This is a caterpillar grave that my 10 year old granddaughter and one of her friends made. I do love it.
'Color Echoes' Part III: Pics from your Garden
And sanannie is right about texture. It's really what I love most about my garden. Here is one of my favorite photos - There is a very elderly man who comes to visit my garden. He is very frail and walks very slowly - but he has a way of stopping and 'seeing' small spaces like this. I really appreciate it when he comes.
I would think that at an advanced age, he has learned the lesson.. Take time to smell the roses.
We have lost 2 young friends to car wrecks and 4 older ones has pasted on this year. It really makes you stop and think about what each day can bring. The past is gone. The present is a gift.
I'm so sorry to hear that you've had such losses. It does bring the reality close and makes you appreciate every moment. And we at DG have a lot of beauty to enjoy.
Lovely photos doss! The story about the man is lovely, too. Very young children are in such awe of flowers. They touch so gently and appear to listen to the flowers as well as get tickled by pollen. They're so authentic, just as the old and frail are.
One elderly neighbor, in a former neighborhood, watched as I planted a succession of bulbs (1,069) down the driveway. The following spring he was there daily, walking the dog. He would tell me, almost every day, that he had never seen anything like it. To watch him look at the flowering bulbs was worth the price and work of the bulbs! Of course, the new owner ripped them all out, or at least her workmen did!
Finally, the dahlias are starting!
Gorgeous!
Can you get anymore echo than those Dahlia the ball and the foxgloves. What are the 'Sparkler" flowers in the background.
Alliums.
Thank you, Doss.
This is a pic of Canadian Border Patrol, Autumn Joy just beginning to turn rosy red, purple coneflower and a bit of tall phlox in the back.
Lovely, those soft peachy colors are always so lovely.
Teresa: Canadian Border Patrol and Pandora's Box are so similar I couldn't possibly tell them apart. Lovely photograph and colors.
ooh...I love your cbp and the autumn joy and coneflower combo. Very lovely.
Happy birthday, Pirl! (somewhere I read it was your birthday this week!?)
doss, as usual I love your iris combinations. Your you have a 'trifecta' there, I think!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PIRL. I HOPE ALL YOUR BIRTHDAY WISHES COME TRUE. (Excuse me for yelling; I got so excited I couldn't help myself. LOL)
Thanks Tabasco and NoH20: today is the day. Friends brought plants and a very special decorated cupcake from a bakery and wonderful cards. It's a day for me to celebrate friends who care!
Thanks for the good wishes, even the screaming is music to my ears!
Happy birthday Arlene! Sorry I am a day late. I'm enjoying the photos here so much. Better than any gardening book I've read lately! I'm finding the sun coleus very useful this year. The ones I have in pots, I'm using to fill in dull spots as things go out of bloom. Here are a couple in front of a purple leaved castor bean. That's Jack of Diamonds in the front and I think Solar Shadows in back. I like the dark moody look of them together.
Susan
Nothing moody about these zinnas and cosmos. They are growing in an 8 foot square bed off my deck and tolerate the hot dry days of July and August better than anything else I've tried there.
Susan
More of the orange and gold zinnias in the bed.
Stainglass Work Copper coleus has done wonderful at the foot of a yellow brug this year. The orange of the zinnias behind it really pull out the orange of the coleus. It is one of my favorites.
Here are two of my favorite annuals, purple heliotrope and violet vinca.
Susan
The heliotrope and vinca were particularly pretty today with Pastel Pink daylily. In the heat it has almost a lavender tint.
Susan
Pirl - Happy Birthday! Your Dahlia composition is lovely. Tell me what is the name of that Dahlia? It would go great with my Lilac Time (pictured below).
Doss - I like my "Dusky Challenger" planted with "Codicil", a lovely silvery pale bluish grape color. Smells like grapes too.
Lincolnitess - I think the Coleus' with the little strings of pearls at the edges are the prettiest.
Forgot my picture- sorry I HAD to cut them and bring them inside!
Susan - thanks for the greetings. The only gardening book that's worthwhile for me is Pamela Harper's Color Echoes. The others have been a real drag! There is one that presents the flowers by the calender dates and I find that one useful but not as good as Pamela.
