Postby Harriet » Thu Jul 13, 2017 7:33 pm
Wanted to report on my flowers this year. Still trying to find the true blues and doing okay this year.
Worth recommending is the evolvulus Blue My Mind (sometimes called the Dwarf Morning Glory), which is a low-growing, spreading flower that SAYS it likes full sun. My experience is that it does better with partial sun here. It went out of bloom but came back into bloom and right now is attractive. The important thing about it is that the bloom though small, is true blue blue - not purple, not lavender. Very rare in flowers.
Had made one hanging basket that I wasn't too sure would be pretty, but like it very much now. Blue Artist ageratum (also very close to true blue) is thriving with 3 orange flowers : a mini-petunia (calibrachoa Sunrise), a marigold and lantana (Fireworks) of all things. I keep waiting for the lantana to ruin the basket because I know it can get tall, and we saw it growing 4 feet tall at the historic site, but it is happy in the basket, blooming away and staying the same height as the others. That's good to know because the bloom is surprising in the basket and makes me smile since I didn't know it could do that. If it's stealing anything from the other little plants I can't tell it.
Also the Phantom petunia I would never have believed would have been such a favorite for me. It's got so much black that I guess the yellow just grabs your attention. Anyway, getting compliments, blooming well.
The vegetable gardens on the property beside us are so extensive. We are blessed to get many remains of the "market" days. I'm suspicious when we're given anything pretty - I ask for the ones that aren't attractive enough to get the customers attention at market. I don't want to be taking anything away from the attempt to be successful.