And The Winners Are!!!

August is nearly over….the summer containers have done their best fighting the intense heat of the past few months….and most of them still look great. I haven’t done any grooming this season just to see how the plants would fare if left unattended. As expected, the coleus have taken over some of the containers and are a bit gangly. Except for Rustic Orange…what a well behaved little girl she has been. Big Red Judy is just that….big and red; but she still has a nice form to her. Don’t know how many coleus I’ll put out next year. Maybe the answer is a container with just coleus and not partner them since they just take over anyway.

This summer eight more containers were added at the new Town Center between Jefferson and Washington streets (yes, that makes a total of 42 containers that need to be cared for). Because the Center itself has a uniform appearance I decided to make all eight containers look the same. It was late in the season when they were put out so plant selection was limited. Fortunately, I was able to find very full Pennisetum rubum and mature vinca and made them the focal points; creeping jenny and red thread alternathera were the spillers. All are doing well despite the late planting and minimal watering.

Fertilizer is now a must do!!! The verbena and petunias are not putting out as many flowers as they should and the leaf color is pale. So “Have Truck Will Travel”…Tom and I will take his truck loaded with five-gallon buckets of water dosed with Daniels Liquid Fertilizer and make magic happen. If the weather is kind, I’ll even do some grooming and get those out of control coleus back into shape.

Speaking of shape….the most well behaved plant out there is the Dragon Wing Begonia (red). A number of containers throughout the city have Dragon Wing in them and they are all doing great. One is in full shade and naturally very happy; three get sun until noon and they are just as happy. I do have one that gets full sun until mid afternoon and, while it looks good, you can see that it would be happier with more water to compensate...city watering only happens three times a week. Dragon Wing Begonias will be a regular part of my summer containers from now on!!

No surprise that the vinca love the hot sun and dry conditions. All that were planted are blooming their heads off….and speaking of that….they very nicely deadhead themselves too!

Somewhat surprising to me is how well the ivy has done in the containers. The ones originally planted three seasons ago have gone through freezing temperatures, high drying winter winds, hot sun and minimal watering and all look great. Admittedly the variegated types look a little worse for the wear at times. The hands down winner is Teardrop…dark green color and a teardrop shape to the leaves….goes with everything!

After I do the fertilizing and grooming I’ll report back and let you know who the “losers” are and get more pictures of the winners. No replanting for the losers at this late date so “what you see is what you get”.