GOOD CONTAINER COMBOS

I found this picture on one of the retail gardening sites. I just love it. This container features white sweet alyssum, purple-leaf fibrous begonia, and pink tuberous begonia. Don't you just love the old bread box?



Here are a few suggestions they gave for good container planting combinations.

SPRING: Hellebores, with tulips and ferns. When bulbs die down replace with pink impatiens.

BEGONIAS: Mix rex begonias with their colorful foliage with tuberous camellia-flowered begonias in colors to blend with the rex leaves.

SILVER: Helichrysum petiolare (licorice plant) trailing under annual dusty miller. Add pale pink or red geraniums depending on the effect you want. Or try it with purple heliotrope.

SHADE GARDEN: Trailing ivy and ferns with nicotiana, impatiens or pansies.

FOLIAGE: Palace Purple heuchera with Bowles Golden sedge and Margarita' sweet potato vine

SUCCULENTS: Sedum `Vera Jamieson' and `Bertram Anderson' with Sedum sieboldiana.

BLUE AND YELLOW: Yellow daylilies (Penny's Worth, Stella d'Oro) with Campanula carpatica `Blue Clips'.

PINK AND PRETTY: New Guinea impatiens (bright pink flowers) and pale pink verbena and pink zonal geraniums.

DRAMATIC: Black Dragon coleus with Ipomoea batatas `Blackie' and Helichrysum petiolare `Aurea'.

I love containers but sometimes I can end up with things that just didn't grow the way I thought they would. I have had things that should trail, grow straight up. LOL. But I keep trying. These all sound so pretty. I am going to try the foliage because I started a sweet potato vine that is yearning to be potted up in some sort of arrangemnt. All I need is some purple heuchera and Golden sedge. That sounds so pretty to me. I like purples and golds together.

DECORATING YOUR FRONT DOOR AREA

I rather like the swag on this door. Although I'm not sure I am the swag or wreath type, I can see this for the Holidays. Since I have down time now before we start the fall garden, and I have already picked all I plan on picking and freezing, from the current garden, I am turning my attention to other things, like my front entrance. I'm not sure exactly how I want to decorate my front entrance. I want to change it up, and add some new things, but I want the look to be tasteful. I think you can get away with a lot of things near the front door such as stepping stones, railings, planters and wind chimes if you coordinate all of the styles and colors so they go together well.

I have some hanging baskets and a bird feeder. I have flowers and plants, but I need a new porch light. I want to make an address sign too. I like unusual mail boxes, and I have one somewhere out in my shed. I don't get my mail in it, I just like it. It is a vintage style box. So how many of these things do I use? I think five or six is probably enough. I saw a home the other day that had one tall green topiary on each side and a matching mat in front of the door with a nice green wreath on the door. It looked simple and nice. All in green with an eggplant color on the door.

I have one especially large pot, that was given to me by my brother in law. It is just as pretty inside as it is outside so I never know if you are supposed to put a plant in it or not. It came with it's own stand, which I love. So this will stay. I have a couple of chairs which I would like to replace with a glider instead. I have a two tier, little wire plant holder that holds 6 medium size pots. This is where I usually put my pansies in the spring. Since I have just a simple white porch with white posts and railings and steps with banisters on either side with a plain glass door, I can use whatever colors I like. My floor is a pale to medium gray.

I think it would make a great challenge. Have every one put up a picture of their front entrance. I don't know how you do these challenges so I will leave this up to those who run this type of challenge. I would love to see how other gardeners use plants and flowers around their front entrance.