All right! This is it. The blue bidet needs some suggestions for plants. It is startling enough on its' own, so please put some thought into your suggestions. I think I would like some blooms, what color do you think would work well? Also would like some generous spillers to trail down the sides. Your suggestions will be appreciated. Any thoughts?
P.S. Disregard the fake flowers, they are out of here!
Can you believe after it sat outdoors for over 5 years, lately with no rain and many 100 plus degree days, this plant was still alive, growing and blooming. Found it when I uprooted the fake flowers. By the way, this plant isn't staying in the bidet either....
i think something white would make the color stand out. what about some white petunias?
Maybe some silver falls dichondra and yes, white like lovesdaylilies said. Pee-tunias, (tehe) millionbells..... let me ponder
Pee tunias, well at least you didn't suggest something yellow running down the sides! ; }
Better edit to say something yellow trailing down the sides....
This message was edited Jul 25, 2006 8:50 PM
: 0 oh podster you just turned my stomach lol.
kelly
Wups ~ sorry!
lol hehehehe : ) i just can't believe that plant maybe it for 5 years! that is a tough plant for sure. so have you decided what you are going to put in it??? any of the above ideas?
kelly
White flowers I like. I also like Silver falls but had no luck with it. Haven't decided if a bidet needs a plant with heighth... What do you think?
Oh good grief! I just caught Silver falls! Sorry to be so slow ;^)
I have cross posted this in the Garden Talk forum. We'll see if it gets some other suggestions there...
Blue and yellow are a classic combination. I would go for stunning yellow varigated foliage like one of the carex family.
Lysimachia nummularia 'Aurea' (golden creeping jenny) spilling over the sides with black mondo grass and arum italicum planted in the top would be wonderful. The black grass is evergreen, the golden creeping jenny only dies back in the dead of winter and has yellow flowers in the summer. The Arum Italicum has gorgeous cream marbled aroid - like foliage that emerges in the late fall and persists through winter. In the summer, the foliage dies back and spathe & spadex white flowers emerge. These don't last an incredibly long time but are followed by beautiful red pokers covered in the most lovely big red seeds. The black grass with the red pokers is absolutely incredible & the seeds persist, sans foliage, until after the foliage starts coming up again in the late fall/early winter. These are all hardy plants and once planted could be left in place with only occasional pulling of some of the creeping Jenny (she sometimes wants to take over once established).
Also, a light orange would stand out incrediby against this beautiful blue. I think immediately of begonia boliviensis. It's a great plant that will grow up and then cascade over the sides throwing off lots of beautiful orange flowers. These will also contrast nicely with the purple leaves of the plant that is remaining there. The good news about this begonia is that it's hardy to zone 7b and could be left in the pot year round.
Maybe creeping jenny, instead of dichondra, although there is emerald falls dichondra. Okay, I'll get off the dichondra. How bout some herbs?
These are some great ideas which I will have to check out. Am unfamiliar with most of these plants and need to determine how well they will stand our summer heat. I think I would like to keep things in it that will stay year round. When at the 2nd hand store, I tried to change it with the seasons. Herpst I had been admiring the arum already. That would give it heighth.
AuntB ~ when you suggested herbs, I kinda choked up. The thought of herbs in a "pot". Yes, I know it hadn't been used but....
I wonder if it could be plugged and make a small water garden out of it maybe?
podster what a good idea a water garden. that would be so pretty! i think you should run with that idea.
kelly : )
You could put that little boy peeing by it...lol..thats what little boys do anyplace>>;^))
I thought this would be nice as one of the plants http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/36402/index.html
I like the idea of the boy fountain nearby, but wonder if people might find one too obsessed with bodily functions, oh well who cares, it's your garden.
also like water garden idea.
PS: You don't have an HOA, do ya?
why am I obsessing over this? lol
FWIW, there are people over in the trading forum offer aquatic plants.
I'm not sure I like the water garden idea... just toooo real.... lol However, I do have a whiskey barrel pond w/ a frog spitter, the boy statue standing on the back and "aimed" into the bidet would be kinda funny. (Course if you've ever had a real little boy you know they don't always make their mark.) So I say, plant the bidet and have the boy beside it like he's trying to hit the target.... Vossner, I need to quit obsessing on this one too, I was thinking about it before I went to sleep last night! Gosh, Podster, thanks for the fun!