I love the edges on the coleus! They are so perfect together.
Ivy: that waterlily dahlias was one of ten in a package (all unnamed) from Dutch Gardens. Thanks for the compliment on the photo. Your color coordination is superb!
Thanks, Pirl, but I just took things out of the garden. No color coordination involved.
I wish I had planted the Lemon Queen Sunflowers right next to the Dahlias! The yellow picks up the center of the Dahlia so well!
The Perennial Sweet Pea is in the same bed and matches almost exactly; and I did pots of the Indigo Spires Salvia that picks up the color of the fading Sweet Pea blossoms.
I have no idea what the white Dahlia is , it was supposed to be a Lavender Perfection!
Here's the sunflower side of the vase:
I've been out echo-hunting and discovered a few. On this side of the container, visible is the Canna 'African Sunset', Coleus 'Copper' and Coleus 'Sedona'. Next two pics are closeups from this container which show the colour echoes in more detail.
Coleus 'Copper' matches the top-side of the leaf on the Canna 'African Sunset'.
Coleus 'Sedona' matches the UNDER-side of the leaf on the Canna 'African Sunset'. Cool, huh?
Pee Gee Hydrangea and Hosta undulata albo-marginata:
Two colours of Verbena. The burgundy matches the eye of the white one. This is a better match than the camera picks up.
Cool? NO WAY! Those colors are HOT, HOT, HOT!!! And gorgeous. I would love to see it in person with the sun setting it on fire. And the last picture is like a refreshing drink of water. Great combinations.
You know how the oriental poppies leave a 'hole' in the border when they die back - well, I picked up this container on sale last week, used the bottom of a birdbath as a stand and placed the container on top so its higher. No more gaping hole!
The matching of the Daylily 'Jim's Pick' with the Million Bells 'Terra Cotta' was quite by accident.
NoH2O - You made me chuckle - yes, they are definitely not cool colours! I have a few more pics that I'll post tomorrow after some beauty sleep. My eyes are crossing.
Sanannie--love the idea of moving container plants in to cover up holes in the garden. Your million bells is an especially great 'cover up'! I think daylilies combined with other perennials and annuals always show off well.
Has anyone planted million bells in the ground? Do you keep your in full sun? I think they are so pretty, but mine has not done well.
I am on the go so much, my container plants are getting to dry between times I know.
Also, can you fertilize a mandelvilla vine to much? I added Osmocote 6 week ago and not a bloom. Just foliage.
Teresa,
Just finished an email and a post response to you!
I saw million bells, planted in the ground, just this morning. It may have been a thread about low perennials for the front of a border. Mine are in pots so I'm no help to you here.
As for the Mandevilla, expect blooms this month: Happy August! It's August 1st and another anniversary for us. We celebrate the first of every month!
Arlene
sanannie, the canna and coleus are fantastic together! I love the hot colors for this time of the year. Here are some of the purples blooming in my front strip garden today. I stitched them together since I could not fit them all in one frame. The daylily is King of Mask with Magilla Perilla which is in a pot. I moved it out to add some color to the daylily area since it is looking very dull in spots. Wilson Spider is almost bloomed out but is interesting with Elegant Finale since they are both purples and yellows, but different intensities. The blue salvia is an annual one that I let resow each year and it really adds some nice fall color and brings out the blue tint in the sedums leaves.
Susan
I do grow million bells in the ground. But they a perennial here. I grow them in full sun but they do need water. Mine certainly resent being dried out and show it. They do spring back from looking really terrible though with a little tlc.
Sannie love your cannas and coleus. Here is one I put together this year.
Canna-Wyoming, Salvia-Plumosa, Spiderwort, Gazania, and Hyacinth Bean Vine
I am sooooo glad there isn't a contest going for best color echoes.....it would be impossible to choose. They are all so gorgeous.
I had million bells in a pot last year that stayed out all winter (I can't remember if it was in the unheated shed or out in the elements). I am in zone 5b and I know we got below zero last winter. There are several million bells plants growing in the pot now. I can't believe they survived the winter. Do they come true from seed?