Spring and summer are my favorite seasons. The days are long and bright and warm, and I get to plant my balcony gardens. I finished all my planting about a month ago and have enjoyed watching them grow. Every morning I sit on the balcony to eat a piece of fruit and soak in the colors and textures in the morning light.
Every year I try to do something new and a little different. Two years ago I started from scratch with a red and white arrangement of mostly annuals. Last year I expanded by adding a few more pots and a water feature; I incorporated more perennials and shifted to a pink and green color theme. This year, I kept the same basic arrangement (albeit with some inadvertent additions; I have a habit of buying more plants than I have pots for, so I end up going back for more pots) but took a different approach to color.
With such a shady balcony, I normally rely heavily on impatiens to provide the color, with all the leafy plants providing background texture. This year, however, there's a nationwide blight on impatiens, and so they are nowhere to be found in the nurseries. This forced me to get creative and try out colorful alternatives. The resulting arrangement focuses as much on foliage as it does on flowers (probably more). The rich-hued leaves of the coleus and Persian Shield provide as much color as the New Guinea impatiens and sprays of astilbe. It's not a flashy arrangement, instead it feels luxurious and serene.
Every year I try to do something new and a little different. Two years ago I started from scratch with a red and white arrangement of mostly annuals. Last year I expanded by adding a few more pots and a water feature; I incorporated more perennials and shifted to a pink and green color theme. This year, I kept the same basic arrangement (albeit with some inadvertent additions; I have a habit of buying more plants than I have pots for, so I end up going back for more pots) but took a different approach to color.
With such a shady balcony, I normally rely heavily on impatiens to provide the color, with all the leafy plants providing background texture. This year, however, there's a nationwide blight on impatiens, and so they are nowhere to be found in the nurseries. This forced me to get creative and try out colorful alternatives. The resulting arrangement focuses as much on foliage as it does on flowers (probably more). The rich-hued leaves of the coleus and Persian Shield provide as much color as the New Guinea impatiens and sprays of astilbe. It's not a flashy arrangement, instead it feels luxurious and serene.
Color
All labels are left to right, clockwise. |
| Amstel begonia "Clara", Persian Shield, wax begonia, New Guinea Impatiens "Sweet Cherry" |
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| Variegated sedge, coral bells, bergenia "Bressingham Ruby", caladium, coleus "Wizard Sun Velvet", variegated hosta, astilbe, wintergreen |
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| Astilbe, variegated hosta, caladium, coleus "Wizard Sun Velvet" |
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| Coleus "Wizard Sun Velvet", caladium, golden creeping jenny |
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| Coleus "Splish Splash", coleus "Vino", purple spike, white geranium, Albert spruce |
Texture
1 comment:
LOVE coleus! Looks beautiful. Lady
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