Planted these two begonias, with some pale blue bacopa on the sides. I could have been more generous with the bacopa, I guess. I bought these all a week ago. In the past I have planted lobelia with the begonias. I like lobelia, but I've had bad luck with it. It always dies about half way through the summer. Usually, what happens is there are a couple hot days when, due to just feeling too tired after work, the plants don't get watered. Some of them get droopy, but when I do water them they recover. But the lobelia just up and die. The bacopa can take more of my not so benign neglect.
I like to get brilliant red begonias. I saw from the tags that those I bought this year are the same as the ones I had last year: "Go-go scarlet." How's that for a color?
Below are four pots of fuchsia. I have four hanging pots of fuchsia every year. I used to buy well-started pots, but they were expensive, usually $20 a pot. So a few years ago I bought these hanging pots, with a metal underframe but a woven twig exterior (which by the way every year I think, This may be the last year I can use these because they look like they might fall apart--but they haven't quite fallen apart yet), and fuchsia starts to put in them. Every spring Haggen has fuchsia starts for a dollar each. The baskets were about $10 each, if I recall correctly, when I bought them some years ago. So a total cost year one of $52-$56 and each year since then of $12-$16 versus a total cost of $80.
Come to think of it, I think I bought these fuchsias last week at Hi Hoe. But anyway, this evening I sat down on a folded towel on the deck in front of these four pots and the box full of starters and put four each into each pot. When I got to the third pot, I realized I had only bought three each for each pot. Oops. So I filled three pots. I had three other fuchsias, of a different type and color, I think for the barrel where I later chose the "autumnale" fuchsias. So I put those three into the fourth pot. So when they do eventually flower, one of them will look different from the other three. Oh, well. They'll all be pretty, I trust, and uniformity is not a higher virtue than beauty.
The downside of this economical way of getting fuchsia pots is that the starts take weeks to grow out over the edges and to bloom. When I bought the expensive, well-started ones, they were abundant and blooming from the time I brought them home. Tonight, after I planted and fertilized them, I cut them all back a bit, hoping that will make them fuller. They looked a bit scrawny. So here's hoping they grow lush and lovely.
It's kind of a dark picture. I don't like to use the flash, because I think it changes the colors of things.
And I put this marigold plant into the middle of my herb barrel as a slug deterrent. Marigolds are pretty, but they're not fragrant.
I like the word "fragrant." The word "smell" can have good or bad connotations, and the word "odor" tends (in my mind) to range from neutral to negative. "Aroma" is a good thing, but I associate with food and coffee. "Fragrant" sounds like flowers, perfume, or incense.
Speaking of coffee, when I came indoors that aroma was pervasive because I had made a pot of coffee before dinner. To walk into the house and smell coffee is gezellig.
No comments:
Post a Comment