Color To Get Over The White Blues

I started this yesterday when we got dumped on again thinking some color would revive my good spirits. But I combined photos in groups because I had so many and it took a while. Well, thank goodness it did take a while because I really needed them today.

Thought I'd put in pictures of my container plants that I do. The first one isn't one of them but they are so cheerful I had to stick them in. Last summer my girlfriend kidnapped me on my birthday and we took off for Seattle and spent the day at The Pike Place Market. I was way overdue to go there and we had a ball. She bought 2 of their huge bouquets and gave them both to me! These are so big I swear they weighed 20 pounds each - at least carrying them around they felt like it. We got to see the guys that throw the salmon around (and never miss), street entertainment and of course had lunch and then ate our way through the rest of the place. What a fantastic day it was. Ya know paybacks are heck and I have to think of something equally as fun for her birthday! You might want to click on these pictures so you can see them better as I did groups and their rather small. I have since changed the cast iron shelf because some of the flowers didn't get enough light and watering was hard on the shelves too. I planted a Clematis in it and hopefully it will be covered with gorgeous blooms.
My teacart has 3 or more colors of Lobelia and something else not sure and the hot pink iceplant wasn't blooming yet.
My vintage wash tub with a number of annuals plus some Creeping Charlie and usually some miniature Snapdragons.
I still wonder how I ended up snagging this old wheelbarrow at an estate sale. In a town with hundreds of antique shops and I showed up late and it was still there? I think they must have just put it out. It didn't have the rust at the time either. It says 'Hometown Hardware' on the side. It was a keeper and never made it into the shop where I had my antiques for sale.
The top left is Purple Heart and it isn't hardy here so I have to bring it in for the winter. I've read that people like it as a ground cover. In the wheelbarrow is some Ice Plant just getting started. I love lopsided in my gardens every chance I get! The bottom left is called Celosia I believe and it is just so pretty. I'm going to have to look for another one this year. In the old breadbox hanging over the side is a Geranium (annual). It is just the tiniest one I've ever seen.
A few more deck planters - one on an old wicker barstool I found running around hitting garage sales with my sister. I said the stool is mine as we pulled in and I spotted it - she was getting ready to say the same thing but she wasn't quite fast enough. Ya snooze ya loose!!!
Guess I should have lightened this one up a bit it's a little dark. Verbena sitting next to the sweet little path my hubby made going to my greenhouse from the stairs on the bank.
Some Dianthus in my old coal bucket. Oh and my headless swan. It was a really pretty rock swan but didn't take the weather well and the neck and head broke off. I couldn't part with it so it's just a novelty conversation piece now. Found the little tricycle with Hens and Chicks already in it at a garage sale.
Some Impatiens and Lobelia.
More lopsided. This bed has got more in it now. I'll have to get another picture later with everything blooming. I have another milkcan angled the same way with Campanula in it too down in my woodland garden.

I do feel so much better now. And the sun is even shining. Maybe I'll go separate my little plants that I brought in here as seeds and the Cosmos are almost 3 inches tall. I see some of the Coneflowers are showing now too.

New Flowers Make It All Better

Well thank goodness I had new flowers to plant and make it all better after the chomping machine went ripping through the property eating everything in sight.

