Remember how I said I'd have a new post soon? Over a month ago? Life sure has this nasty habit of getting in the way, doesn't it?
Now that that's out of the way, let's go back in time and enjoy some autumn containers. These are on either side of our porch steps.
I used a mixture of live, natural, and artificial materials. The things that are alive are the little mums (Chrysanthemum sp.) and the ornamental cabbage (Brassica oleracea). The naturals are the dried Annabelle hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescans 'Annabelle') blooms, dried ostrich fern spore-bearing fronds (Matteuccia struthiopteris), green-dyed twine balls, and dried lotus pods affixed to a bendy wire. The artificial materials are the glittery feather ball and fern fronds, crabapple branches, and green orbs.
The ornamental cabbage was amazing. The purple grew brighter as the temperatures got cooler, and even withstood a few frosts. I know not everyone likes cabbage or kale, but when precious few plants (read: no plants) are blooming in October and November, I think it is a definite must for a Minnesota autumn display.
While sorting through the pictures to use in this post, I discovered a spring project: paint those containers! They are a Styrofoam/resin composite so they are nice and light (when not loaded with plants and wet soil) and have been outside for about four years. But why everything except the rim faded, I have no idea.
Hi! I wonder if you ever got a good shot of Weatherball 90 before it bleached out in the sun.
ReplyDeleteI'm one of EH Lins' granddaughters and have to thank you for your marvelous photos of the peonies. You take great photos. Thanks for posting!
Thanks! I did get some new photos of the peonies this year, and I think Weatherball 90 was one of them. I just keep forgetting to get them off my camera!
DeleteI'll look forward to seeing those. I ask especially about Weatherball 90 because it's so sensitive to sun: it fades out almost at once so pictures taken early when it's just opened show the color it's famous for but after that it pretty much turns white. I haven't seen any shots of the one there in the Lins Garden that were taken early enough yet, but it's a spectacular one when all the colors are showing.
DeleteI do enjoy the rest of your blog too, by the way, I'm just obviously partial to the Lins Peony section!;)
Cheers!