Friday, August 4, 2023

Summer Containers

I have a self-imposed rule against planting during the summer months, specifically late June through August.  But I admit that I make a lot of exceptions.  One of my most notable exceptions permits planting succulents, although I haven't planted any of those this summer, at least not yet.  I sometimes plant annuals too.  If planted early in the summer season, they have a decent chance of surviving for the duration of the "warm" season but that's certainly not guaranteed.  Their survival requires vigilance, regular watering, and often shade.  An additional element, which can't be controlled, is luck.  If we get a serious heatwave - and by that I mean sustained daytime temperatures in excess of 100F (38.8C) with limited cooling during the nighttime hours - all bets are off.

At present, I'm counting on our avoiding a "serious" heatwave.  Four of my larger containers, some which had contained cool-season annuals that hung on well into summer, were looking very sad.  Living with them as they were wasn't an option and leaving them all empty wasn't an appealing option either.  I replanted them using mostly annuals with a few perennials thrown in.

The first two are half barrels in my front garden, partially shaded by the canopy of our Magnolia grandiflora.

This barrel formerly held a mix of plants, including several worn-out Pelargoniums and an unhappy daylily.  I've saved the daylily and some of the Pelargoniums in temporary pots and replenished the soil before replanting with the plants shown below.   My husband rigged up a temporary (though not very attractive) screen to provide additional shade.

The new contents of the barrel include, clockwise from the upper left: Cuphea 'Honeybells' (2), Dipladenia 'Sundenia Coral', Gerbera 'Festival Pink', Hibiscus acetosella 'Haight Ashbury', Plectranthus scuttellairioides 'Pineapple' (formerly known as coleus), and P. s. 'Salsa Verde'

This barrel had contained Pericallis, pansies, alyssum, and Bacopa.  I pulled everything but the Bacopa and planted 3 plugs of Rudbeckia hirta 'Sahara'.  It's not a great photo or a bountiful planter but 2 of the Rudbeckia have buds already.

 

 The other two containers are in my cutting garden.

This barrel had contained Digitalis 'Dalmatian Peach', Bacopa, and Viola 'Penny Peach', all of which finally collapsed last week.  I pulled everything and replenished the soil before replanting with the materials shown in closeup below.

Clockwise from the upper left: Catharanthus roseus (aka vinca) in 3 colors, Pelargonium 'Dynamo Hot Pink', P. 'Dynamo Purple', Calibrachoa 'Double Pinktastic', Scabiosa columbaria 'White', and Pentas 'Graffiti Pink'

This pot had contained a Delphinium 'Cobalt Dream', underplanted with Lobelia erinus and Nolana paradoxa.  The Delphinium was destroyed by an unknown bug and the Nolana was disappointing so I pulled everything.  I replanted the pot just before our first heatwave struck and the new plants struggled for a bit before recovering.

The plant on the left is another Dipladenia, which is related to Mandevilla but prone to trailing down rather than climbing upward as Mandevilla vines do.  The pot includes a noID lavender-flowered Pentas (shown right) and 2 noID bicolor lavender and yellow Lantanas (not currently in bloom).

 

My cutting garden is looking much fuller than it did in early July when I posted wide shots.  The first zinnias are blooming and many of the dahlias have buds but the flowers are taking their time.  There are some more well-developed buds in a barrel in the front garden but I think it's iffy as to whether I'll have blooms for 'In a Vase on Monday' next week.

The cutting garden looks promising but it has yet to deliver

 

We enjoyed a pleasant, relatively cool afternoon with a nice breeze yesterday and I made the most of it, cutting back the rest of the shaggy Agapanthus (65 more stems!), as well as deadheading other plants and pulling weeds.  Unfortunately, temperatures are expected to soar back into the 90sF again this weekend.

 

Whatever your temperatures, I hope you enjoy your weekend.


All material © 2012-2023 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

14 comments:

  1. We're looking at the 90's this weekend too, and there is now talk of a heat wave of multiple days at (or above) 100 off in the distance. (I cannot imagine cutting back that many agapanthus stalks!)

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    1. Ugh, I hope we can both avoid 100+ temperatures, Loree. I just read an article in the LA Times about the situation in Phoenix this year, ending on the note that those conditions are signals of the future many of us face downstream. I worked 1/2 a week in Phoenix over roughly a 6-month period over 2 decades ago and, even though I was there October-April, I vowed that was someplace I'd never live. A lot of people like heat but the current level of the heat there is way too dependent on the reliability of AC.

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  2. None of us can imagine that many Agapanthus flower stems. A chore but so nice to have that many blooms.

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    1. Based on the thicket of Agapanthus I had on the south side of the Ginkgo tree this year, I think the time has come to thin out the bulbs in that area. The question will be: what do I do with all the extra bulbs?

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  3. Your Zinnias sure didn't take long--they really respond to heat! Planted mine too early, but didn't expect the long Gloom we got.

    Your refreshed containers look great. A local nursery guy said Diplandenia live happily for years in a container but don't survive winter in the ground. I tried a couple Mandevilla a decade or more ago--they didn't like it here at all.

    One clump of 'Indigo Frost' gave me 21 stems in 2 waves--first was 11 then as they were just in decline the second 10 started which really extended the beauty--I hope they do that well every year.

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    1. The warmer temperatures really kicked up the growth of both the zinnias and the dahlias. They jumped ahead so fast at one stage that that I missed some of the pinching I should've done. My plants are overcrowded in many cases too and, while I pulled out quite a few zinnia seedlings, I was reluctant to pull too many in the absence of flowers. I need to exercise some tough love this weekend to ensure better air circulation.

      I've been disappointed by Mandevilla in the past as well and I hesitated before buying the Dipladenia but there wasn't much in the local garden centers to choose from. I read that Dipladenia is tough but wants a lot of water on a regular basis so keeping it in pots as a temporary summer filler is my strategy.

      My Agapanthus 'Twister' came from Annie's in a 4-inch pot in 2022. I'm on the lookout for a 1-gallon pot (or 2) to add to my border for next year's display.

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  4. I bought what I thought was mandevilla (it was labeled Tropical Plant!). Now I wonder if it is Dipladenia. It hasn't done much, up or down. It mightneed more sun. Glad your zinnias are waking up. Mine are finally doing so also and I had the first dahlia this week from my new ones. Have a good weekend.

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    1. I'm not sure I could tell a Mandevilla from a Dipladenia without a tag, although the latter seem to come in colors I haven't seen in Mandevillas, Susie - it is a tropical plant and reportedly wants full sun and lots of water. My first dahlias flowers are starting to open but oh so slowly...

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  5. I love that white Dipladenia! It seemed familiar so I looked back at your IAVOM posts: alas, the plant you used in IAVOM a couple of weeks ago was pandorea jasminodes... very similar bloom. No wonder I was drawn to it.
    Chavli

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    1. They are similar, although Pandorea jasminoides is a very large vine and, fortunately for me, it's relatively drought tolerant once established. The same can't be said for Dipladenia it seems.

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  6. Love the fresh new look to the barrels, so pretty! Eliza

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  7. Seeing the flowers in your garden always brightens my day!

    I haven't planted anything this summer. I've hardly even bought anything other than a few Echinopsis cactus. I can't wait for late September when it's finally cool enough to get new plants in the ground.

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    1. I'm looking forward to the approach of autumn too. There are currently a lot of holes in my garden that need filling, as well as areas requiring full-scale overalls.

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