Hello everyone! I hope this post finds you well. I finished the planters for Kevin. You know, the guy who leases my pasture/hayfield, the guy I I feed cattle for on occasion, the guy I do his landscape maintenance for, the guy I wander through his woods and take wildflowers photos, etc. He’s a great guy I have known since high school. We were in the same class so we are the same age. I have been doing his planters for several years now, so I thought I would share what I did. Maybe you can give me some pointers. 🙂

Plants I normally like to use aren’t always available. This year it warmed up in April and a lot of people made a dash to the greenhouses. Well, we had a “you know what” that killed their plants, so they went back to the greenhouses again. Needless to say, when I am late I have to use my imagination a little more. I have never been to Muddy Creek Greenhouse when it was full of plants. Where do they all go so fast? Mast’s Greenhouse still had quite a selection of plants I didn’t want for Kevin’s planters, except for the petunias. Wagler’s has always been #1 for me because I always find great plants and they seem to re-stock. The best one was Wildwood, even though they were much smaller, but they moved out of town. They had a great selection and the plants were of great quality. Plant shoppers come from the city in droves because the prices are so much cheaper…

This is the largest round planter that has a lot of space. I put a large Coleus with no tag in the center and added three Senecio candicans ‘Angel Wings’ and three Gomphrena ‘Buddy Purple’ around the outside. The Coleus could be one of the Kong series. I know the Gomphrena will bush out, but this is the first year I have tried the Senecio ‘Angel Wings’ so we’ll have to see what it does. This is a large planter, so I think it needs to be a focal point. The Coleus came from Mast’s, the Senecio from Skaggs in Clinton, and the Gomphrena from Wagler’s.

Normally, there is a mass of Lysimachia nummularia ‘Goldilocks’ (Creeping Jenny) that has been in this planter for several years. Most of it seems to have died out, but there are still a few clumps I left in the pot. Maybe three years ago I put a Rudbeckia fulgida ‘Goldstrum’ in the center. It came up and spread again but I kind of got bored of it being in the planter so I removed most of it. Hmmm… Now that I think about it, I think I should remove what I left. Normally, all but one other year, I put a few Euphorbia hypericifolia ‘Starblast White’ in this planter but I couldn’t find any to suit me this year.

The above photo is what the planter looked like on August 1 in 2021. You can see how the Euphorbia hypericifolia ‘Starblast White’ filled the planter. You can see the Lysimachia ‘Goldilocks’ is flowing out around the bottom. The Rudbeckia ‘Goldstrum’ is in the center…

There are two tall urns like this, so I put a Geranium (Cranesbill) ‘Johnson Blue’ in one of them. I was hoping to find something else for it so I could keep it for myself… It looks a little lonely so I may take some Lysimachia ‘Goldilocks’ from home to stick in the pot. I have plenty. Wagler’s had several of these, so I will probably go back there and pick up another one for myself. I have to go back there anyway to dig some Mexican Petunia and Primrose from her flower bed. 🙂 Mrs. Wagler and I trade plants often.

I put another Coleus in the other tall urn. I am sure this one is a Kong, maybe Red or Scarlet. Time will tell as the color comes in on the center of the leaves. I have grown several of the Kong series and they are AWESOME! The selection of Coleus has been very wimpy the past couple of years. This one came from Wagler’s.

I have been using these HUGE Wax Begonias in the larger hex planters for several years and they look GREAT! The first time I stuck five of them in both planters and it was a bit much. This year I put only three in one of the planters so see how that works out. The Begonias came from Wagler’s.

The above photo was taken on August 1 in 2021. As you can tell, both pots are packed and the Begonias are LOADED with flowers. If you haven’t tried these begonias, you really should. There have never been any tags in the pots, so I have no idea what the cultivar name is. They are AWESOME!