Love the water garden idea. The water could spurt out of the bidet as was intended. In the basin beneath you could plant a minerature pond lily & have a fun time amusing your guests with comments about cleansing the lily,
A water fountain! Interesting idea...
Am still trying ideas on for size. I set it out on the 'bricks' and had picked up a mixed pot of gasteria, haworthia and aloe and set it on the back. The blue green colors of these don't clash too much with the bidet blue. Maybe a succulent planter? I would have to be careful with that when it DOES rain, it pours...
Let me try that again, the lens was foggy from the humidity.
Okie Doke ~ These are the suggestions compiled so far:
Styles: foilage, herbs, water garden, desert, fountain
Plants suggested for foilage: Ferns, Yellow Varigation (ie. Carex), Arum Italicum, Black Mondo grass
Plants suggested for trailers: Creeping Sedum, Pennyroyal, Trailing Verbena, "Silver Falls" : ))Dichondra, Lysmachia - Golden Creeping Jenny, Begonia Boliviensis
Plants suggested for Color: (here, please mentally insert the bidet color to visualize)
Veronica, Salvia, Lobelia, Iris, Pot Marigolds, Verbena, White PEEtunias : )), Million Bells,
light orange Begonia Boliviensis (also a trailer), tall Saphire Blue Iris, also suggested was the purple plant that is currently in the 'pot', another one I have that I thought about including was a yellow walking iris, Neomarica longifolia (see photo) which would give heighth and drape over the sides.
Decorations suggested: ceramic frog 'seated' on edge of pot, spitting frog, P'ing little boy statue.
I am researching the plants for success in this zone and am still open to any suggestions. Your thoughts are welcome, your humor is appreciated. Obviously anyone who would drag a blue bidet home has a perverse sense of humor!
If you can not find a little boy peeing....one fishing would work...that is something a little boy would surely do to a water feature. ......... I vote for portulaca it grows really fast and as you know blooms profusely and will hold up in Texas heat and pop back in the spring.....just a thought
This message was edited Jul 30, 2006 1:09 PM
and a good thought, Shirleyt. I will add portulaca to the list of plants I am researching. I spent today touring some greenhouses, garden centers in hopes of ideas. The more I looked the more I confused myself. Came home with something that won't go in it but it was sooo pretty. A purple waffle plant which was a new one for me.... pod
Well, I thought I had this one figured out. Saw a picture somewhere on DG of a small bubbler fountain that would be appropriate for a bidet. I had seen small water plants at a garden center. Just the right combination if the greens were compatible with this startling blue. I went back to shop the plants. While approaching the display I saw they were marked down 50%. I said YES, this is a sign, my decision was right! When I got over to the display, (had to tour the green stuff on the way) All the containers had been allowed to dry out. No way! I might have bought them for less and taken a chance but wasn't about to gamble on that. The poor little clerk working was a school girl and had no authority to take less. And at that time on a Sunday, no one else was there. Another sign ~ tells me I'm back to square one... I do hope to track down the post that had the fountain in the small pot though.
If you knew what the plants were, you could probably get some over on the plant exchange..... for postage. .?
AuntB, I am not smart enough to have written them down when I first saw them. I was just plant cruising for ideas at that time. When the notion hit, the foilage was dead and gone. Some may have come back from roots but.... I kind of wanted to look at the colors and judge from that. Some things just aren't meant to be... pod
My contribution to the discussion...
Another angle
Gymgirl, Is that a commode hiding behind the ferns? Are those sword ferns? Do you not have a homeowners assn? I love it and green is my favorite color... plants, money, trees... That should give me some inspiration. I really liked the little bubbler fountain some DG'r had in a large flower pot. Thought that would be appropriate for a bidet... with water plants... but...
I do like yours most definitely!
No, Podster, the commode is UNDERNEATH the ferns! My DH put this classic PORCELAIN commode out on the patio (before I married him in November '05) full of ferns. If you can identify them, please let me know! They are beautiful and have outgrown the pottie. I'm going to divide them at some point and really would like to get another commode! It's great!
Hi Gymgirl, They sure look like sword fern but I am no expert on ferns. http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/523/index.html
They most certainly are beautiful. Was it the commode or your DH's gardening attributes that drew you to him? : )) Let's see, if you get another commode it could be his and hers? If I were coming south, I might consider delivering a blue one... pod