This is my new Deutzia - I don't remember if they told me anything about it at the Farmer's Market except it gets 7 feet tall? Guess I'll run down there today and see if they have a name and double check on the size because I'd like to do it in a grouping with some of my next new pretties. She said this gets pinker as the season goes by and the picture she showed was very pink - so far mine is still white. Maybe because it's young. I have Spanish Lavender in the regular purple but didn't know they had different kinds. This is Boysenberry Ruffels and it is gorgeous with more of a pinkish tint to it. I thought it would look nice planted by the Deutzia.
Hosta Albomarginata. I'm going to replace those big honkers in front of my Callas that I'm unhappy with. Now they will be smaller and the same size and color - I hope!
I wanted some more Lambs ears because mine don't seem to be spreading - at least not that I can see anyway so I thought I'd just get more and put them somewhere else. I did that last year and they ended up being Lychness of some sort marked wrong. When I first got there I asked the lady at the nursery if they had any so I wouldn't forget. She picked one of 2 up and I asked her if they could set it aside for me while I looked around. I mentioned that it looked a little darker than mine and she said probably just where it was sitting in the light. I got home and was reading the tag and it's a dwarf. Hmmm do I want to keep it? I seem to have a hard time bringing Lambs Ears home - just plain old fashioned Lambs Ears. O'well, I didn't double check what she picked up so it's my fault and besides it might be nice to have a little one on a border somewhere. It is kinda cute! It will get 10" tall.
This is a Miss Kim Lilac - a dwarf that only gets about 5 feet tall I believe.
A Japanese Maple they were selling for an amount we couldn't afford to pass up.
I've wanted one of these for the last couple of years - ever since my girlfriend had a fellow employee bring some branches to her job and she said they had fuchsia (some are purple or lavendar) berries on them. After reading and finding out the birds also love them I have had it on my wish list. It will fit right in with the colors around here. It's called Callicarpa Bodinieri 'Profusion' or sometimes it's just called Beauty Berry. This one was in their discount section needing some TLC so I'm going to try and give it that. If the deer don't work against me!
And now for my biggest thrill of this buying spree - or would it be the summer? I saw these last summer when someone got one. I had been at the same little town celebration but didn't see this anywhere so I missed out. I call it my 'bad hair day' plant. It's a Japanese Willow but this one has been grafted on to another trunk (forgot to ask what kind) so it's taller than normal. A friend of mine has that kind and they are really pretty too with their pink foliage coming out on the ends but this little guy standing tall and kind of ruffled up is just so cute!!! I'll let the branches grow and just keep them trimmed above the ground so I guess it won't be a bad hair day tree when it grows up. There are actually 2 of them together in this picture since my girlfriend, and partner in crime, wanted one too and the guy lives out here by me so I just grabbed her one also. What a cutie pie this is - I absolutely love it.
I guess I'm a little late getting my annuals for the deck this year and the place I went to locally was sold out so I had to get something different. This big pink Sugar Daddy Petunia is one I always get but she only had a couple left.
So I had to buy some different ones. This is a Tidal Wave. I don't usually do waves but guess I will this year. The Tidal Wave is even bigger than the waves I guess.
Another Tidal Wave in a different color.
A pretty colorful Verbena. I love Verbenas but they were out of them too. Guess I'll have to pick some up somewhere else.

Hot Weather And Our Well Pump Dies . . .

The middle of August with extremely hot weather is not a good time to have the pump in your well go out! Not if you have lots of flowers anyway. That's what happened to us on Saturday. Thank goodness we had been having a cool spell and had gotten some rain or I'm afraid I would have really lost a lot of flowers.

This was probably the best birthday present I've ever gotten - NOT! I did get a runner up one year when I was driving down I-5 going 70 mph in the fast lane and I got a blowout. I sang happy birthday to me that day too! I've decided I don't want any more birthdays - getting old is bad enough but these little extra presents I can live without.

The well guy could have come the next day but Sunday and double time charges? This is not going to be cheap to start with so we opted to go another day without water and he'd be here bright and early on Monday. And he was. Our well is 180 feet deep so they had a lot of pipe to bring up to get to the pump at the bottom. The good news is that in the midst of a heat wave we still have 90 feet of water. It's nice to know that when the pump is working I can water 'til the cows come home and not run out! Yesterday it was too hot to water when they got done with the well and I had to go to town anyway so I got up bright and early this morning to start looking things over and watering my flowers.
The Verbena did pretty good without a drink.

The Petunias in the same planter not so much!

These Petunias couldn't decide - some were ok some not.

The Tri Color, Cape Blanco and some other Sedum did wonderful of course but even the fern that planted itself in the front of the BBQ looked ok.

The Million Bells are rather pathetic looking.

But these Petunias looked great.

The Purple Heart is looking good.

The Cauticolum is even starting to bloom so I guess I did ok in the middle of an emergency. Nothing really died as far as I can tell - they just all look really sad!

What's probably going to hurt the most is paying the ugly, enormous bill to keep the water coming!