Instead of putting Begonias in both of the larger hex planters, I decided to put the Osteospermum in the other one. I had a few things in mind since I couldn’t find another Penstemon ‘Blackbeard’ (Beardtongue). First, I decided to alternate the three white Osteospermum with the three colored ones. Well, that didn’t work because I still had an empty smaller hex planter and an extra Gomphrena ‘Purple Buddy’. So I stuck the white Osteospermum in this planter and put the extra ‘Purple Buddy’ in the center. I don’t know how tall the Osteospermum will get since there are no tags and I never grew them before…

Without any other choice besides going to another greenhouse, I decided to put the colored Osteospermum in one of the smaller hex planters. GEEZ! I liked all six in the other planter better, so I may have to do some switching again. Then I will have an extra ‘Purple Buddy’ AGAIN…

I put four Petunia ‘Scarlet™ Velvet’ in the other small hex planter. There were a lot of petunias at Wagler’s but none I really liked. I wanted to mix a dark flower with a yellow or red like I did last year, but there were no yellow petunias to be found that weren’t already in hanging baskets. I found these ‘Scarlet™ Velvet’ at Mast’s a few days earlier… I really like the dark petunias, especially alternated with yellow…

Hmmm… Violas make a great early flower that sometimes fizzles out once it gets hot. Kevin always does a great job watering his planters even when it gets hot and dry, so the Violas last a while longer than they would otherwise. If not… Well, I could stick the extra Gomphrena ‘Purple Buddy’ in their place if they die. I like the smaller flowered Violas rather than the HUGE flowers of the Pansies. I do like the bigger blue bi-colored pansies, the ones that are called “Beaconsfield Blue’. They are NICE!

Now, on to the back deck… I had to wait until the next day to do the planters on the back deck because Kevin wasn’t home. His house is on a hillside, so the deck is on the second floor with a walkout basement. You know what I mean… So, I have to walk through his house to get to the deck. He wasn’t home when I started and finished the planters above, so I went back to Wagler’s to pick up a few more plants for the deck. While I was gone, he came back and left again before I returned…

On the back deck are two large round planters and a pair of boots with hats. I always remove about 1/3 of the old potting soil from the planters on the back deck and put in fresh. Well, I remove some in the other planters as well before planting. As I was removing the potting soil and “weeds” that had snuck in, something jumped out of the pot. It was a tree frog that had changed color to resemble the potting soil! I had never seen one that color before so I thought I would take its photo. It sat next to the pot the whole time I was working on the planter.

I had to go to Wagler’s to find something for the center of this planter. When I went to buy plants last week, I noticed there were a few of the Dracaena. I think these are commonly known as Spikes. I have used them before as well as Cordyline (which I couldn’t find). I also picked up three Gazania rigens (Treasure Flower) last week which I hadn’t used before in planters. Normally, I put in six other plants to go around the outside of these planters. Three accent plants and three that trail over the side… But, four Gazania will have to do.

The Gazania look a little funky, so hopefully they will perk up… After I was finished, Kevin said they didn’t look too good. I told him if they didn’t work out I would find something else.

I put the tree frog back in the pot…

Then…

There was another one in the other planter… Look how well it is hidden!

The second planter looks better with a Zantedeschia ‘Virgin Art’ (Calla Lilly) from Mast’s and three Gerbera Daisies from Wagler’s. Last year I put a Calla Lilly in both planters and they looked GREAT. I also normally put Gerbera Daisies in this pot and they always look pretty good. Still, it would be better with alternating trailing plants…

I really like Calla Lilies, but they can be a bit pricey.

Gerbera Daisy #1.

 

Gerbera Daisy #2

 

Gerbera Daisy #3.

Now on to the boots and hats…

There are two pairs of boots and hats on the back deck. They don’t have very much room for potting soil so plants with shallow root systems are needed. I have used  Sempervivum (Hens and Chicks) for several years and they have done well. Sometimes they even over winter, but they didn’t survive this year.

This year I went ahead and put a Sempervivum in both hats.

Wagler’s had several succulents, so I put what appeared to be an x Alworthia ‘Black Gem’ in one of the boots. The tags with the succulents just said “Succulent”, so I’m not really sure if it is an x Alworthia or not… If so, it is a hybrid between Aloe and Haworthia.

In the second boot, I put what appears to be a Sedum adolphi… Again, I’m not 100% sure. Time will tell…

There is a boot on the front porch as well that I have been planting an Oxalis tetraphylla (Iron Cross) in for a couple of years. It works well there, so I put another one there this year. I forgot to take its photo…

So, that’s it for Kevin’s planters and this post. Of course, as always, I picked up a few more plants for myself at Wagler’s on the 15th…

Until next time… Be safe, stay positive, always be thankful, and GET DIRTY!