Before I discovered my cruel and unusual punishment of the hanging tomato, I stopped by my local Earl May store to try to figure out what to buy as a replacement plant to go in the hanging basket.
I know I asked for suggestions, and the suggestions were good. But did I print out said suggestions? Did I leave for the store with any semblance of a list? No, I did not. And so, what I was left with was solely the memory that a lot of people had said something about mums.
The garden store had mums. Plenty of mums. So that should have been easy, right? But then there was the issue of what color to get. And they all looked really tall—too tall for a hanging basket. And then there was the issue of whether I just wanted one clump of mums or whether I wanted something else to go with them. And then there was the issue of what should go with them.
This was about when I thought about calling Trey at the Golden Gecko in California, just because I knew he’d answer my question. The staff at the Earl May are perfectly nice, but for whatever reason, I just didn’t feel like asking them what would work well in my sort of shady hanging basket that sometimes didn’t get watered and often kills tomatoes.
After much wandering amidst the tables of available plants, thinking about color combinations and the issue of potting a low and high plant together for Contrast and Excitement(!), and after trying to read plant tags that weren’t really very helpful (because some of them said things like, “Earl May. Mums. $6.99.”), I settled on a brownish and gold mum just because it was a Thor Orange Mum, and I think having a flower named Thor hanging off my front porch is pretty cool. And I picked a Blue Haze Evolvulus, because it was low-growing, and it made me think of Purple Haze, and that’s a really good song, and that seemed as good a reason to pick a flower as any.
I am going to ignore the fact that, when I looked up the Blue Haze Evolvulus on the Internet after I got home, it was identified as a “great ground cover for full sun.”
So. For my mixed-sun potting that is all the way up in the air and further from the ground than anything in my house, I bought a ground cover plant that likes it hot and sunny.
This is why I need to get over my inability to allow myself to be helped in retail situations.
on Aug 28th, 2007 at 9:19 pm
Oh dear. I’m not even sure what to say. My big job today was to take the seed pods off of my larkspur and calendula plants and scatter the seed hither and yon in various gardens around my house. Many had already seeded themselves, but in the interest of expansion, well, I intervened. “Westward Ho! The Course of the Empire Makes Its Way!”
on Aug 28th, 2007 at 10:15 pm
It’s not the end of the world. They’ll probably do fine. And even if they scream in horror at where you’re planting them, you can’t hear them, so don’t worry.
on Aug 29th, 2007 at 2:21 am
If you were a guy I would say: “Harrumph, typical”.
As it is I’ll say: “They should be lovely. The orange mum with the blue around it will be perfect for fall. And it will probably freeze before it dies from lack of sun, anyway”. Asking for help is overrated!
on Aug 29th, 2007 at 2:31 am
Who knows, maybe you were cosmically drawn to plants that need a little bit of adventure! Maybe high altitude part sun is equal to ground level full sun. You could be on the verge of a ground breaking discovery!
on Aug 29th, 2007 at 6:05 am
AB, I like the thought of the seeds taking over! Is it OK to plant those seeds now, even though they won’t come up until next year?
Heather, we’ll see, for sure.
Katiez, I will say this…I am not averse to asking for directions. :-)
Michelle, ooh…groundbreaking discovery…I’d be up for one of those!
on Aug 29th, 2007 at 7:09 am
My theory in the matter is that these plants drop their seeds now in nature … so why shouldn’t I just help them along by putting them where I want them? (I don’t thinkk Mother Nature sneaks up at night and collects the seeds to save until spring … or does she?)
This is an example of my very unschooled approach to gardening … if it feels right, I do it. If it doesn’t work, I don’t do it again. :-)
on Aug 29th, 2007 at 7:58 am
AB, that’s pretty good logic, as far as I’m concerned. I have some larkspur seeds that I want to plant and need to blog about…perhaps it’s time to sow them.
on Aug 29th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
“You just call out my name and you know wherever I am that I’ll be there yes I will, to lend you a hand.” Remember that one? Anyway you should just e-mail me like everyone else does. We could have talked you through this.
I am not a huge fans of mums. Don’t ask me why but I am not. If the hanging basket is higher than you you’ll be looking up into the underside of the plant. Some great late blooming plants for the part sun or shade in a hanging basket might include campanula (Blue Flowers,) Lamium ‘White nancy’ for foliage color (white and silver), Lysamacia ‘Golden Moneywort’ bright yellow foliage, coral bells (Foliage Color) Ajuga “Chocolate Chips’ (foliage color and flower color), and Phygelius “Moonraker” (yellow flowers).
How about a virtual nurseryman you can call, text message, or video conference when ever you want. Take your Blueberry with you, take some photos, text or e-mail me and we can have a discussion right there on the nursery sales floor. “Excuse me while I check with my “personal virtual nurseryman” in California.” That would blow them away!
on Aug 29th, 2007 at 6:41 pm
HEY, I like your new look! Nice….when? I guess I missed a lot while I was away. I have read you since I got back but I don’t think I took notice, silly me.
xx
on Aug 29th, 2007 at 11:59 pm
Trey, I think I like your song choice better. Plus, think of the blog posts we could have written if I’d actually conferenced you in from the garden center…we should totally have done that! Next time, I promise, I will.
Cole, the new look isn’t that old, actually. I’ve got some non-fans, but I’m kind of digging it. Might not keep it forever, but I really like the teeny tomatoes in the corner…
on Aug 30th, 2007 at 5:33 am
[...] Wacky paths to the garden « A totally inappropriate choice [...]
on Aug 30th, 2007 at 9:01 pm
I look at it this way, it’s MUCH more exciting the way we do it. Everyone thinks your nuts, so they leave you alone (cuts down on door knocking salespeople). You have a cool flower and a Hendrix song stuck in your head – never a had thing. AND you have a plant named Thor. C’mon…so what if it needs light and is groundcover? Pshha, I say!
on Aug 30th, 2007 at 9:38 pm
Megler, I tend to agree…it’s definitely more exciting! There’s always that element of risk generally not associated with planting things in hanging baskets.
on Sep 1st, 2007 at 5:27 pm
You might be surprised. Things grow differently in different situations. So many things factor in. Just give it a chance. Usually for hanging baskets, you want to buy something that says “trailing” in the name. Then you have something hanging, get it? :-)
on Sep 2nd, 2007 at 4:53 pm
Jackie, yes — I was at least going for something semi-trailing, no matter what. At least I knew that much! :-)
on Sep 24th, 2007 at 7:24 am
[...] was totally right in his comments about my hanging basket choices. Mums are a very, very stupid choice for hanging baskets. Not only do you mostly only see the [...]