the shade both with color and texture. The purple container adds to the whimsy of this unusual color combination.

Container Gardening Idea: Cool Season Charmer

2 Violina Orange Violas

4 Halloween II Pansies

1 foliage plant : Baby Tut, Big Twister or Ribbon Bush

I first showed pictures of this combo here. It didn't look like much at the time but I was hoping that it would grow up well and I have to say that it did indeed! As the name of this site suggests, I do love me some pansies and violas (they were my grandma's favorite flowers) so these trailing violas caught my eye immediately. I do not, however, generally like yellow flowers and definitely not orange. This picture once again puts the flower-color-namer-people under suspicion because I'm not sure on what planet these would be considered orange. They do have a slightly tangerine beard that I guess could be considered orange but the overall effect is YELLOW.

I did look up the other colors of this plant and the actual yellow of this variety is not nearly as stunning as this one but then again the picture of the orange doesn't do it justice either. At any rate, the whole reason that The Powers That Be (namely my friend who is my boss) chose this plant is for it's orangeness and it's cool season blooming as the high school colors here are black and orange. With the Halloween II pansies, this would make a great planter for graduation, right? Oh, well, best laid plans.

At any rate, this combo turned out to be a stunner after all even it didn't quite get the local high school spirit. I love how these violas trail, trail, trail and bloom profusely! They don't stop. The Halloween II pansies provide great contrast with their dark purple blooms and yellow eye. SImple, colorful and eye-catching. Good for our cooler weather here in Minnesota. Although we may see some decreased vigor in the extreme heat of July and August, this combo should pop back in September and look fantastic until freeze.

I did several variations of this planter using different foliage plants and they all seemed to do very well. My favorite is the Baby Tut. I think it provides the most  texture and interest. Who doesn't love a Baby Tut? I also did a version with Big Twister juncus which also turned out although it's a bit more subtle.

I had to try this combo at home. We sold out of Baby Tut and Big Twister early but that didn't matter because we did have Ribbon Bush. I had never seen this plant before so I had to bring it home to see what it would do. What better than to put it with my new favorite trailing shade plant?

It's not bad as combos go although my plants need some more growing up to match the planter at top! Patience...

I do have to say that I do love the Ribbon Bush. This is a shade foliage plant that actually gets some size. I have this on the east side of my house under an awning so it really only gets the early morning sun. At this point it's about  24 inches tall. Pretty good for a shade plant! And the texture is really interesting and fun. I do think this planter's finest hour will be this fall though.

This simple combo really packs a punch in the shade. Whether you choose a more tropical look with the Baby Tut (as if pansies could be tropical, HA!), a more subtle look with the Big Twister or a more unusual look with the Ribbon Bush, this cool season combo is sure to be a winner.