The Right Combination

Today I went out shopping for the Supertunias that I plant in the front whiskey barrel.  I am doing a repeat of last year only adding some Diamond Frost Euphorbia because they were right there on the bench next to the Supertunias.  Not my first time for using Euphorbia but sometimes it can be hard to track down.  That's what is difficult about making an exact shopping list.  Anyway, the first annuals to be purchased are the long spreading ones like the Wave Petunias or Supertunias.  This is because they sustain the most damage on the sale benches and during transplanting.  It's best to get them untangled and home before they get too big and awkward.

This leaves me with two more whiskey barrels and three large pots to plan.  I know the one large pot will have Wizard Mix Coleus which is again a repeat of last year.  But I am using a different pot this year.  And one whiskey barrel I know I'm using Marigolds and bronze leafed Begonias.  That leaves me with one whiskey barrel and two large pots that I have no real plan for.  I know I'm sick and tired of dead-heading regular Petunias.  Again.  Other than that I'm open to just about anything.

So what do you do when you are fresh out of ideas?  Well Proven Winners has a great list of "garden recipes".  Seven hundred and thirty combinations to be exact.  Just search through their outstanding pictures and they will tell you how many of what variety they used to achieve those results and whether the combination is best for sun, partial sun or shade.  You can even enter search filters such as color scheme, exposure, bloom time etc.  When you pull up the recipe you can click on each specific variety and go to the info page for that plant.

Once you have selected the combo you are going to shop for, just print out two pages with the photo and the list and you're good to go.  They could use a little work on their print format.  The actual recipe sites do a much better job.  But other than that it's a great tool to overcome artist's block.  Now I just have to pick a couple and hit the greenhouses!