Thrillers, Fillers and Spillers Part 2

Last week I worked on my deck pots and containers as well as my 2 hanging baskets. Today I finished my front urns.
My favourite plants for the front door urns are Rex begonias and Caladium (which is technically an indoor plant but is fine in Canadian containers). As spillers I raided the garden and added Ajuga and Lysimachia nummuralia. Both urns have the same contents.

The larger urn in the centre of the flagstones features "Red Star Spike", Cordyline, as the thriller, Supertunia Pretty Much Picasso petunias, dark purple petunias and pink impatiens as fillers and
a spiller  - Ajuga - that is once again dug up from the garden.

This one is from a few years ago - I used Heuchera as the Thriller, Rex Begonias as the filler and Lamium (from the garden) as the spiller.

Here is a lovely one we had at work: Kong coleus, dogwood branches and Creeping Jenny as the spiller.

This particular year I used an (overly large) Cordyline spike as the Thriller, red Rex Begonias and Heuchera and Lamium as spillers.

When travelling I once snapped this interesting arrangement around Halloween time. I think all the hotel did was add small pumpkins and hydrangea to a summer container. Looks very good!

Here is an urn within a perennial bed behind a wrought iron fence.

And lastly, sometimes you can add very very simple flowers if the container itself is the star of the show.

Thrillers, Fillers and Spillers Part 1

Yesterday and today I worked on my containers on the back deck. We have a walk-out onto the deck from the kitchen through big sliding doors. It's always been important to us to see colour close up as we eat our meals or while we sit on our loungers, enjoying the last of the wine after dinner.

Years ago in Fine Gardening magazine I remember reading about the rule of thumb for interesting containers: use thrillers, fillers and spillers. In other words
(a) have a focal point - the thriller (usually tall)
(b) fill the container with medium height plants  - the filler
(c) add trailing plants at the edges - the spiller

Last year I saved the peat moss base of 2 hanging baskets along with the hardware - the rounded metal "bowl", the 4 metal chains and the hook. I bought Geraniums and Asparagus fern as the thrillers, Torenia as the filler and pink and white Verbena as well as spillers. I paid a small fortune for the fully planted hanging baskets last year but this year, by making them myself, I saved well over $50! Each!!

Over the years, I have purchased at least 4 Japanese Golden Grass plants (Hakonechloa macra), which the rabbits happily munched until the grasses disappeared. I still love this plant so much that this year,
I decided to dedicate 2 of the pots to Golden Grass alone.

The other pots have grasses or Potato Vine as the Thrillers,  a gorgeous dark new Picotee petunia called 'Pinstripe', Geraniums and Browallia as fillers and Wave Petunias, trailing Lobelia and Lysimachia nummularia (dug out from a far corner of the garden) as the spillers.

This is Pinstripe:

Some of the smaller pots have just sedum in them which I overwintered from last year. Sedum is very drought tolerant and sometimes those small pots dry out as fast as the hanging baskets.

I'm as messy a gardener as I am a cook so the deck was covered with dirt, empty pots, empty bags of soil, etc. I wonder why I didn't include a picture of the deck before I cleaned it up???
:)

(we still need to take the Christmas lights off the pergola posts - ooops!)

I'm quite pleased with the containers this year. They are colour coordinated, they have plants in them that are new to me and I will make sure they are thoroughly watered if the summer is as hot and dry as they predict.

Tomorrow I hope to do the front yard urns.

May 15 - Garden Blogger's Bloom Day

Here it is - May 15th! Another Garden Blogger's Bloom Day!!

What's blooming in my garden today? Lots of flowers and shrubs that usually bloom 

2-3 weeks from now. We're early this year. Therefore so many areas are already very beautiful.

Enjoy!!

Nepeta x fassenii - Catmint - Frankie, my neighbour's cat, just loves it!!

Wild Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis)

Crabapple 'Profusion'

Bergenia cordifolia

Ajuga 'Black Scallops'

Red Twig Dogwood

Solomon's Seal

Bleeding Hearts

Violets

Ornithogalum - Star of Bethlehem

Viburnum f. plicatum tomentosum 'Mariesii'

Viburnum opulus 'Snowball bush'

Tulip 'Queen of the Night' (looking more burgundy than black!)

Lilacs….mmmmmmm…the fragrance!!

Cerastium tomentosum (Snow-in-summer) Can be a bad spreader but I have it in an isolated spot.

Slender Deutzia - a lovely small bush that usually blooms in late May

One tulip 'Estella Rijnfeld' - there should have been at least 6. I guess the squirrels had 5 for lunch!

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day is a Meme created by May Dreams Gardens http://www.maydreamsgardens.com/
Gardeners post images of what's blooming in their garden on the 15th day of every month. All are welcome to participate.

May 8 - Plant Combos Part 3

Well, it's certainly Full Speed Ahead at this point, isn't it! I've been out in the garden every day that it hasn't been raining. Not that we've had overly much rain but so far, just enough to get things blooming. It's also been a nice even temp of about 16 for the last while now. A number of posts ago, I promised Plant Combos Part 3 

so here goes:

Above is a fuschia-coloured triumph tulip (no name because it was packaged wrong), golden Euonymus, Aguja reptans, Hosta 'Paul's Glory' and a spreader I call baby Solomon's Seal.

Here is a closer look at the Euonymus, Ajuga and the Hosta.

There's Nepeta (catnip or catmint) under the peonies, which should be in bloom within 2 weeks. The Nepeta stays in bloom most of the summer.

Above you can see Aquilegia canadensis (wild columbine), several types of hosta, clematis 'Star of India (not in bloom yet) all alongside my favourite garden girl: Elaine.

White triumph tulip, Hellebore (still going strong!) and ferns…

I planted the Columbine "Clementine Rose' in amongst more common white columbines. Also I have here Iris foliage, Sedum 'Autumn Joy' and Sweet Cecily.

Texture is very important - here the long arching branches of Viburnum 'Mariesii' gently touch spiky daylily foliage.

In the front yard I have Bleeding Hearts, Sweet Woodruff and Periwinkle (with fallen pink crabapple blossoms on the ground)

Finally Lady's Mantle, Hosta 'Frances Williams', Periwinkle and Sweet Woodruff all together in the front!

Hope these combinations give you some ideas for your garden.

Look what I got on sale!!

We had a light rain yesterday but that didn't stop me from wandering through a few garden centres. And one of them had cool stuff ON SALE!
I picked up 3 Iberis sempervirens (Candytuft) - a perennial that's actually a hardy evergreen sub-shrub.

It blooms these pretty white flowers in the spring, sometimes even before the daffodils come up.

Next I had read about a new columbine that Heritage Perennials was selling and I was lucky enough to find 3.

It's called Aquilegia v. 'Clementine Rose'. It's very lovely!

Heritage also had a very cool looking Martin's Spurge called Euphorbia x martin 'Ascot Rainbow'

Cool flower but the foliage is superb!!

And last but not least I finally got Brunnera 'Jack Frost', the 2012 Perennial Plant of the Year!!

Don't you just love getting things for at least 25% off????  I sure do!