Garden

Ten Fall Container Garden Ideas To Get You Inspired

September 10, 2020September 10, 2020 deb@bluewillowlaneLeave a comment

A beautiful planter combination using a variety of colors and textures is a wonderful way to extend your gardening season. To continue to enjoy your outdoor spaces and maximize your floral displays, make sure to include some plantings especially designed for cooler weather.

Recently, we visited the H. O. Smith Botanic Garden in Central Pennsylvania which always offers stunning views in every season. We would love to share some of the September plantings we saw there to give you ideas for your own container gardening.

Consider a tall focal point like this Ornamental Millet.

Colorful pansies are a perfect cool weather flower, combined here with beautiful ornamental kale and a mum in the background.

Ornamental grass, dahlias, petunias, and daisies make a striking combinations.

Ornamental kale is combined with celosia for a lovely planting.

This bright red coleus continues to look impressive in September.

For a more formal planting, try a small tree form plant like this beautiful magnolia.

A mass planting of greenery, ivy, and mums makes a stunning display.

This gorgeous, unique container planting showcases a multitude of succulents.

I thoroughly enjoyed seeing what kind of ideas master gardners come up with for their fall plantings. I will be working on my own containers this week, and while they will likely not be as spectacular as these, it’s so much fun to put them together and enjoy the outdoors.

Have a beautiful day, and try some new gardening ideas! 🙂

Garden

Still Going Strong: 10 Late Season Perennials To Keep Your Garden Blooming Into September

September 3, 2020September 4, 2020 deb@bluewillowlaneLeave a comment

Perennial plants and shrubs provide the backbone of the ornamental garden. By late summer, most of us notice our flower beds starting to look a little worn out, tired, and faded. With some advance planning, you can ensure your garden will still be putting on a brilliant display, even while the air gets cooler and autumn approaches. Here are ten beautiful and hardy perennials that will still be chugging along, even at the beginning of September.

These plants are still looking good in September.

Hydrangea

Hydrangeas provide a striking accent in the garden from mid-summer on. I love hydrangeas and their beautiful and dramatic large bloom clusters. The mid-summer varieties will still be holding blooms in September, though most will be twinged with green by now. I have one blue and pink variety ‘Endless Summer” that is still blooming true to color. The late-blooming paniculata types are still in their prime and provide a great option for end-of-summer blooms.

These vibrant yellow, daisy-like flowers start blooming late in the Summer and right through September. Their beautiful, rich fall color makes a gorgeous garden display or arrangement.

3. Hosta

I love this hosta. The original plant came from my late grandmother’s yard, and has formed a big gorgeous clump of lush foliage at the corner of my shady garden. We enjoy the foliage all season, then late in August, these fantastic, lily-like blooms appear.

4. Cinnamon Fern

This tall, striking fern looks great in my garden this time of year, even as many of my other ferns have browned in the late Summer months. This focal point just keeps getting better and better as the season goes on.

5. Knockout Roses

After a huge display early in the year, the knockout roses have continued to produce to a slightly lesser extent throughout the whole growing season. As I look at my garden in September, I still enjoy a large number of these vibrant and prolific rebloomers.

6. Day Lily

Will the daylilies never quit? Each blossom lasts for only one day, yet they keep going. It’s such a treat to peek into the garden corner and see more of these pretty blooms each day.

7. Butterfly Bush, a tall perennial that appears more like a shrub, produces its best blooms late in the season. With an appearance similar to lilac, this beautiful flower continues to draw in all kinds of butterflies and hummingbirds.

8. Japanese Anemone

Delicate-looking Japanese Anemone or windflower is really just getting started this time of year. I planted a couple of anemones a few years ago and am still surprised when I look at the fence row and see these tall, lovely, long-stemmed beauties making their late-Summer appearance.

9. False Sunflower

This tall, cheerful, easygoing perennial blooms right on into early fall. I am trying these for the first time, and have them in a container with other colorful late-blooming flowers. So far I’m loving the combination.

10. Lamb’s ear

Lamb’s ears are such a fun little plant to grow! With their thick, fuzzy, silvery foliage, they are very on-trend in arrangements and bouquets right now too. I have had them in my garden for years. They are reliable, easy to grow, and provide a long season of garden interest.

I love savoring beautiful garden blooms as long as possible. How about you?

Have an amazing day, and enjoy your garden! 🙂

Garden

Time For Flowers: Grow A Fun Little Garden Spot With Morning Glories and Four-O-Clocks

August 28, 2020August 31, 2020 deb@bluewillowlaneLeave a comment

I love old fashioned flowers. I remember seeing these lovely blooms in the gardens of my elderly aunts and neighbors as a kid and being fascinated by them. One year I grew a little patch of four-o-clocks with my mom, who was fantastic at involving and interesting us in the everyday miracles of nature. Each day we would see what time the four-o-clocks “woke up.” We even found a Little Golden Book in the grocery store check-out with rhymes about different types of flowers. I don’t have the book, but I remember part of the rhyme: Four-o-clock’s a stay-a-bed, she doesn’t raise her sleep head……or something like that!

Last year I decided to put some four-o-clock seeds in the ground at my own home. By this year, they have formed a pretty good little patch. They are not perennials in my area, but they do readily re-seed, so be careful where you put them. They are charming flowers that are sweetly scented and attract butterflies and hummingbirds. As the name implies, the buds do not open until the afternoon.

Attract Hummingbirds To Your Yard and Garden

In my garden, they are planted next to morning glories which makes a fun display. Just as the morning glories are closing up shop for the day, the four-o-clocks begin putting on a show. One of my kids came home from school years ago with a beautiful morning glory plant they had grown in his classroom in the variety Grandpa Ott. Another reseeding flower, they grow all over the place now, and I always have to pull some out. The amazing purple blooms that greet the sun each day are worth it though, and each year when they come up I think of my son presenting them to me.

Planting these two flowers together is a fun way to get your kids engaged in gardening and nature just like my mom did. In southern areas, it’s still not too late to give this a try. I even grew morning glories in the house with my kids one year and let the vines climb up the living room windows on strings! There are so many ways to engage with kids and plants, and the time they spend with you tending a garden will likely become a treasured memory.

Have a wonderful afternoon and take time to appreciate the small joys of life!