I’ve started planting a little early this year. We’ve had such a mild winter, and everyone thinks we’re done with the frost for good.
In my front bed:
Originally because we had such a mild winter (read: NO SNOW) I was going to do very little in my yard. I wanted to be water concous. I thought it would be a great year to expiriment with seed.
But when I went to the nursery . . . ah! The beautiful flowers were calling my name.
I’ve never bought annuals at a retail store before. I’ve only ever bought them at the State surplus sale at the end of May. They’re about $11/flat, a great price . . . but it’s very much a “you get what you get” situation, with very limited selection of types of plants and colors.
So this year I went to Smiths in search of seeds, and saw the variety in the annuals, and the flats were just a little more at $14/flat. It was fun to go through the flats of petunias and actually choose which colors I wanted.
Here are the plants and varieties I chose:
Petunias: Daddy’s Mix – shades of purples and pinks in big flowers.
Marigolds: Bonanza Yellow
Potato Vine: Margarita (3) (Proven Selections)
Impatiens: I don’t remember what varieties I got – in the bed by the house they are shades of pinks and purples, like the petunias. In the bed under and around the tree they are red, purple and white (plus leftovers from the other bed)
Coleus – A variety
Zinnia: Thumbelina Mix (Burpee) (planted along the top of the bed in front of the porch, mixed in with the four o’clock’s)
Four o’Clock’s: Kaleidoscope Mix (Burpee) (planted along the top of the bed in front of the porch, mixed in with the Zinnia’s.
I also planted zinnias and marigolds (from seed, Burbee, Burpee’s Best Mix) around the rock in the front corner of the garden by the driveway.
And I FINALLY (after three years of looking) found purple coneflowers! I bought two varieties –
Primadonna Deep Rose (Sunshine Perennials) – planted south of the rock by the driveway
PowWow Wild Berry (Sunshine Perennials) – planted on the left of the path to the front door.
I also split my blue salvia and put the two divisions in front of the porch posts. I moved the yellow daisy-like flowers (why can’t I think of what they’re called?!) that were in front of the porch post by the door, into the center where the blue salvia originally was. I think I will still get blooms on the daisy’s this year, but I think the salvia will be out of the game for this year. I also moved the blue lupine that I had behind the rock by the driveway over to the other bed in the corner front yard. It has done really well and even bloomed since the transplant. I also moved the lavender from the front bed by the front door to the back by the shed.