Annual Flowers Early June Update

 Today is cool and windy and rainy.  The sky looks like October.  Not much fun for gardening.  But I did get a few plants added to my annual containers.  Here is an update on how my annuals are looking.

Proven Winner El Brighto Coleus

My fun shade containers are turning out well.  The shamrocks are surviving the morning sun and the coleus is taking off and should be pinched back to shape it.  The fountain grass hasn't done much.  The limited sun will probably keep it in check.  You can see I have constructed deer guards for all of my annual planters.  I clipped bird netting to the grow thru grids.  This will not last when the plants get larger, but in the mean time it is saving me a ton of time, money and frustration as I am not having to spray these containers and can concentrate that effort on plants that can not be covered, like clematis vines or elderberry bushes.

I would never use this plastic bird netting on berries or anything to specifically keep birds out because they would quickly become entangled, but it works great to keep the deer from ruining everything.  I have a square of it laid over each hosta and heuchera plant (over 25 plants) and that will work wonders until the bloom stalks begin to come up.  This saves me gallons of expensive spray and at least an hour a week.

The heuchera planters (below) aren't annuals, but I wanted to include a photo to show how well these three types of planters coordinate.  I have two of each in the shady area around our firepit.

Since we spend most of our outdoor time back by the garden and firepit, I have spent more effort back there and very little around the house and driveway.  The only planters I filled were the ones that couldn't be stored.  Yes, I suppose I could have hoisted this concrete planter into the wheelbarrow and moved it out back to store, but it seemed like less effort to stick two extra coleus plants in it.

But, it looked a little pitiful so I finally added a spike and an ivy.

The whisky barrel was a little more fun to plant because I found calibrachoa in the same colors as my geum, daylilies and verbascum.  The color palette on that side of the house is peach and rose with splashes of yellow.

Yesterday when we were in the next county I stopped by a beautiful, big nursery and picked up a few more plants to fill it in.  I had been looking for these Proven Winners Double Vintage Coral.  Score!  And reasonably priced too.

Superbells Double Vintage Coral

Whimsy Orange Sunset Nemesia

That's better!