Play Day

This afternoon I have a play date. Some garden friends are coming by with their children and we are going to split and replant the Sempervivum (Hens & Chicks).

We'll be selecting all the pots that are chock full, pulling the plants apart and giving them homes in new pots with room for those little chicks to spread out.

If you came by my house right now you'd see that I've been doing this splitting all month long. My front walkway has a number of these flats filled with all kinds of beautiful succulents.

Yesterday I picked up a few more trough containers. The place I get them from has very few left so I will only be able to get 3 or 4 more this season. These hypertufa containers are quite a bit more expensive than clay pots but so much more durable.

I have such fun looking for things to plant in the troughs. You'll always find a Sempervivum in the mix, this one on the left here is one of my favorites, it's name is 'Oddity'.

It's important to also step outside of the box and mix in some other material. The golden chartreuse of the Lysimachia nummularia 'Aurea' (creeping Jenny) is going to be fun to work with.

One non-succulent that I've had wonderful success with is Allium senescens glaucum which is the blue flat leaf foliage in the top corner of this trough. It was planted last year and came through the winter with flying colors, doubling nicely in size.



There are a few containers here for sale. They make excellent gifts, they are low maintenance and will live much longer than any cut flower arrangement.


For less money, there are some that are planted in clay pots. I planted a few of these last year and surprisingly the pots all survived the winter without any chips or cracks but I can't guarantee that will always be the case.

Here's a shot of my front stoop. These three troughs were planted last year and are not for sale. I have them slightly raised and they look like this all year long except for when they were covered with snow.

We are going to have such fun this afternoon!

Melanie

Too soft hearted

This morning when I was photographing my troughs (not bad looking for mid November!) I noticed a recurring theme. Volunteers.

Volunteer plants are seedlings that pop up in your garden, whether you planted them or not.

In this pot you can see the volunteer Digitalis (Fox Glove) seedlings at the back. You can bet I didn't put them there but of course I don't have the heart to pull them. If they are still there come spring I will wiggle them out and give them a new home (maybe to you???).

How's this for volunteering! These Verbascum bombyciferum seedlings have volunteered to totally take over the large concrete planter. I doubt that the Sempervivum 'Oddity' that's planted in there is too happy about this new neighbor but soft hearted as I am, I leave these too until spring.

This trough has been one of my favorites. It won a blue ribbon at our flower show this past June and will soon be moving to a new home. My friend Kim asked me to donate one of my troughs for a wonderful charity called "Hope through Health". So this lovely trough will be on the raffle table this coming Saturday night. I'm so excited for it!

The other day when I showed Kim the trough, I saw these little seedlings growing in it. I think they are Isolepsis seedlings (Fiber-optic grass) and if I get the chance I'm going to wiggle them out and pot them up. Isolepsis isn't always hardy here so I'd bring these babies in and try to overwinter them on my super-crowded windowsill.

Off to rake some leaves and then to work.

Happy Monday! It's my favorite day of the week :-)