Garden Trends

Although Osteospermum are said to need full sun I have found that morning and evening sun has been sufficient for them.  This year I picked out Summertime Pink and Summertime Deep Purple to go into my planter.  I put one in a pot on it’s own and three in another rectangular container with Sweet William in the front to line it.  I do find that the Osteospermum can get a bit top heavy and I have had to use a couple stakes here and there to help keep them upright. I also didn’t allow them to flower too much when I first picked them up so they could become stronger, larger and hopefully healthier plants.  I would try one Osteospermum out before picking up too many and see if they can thrive in your evironment.  Sometimes plants can surprise you and become a great addition to your garden or patio.  Here are a couple pictures.

Happy Birthday Canada!

We hope you have a chance to celebrate Canada day with family and friends. We are quite lucky that we have the chance to enjoy some local Fraser Valley strawberries at the same time!

We usually get morning and evening sun and it is amazing how much flexibility in flower variety this allows.  In one container I have a Regal Geranium which likes to be protected from the afternoon sun.  This was the “Jewel” variety which was planted in the middle as the “feature” of the container.  It has a great flower which ranges from light to deep pink.  It does seem to have a strong odour especially if you are playing around with it, so just a warning for those with sensitive noses.  I planted two fuchsia’s on opposite sides and two Sweet Williams opposite to those.  This is a picture of what it looked like earlier and the second one is what it looks like now with the fuchsia’s blooming and being a bit more filled in.

If you have any comments, ideas or suggestions for further blogs please email me at nikki@gardentrends.ca If you would like to post a question for others to view or respond to please do so under the comments and remember take the time to enjoy your garden!

Well it seems the birds really like our deck. This weekend when we were watering the plants we found yet another bird’s nest. This time it was in our Fuschia hanging basket. We thought it might have been abandoned but we gave it a couple days to make sure. It certainly was a good thing we did … there are 2 eggs in the nest now!

I was quite concerned that I wouldn’t have much colour on the deck when we received so little sun. Not only do we mostly face North we have large trees that provide quite a bit of shade (not to mention the lack of sunny days we’ve had). The only sun we receive is partial morning and evening sun but I have found that it has been quite sufficient. I have to admit I took a risk with some of the things I planted but I have been presently surprised. I do find I strategically place my containers in the sunnier part of the deck and on the odd occasion will move containers to follow the sun if I happen to be around. The Sweet William ‘Wee Willie Mix’ (Scientific term: Dianthus barbatus) which I mentioned before has been doing very well in the containers. They have a shallower root system so they work well in containers with the clematis and honeysuckle. As you can see they vary in shades from light pink to deep red/purple.

These were really inexpensive. I picked them up at Home Depot in a small variety pack of 8 but each could be split up again so I had 16 small plants. I planted them into 3.5 inch round pots that I had from last year where they had a chance to grow and get stronger. I then planted them into the various containers on the deck. If you have these don’t forget to pick off dull or droopy ones to allow for others to bloom.

Stay tuned for Part II.