Grand Garden Show Container Plantings

We saw many beautiful container plantings while at the Grand Garden Show on Mackinac Island in August.  The photo above shows a group of pots on the front porch of the Grand Hotel.  Tall papyrus, coleus, begonias, calibrachoa and trailing sweet potato vine formed dramatic compositions.

Here is a closer view of one pot.  I love chartreuse and maroon leaves together. 

This large pot near one hotel entrance relied on foliage with few flowers, and it's stunning.  Many of the containers we saw depended heavily on foliage for form and color, with flowers getting an equal or secondary place. 

This is another grouping of pots on the hotel porch, which featured dozens of pots and window boxes bursting with color set among a long row of rocking chairs.  Ornamental grass, coleus, petunias, and lantana were featured.

I would not have thought to put a group of pots in the middle of a stairway, but these stairs were so wide that it worked nicely.  This was one of the homes on the garden tour.

Another garden on tour featured these cheerful window boxes with begonias and creeping sedum above smooth hydrangea and elderberry shrubs.

These pots flanked the front stairway at yet another garden tour home.  Young panicle hydrangeas provided height along with coleus and begonias.

The row of shops in 'town' also boasted many lovely container plantings, including this restful grouping with browallia, begonia, sweet potato vine and ivy. 

The nearby window boxes featured a similar color scheme with browallia, lobelia, corkscrew rush and heuchera.  I'm such a fan of violet and lavender in the garden, so I especially loved these last two containers. 

The Grand Garden Show on Mackinac Island

Last month my husband graciously attended The Grand Garden Show on Mackinac Island with me.  It was a lovely experience all around.  The historic hotel was beautiful, the food was excellent, the garden classes were fun and the garden tours were inspiring.  As we approached the hotel, we experienced this long flower bed that was covered with hundreds of Monarch butterflies.  Unfortunately I waited to take a photo until the last day when it was raining and the butterflies were absent, but when the sun was out it was magical to see so many butterflies all together.

Here is a shot of a dozen butterflies on a single plant in one of the gardens on tour.  In this post I'll share photos of some of the gardens we toured in the afternoons.

Several homes on the west bluff featured bright annual gardens in front.  At the rear of the photo the Grand Hotel is visible.

This little flower garden was adorable.  I love the lavender salvia, mixed petunias and peachy-orange dahlias together.  The warm-colored petunias at bottom are Honey Supertunias, which I grew in pots this year.  They were good performers and you can see they add a new color to the assortment of petunias.

This garden featured many bright plantings of annuals among the green groundcovers, trees and shrubs.

As fun as the colorful annual gardens were, I found myself preferring gardens with shrubs, perennials, and plenty of green for a backdrop.  This hillside was lovely with several types of hardy hydrangeas.  Though we saw many smooth, panicle and oak hydrangeas, I didn't see a single bigleaf hydrangea.  I guess they have hardiness problems on the island as I do in my garden.

Here are some smooth or Annabelle hydrangeas with hostas at the entrance of one home.  Welcoming and relaxing at once.

This was one of the 'cottages' on the tour.  I kept expecting a butler to show up.  The architecture of the old homes was as enjoyable to see as their gardens.

Many homes had fewer flowers and more green space like this.  This garden was very peaceful.

Isn't this an interesting garden?   We were told there used to be a fountain in the center, but to simplify maintenance and keep the grandchildren safe, the homeowners filled it in and planted a garden instead.

A newly landscaped area featured impressive stone walls and stairs.  During the tourist season, no cars or trucks are allowed on the island, so landscaping is accomplished with horse-drawn quarry wagons and manpower.  During the brief windows when tourists are gone for the winter and the weather allows, larger construction equipment can be used for big projects. 

The perennial and shrub combinations at this garden were especially pretty.

I'll post next with photos of the many fabulous container gardens we saw at the hotel and in town. 

Annual Gardens at Spokane Temple 2017

Here are some photos of the Spokane LDS Temple annual gardens from August.  The spiral bed above (named for the spiral Juniper topiaries) features 'Lighthouse Purple' salvia, which was a new plant this year and a great performer.  It's always interesting to see which plants really take off, as it's different each year.  The 'Purple' superbena was also very vigorous this year.

