On Tue, 29 Jun 2004 05:59:54 +0000 (UTC), Franz Heymann wrote:

[Me on my garish planter:]
Ceramic, square, probably Chinese or Vietnamese manufacture,
about 2' high and 15 " to 18" square. Beautiful cloudy soft
gray-green glaze. Modern, not old.

The whole thing is a riff on the "hanging basket" concept, and is
therefore planted quite thickly with "basket stuffers". When you
do this, you *must* be generous with both water and fertilizer to
get the best results.

It still sounds overplanted. But in a way I feel like emulating next
year.

The essence of hanging baskets and such is overplanting. You want
*fullness*, to the point that the container is obscured.

Perhaps a description of this year's efforts might be of
interest:

1. The big square Chinese planter already described, with the
really garish, clashing combination of colors.

2. A fake-Romanesque baptismal font: filled with trailing lobelia
in white and shades of blue, as I try to do every year.
Regrettably, there seems to be no trailing lobelia cultivar quite
as dark as the non-trailing 'Crystal Palance Compacta' --
'Pendula Sapphire' has a white eye. I find the combination of
pale blue and dark blue lobelia a surprisingly powerful one, but
you can do it better with non-trailing cultivars. Try alternating
'Cambridge Blue' with 'Crystal Palace Compacta' for a really
eye-catching display -- like a huge electrical spark.

3. My patriotic planter, a big green-glazed pot planted up in
reds and whites. The main plants are white and red verbenas,
cultivars from the "Proven Winners" line. These are supplemented
with white and red callibrachoas, a white shrubby mimulus, and a
"red" anagallis. One of the two red callibrachoas is a scarlet
that matches the red verbena very well, but the other is more of
a crimson and clashes somewhat. The mimulus is a failure. And the
anagallis is orange-red (not scarlet), though it doesn't offend
and harmonizes fairly well.

4. My full-spectrum planter, with a coral verbena, pale blue
trailing lobelia, and a yellow callibrachoa, plus the same
goddamned almost-red-but-not-quite-red anagallis. This works very
well. Good mix of color and growth habit.

5. The yellow-blue planter, with two pale yellow osteospermums,
two yellow callibrachoas, some little daisy like affairs in mauve
and yellow, and a deep lapis-lazuli blue anagallis. The idea was
to have a yellow planter with some contrasting blue in it. Nice
enough, but I won't try this combination again. One of the
callibrachoas is a much clearer yellow than the other, and the
yellow daisy-like affair is too bright a yellow to work. And the
other is too purple and not blue enough. Felicia would have been
a better choice. Also, the container is in a position that is
shaded in the afternoon, and the osteospermums aren't entirely
happy. They need full sun to do their best, it seems.



--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
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