I chose to use several foliage plants for season-long color, including 'Wasabi' coleus, 'Blackie' sweet potato vine, and silver licorice vine.  'Orchid Charm' supertunias and black petunias contributed blooms along with 'Profusion Double Cherry' zinnias.  I was not pleased with the performance of 'Summer Jewel Lavender' salvia, whose flower spikes looked washed out in bloom and quickly turned brown.

'King Tut' papyrus continued as a favorite at either side of the front door.

The front sidewalk beds outside the gates included deer resistant zinnias, salvia (which struggled due to watering issues early in the season), verbena, licorice vine, celosia and geraniums.  I also used lime sweet potato vines, which the deer like to munch, so we inserted several Deer Fortress canisters around the area.  They contain dried blood which humans can't smell but which does a pretty good job of keeping the deer away.

The northwest corner was planted in sunset colors:  'Lighthouse Purple' and 'Victoria' salvia, 'Double Deep Salmon' and 'Coral Pink' Profusion zinnias, and 'Arrow Orange' snapdragons.

I included several purple fountain grasses (Pennisetum), but they took a long time to grow to a large enough size to make much of an impact.

Here's one more shot of this area.  I love how this color scheme turned out.

The east rectangle raised bed was planted in 'Bermuda Beach' and 'Mini White' supertunias, 'Royale Iced Cherry' and 'Royale Cherryburst' superbenas, and silver licorice vine.  The warm pinks looked great together at planting, but then the 'Bermuda Beach' petunias seemed to revert back to a cooler pink.  Or perhaps 'Vista Bubblegum' reseeded from last year?  It's a bit of a mystery.

The south arc was planted less closely this year after I received feedback that it looked too overgrown last year (we had a hot summer in 2016 and the zinnias grew more vigorously than ever before).  In this photo I think it looks too sparse, but if our summer had been as long and hot as the last one, these plants would have filled in better.  That's the excitement of working with nature, as you never know what surprises are in store.

Here's one more shot of that area.  I already made the plan for next year's annuals and turned it in to our grower so she can order seeds for next spring.  It's fun to tweak the color schemes each year and try out some new plants.

Spokane Temple Summer Gardens 2017

The annual flower beds at the Spokane LDS Temple are full of cheerful color right now.  Above is one of the Front Door Beds featuring 'King Tut' papyrus at back with 'Victoria' salvia, 'Double Deep Salmon Profusion' zinnias, 'Royale Silverdust Superbena' verbena, and 'Orchid Charm Supertunia' petunias, plus a chartreuse sun-tolerant coleus and black petunia whose names I have forgotten.

A closer look at the bed reveals that the black petunias are really deepest burgundy.  It felt daring to include a black flower in this bed - would it be dark and depressing? - but it has acted as a nice foil for the other bright colors in the mix.

This year I used plenty of chartreuse 'Margeurite' and 'Blackie' sweet potato vines for season-long color without any deadheading.  The Spiral Bed above, named for the spiral topiary juniper shrub in the corner, includes more of the salvia, zinnias and petunias from the nearby Front Door Bed.

It's always interesting to watch the color schemes change through the season as different plants reach peak bloom or take a break.  Earlier in the season the 'Magenta Arrow' snapdragons added a lot of deep pink to these areas, but in the heat the snaps are taking a bit of a rest.  Now there is a peach, chartreuse and violet color scheme for the area.

The 'King Tut' papyri in the South Arc bed have exceeded expectations this year and might reach six feet tall by the end of the season.  Violet 'Royal Velvet Supertunia' petunias, 'Double Cherry Profusion' zinnias, 'Double Deep Salmon Profusion' zinnias, 'Margeurite' sweet potato vine, and 'Tango Dark Red' geraniums fill the base of the bed.

Sometimes Spokane summers aren't warm enough to elicit strong growth from heat-loving zinnias, but the warmer than usual growing season this year has led to especially vigorous zinnias.

A final shot from the Northwest Corner bed catches more happy zinnias along with verbena, snapdragons, licorice vine, salvia, and celosia.  This week I finalized planting plans for 2017 and sent my list of requests to Appleway Greenhouse so they can order seeds and plugs for the next year.  It's always an adventure to create to plant combinations in my head then see how they turn out in real life - not always how I imagined but sometimes even better.  I'm grateful to continue to be involved with the Temple grounds in this way.

Vase of White Delphiniums, Laceflower, Daisies and Corkscrew Willow



This vase was created in September during the second flush of bloom for my delphiniums and daisies.  The delphs, unhappy in part shade, flopped over and were begging to be cut instead of being left to drag their flowers through the dirt.

Last summer I grew annual laceflower, Ammi visnaga 'Green Mist' (above), with the hope of using it in lots of flower arrangements.  I ended up not using it much at all, because the early inflorescences were too large for the tight bouquets I usually make, and then I forgot about it by the time the smaller side shoots were ready.  Oh well.  At least I used it in this one arrangement.

The young Ammi flowers are white like this . . .

 

. . . while the older ones turn green and are still interesting in bouquets.

 



A vase full of nothing but delphiniums is lovely, or they blend well with other long stemmed flowers. 

In the photo above you can see the hint of green that gives these 'Green Twist' delphiniums their name.

 

'Esther Reed' double daisies (Leucanthemum x superbum) are preferable to single daisies, in my opinion, because they don't have an unpleasant scent.  Young ER daisies have a hint of yellow in the center, then they mature to completely white.  In the background you can see leaves of Solomon's seal (Polygonatum odoratum 'Variegatum'), which is easy to grow in partial shade and an excellent filler plant for arrangements.

 

Twists of corkscrew willow (Salix matsudana 'Tortuosa') add to the slightly wild look of this arrangement.  Willow roots are so invasive that I'm experimenting with growing the corkscrew type in pots.  We'll see how well it works over the next few years.  In the meantime, the stems are a great addition to vases.

Annual Gardens at Temple in July 2014

It is especially nice to dig out summer photos in December when the temperature is down in the teens and the sky is grey.  Here are some photos from July of the annual gardens near the front entrance of the Spokane Temple.  Above on the left you can see 'King Tut' papyrus, which has been a great performer for us for several years.

Above you see the 'Bordeaux' supertunias are just getting started with their rambunctious growth.  I can't remember the exact cultivar of coleus that we planted, but you can see how interesting it is with touches of maroon at the base of the lime leaves.  Tall 'Senorita Rosalita' cleome is a sturdy performer and attracts butterflies.  In summer we often had sulphurs and cabbage whites fluttering about.

We use a lot of mauve in the annual beds to tie in to the permanent Liatris plantings at the back of this shot.  Clouds of 'Diamond Frost' euphorbia, purple alyssum and light blue lobelia add airiness to the annual design in contrast to the chunky petunias and lime green sweet potato vine.

Last week during a blessed thaw we planted the tulips and other bulbs in these beds, and we dug up several sweet potato tubers from these 'Marguerite' vines.  My husband and another volunteer tried a slice.  Hmmm . . . interesting, they said.  We didn't take them home to add to the Thanksgiving table.

This area is becoming more lovely each year as the permanent shrubs and trees mature.  In this shot the berries on the large 'Wentworth' cranberry bushes at right are just starting to turn cheery red.  By December many of them have turned to brown mush after single digit temperatures, but they were pretty for several months.

Above silvery licorice vine (Helichrysum) and the sweet potato vine clamber happily over the front wall of the 'Spiral' beds.  By the time the annuals were removed in October, they had grown large and lovely.  We didn't plant any along the other edge of the bed since they crawl over the sidewalk and have to be cut back frequently.

This is a final shot of the area just outside the gates.  Deer or rabbits munch on the petunias if we plant them farther away from the gate, but the lights deter them, so we have a few on each side.  Silver dusty miller and plum '3D Purple' African daisies (Osteospermum) stretch out in front of the mauve daylilies.  It's nice to look forward to the beauty awaiting next year while taking a break from gardening chores for a few months.