What's In My Flower Bed

The greenhouses and garden centres are overflowing with tons of different flowers.  Choosing the right flowers for your flower bed can be an overwhelming process.  Unless that is your like me and you just snatch up all the flowers that interest you!  To help make your next trip to the greenhouse a little easier I thought I would share what I planted in my one and only flower bed. 

 

This flowerbed has a south exposure so all of these plants are meant for full or part sun.  I purchased a lot of perennials because I find them more cost effective than annuals.  You buy the plant once and you have years and years of flowers!  Plus many perennials will multiply so they will fill in a lot of the space I have.  You can also divide them up in the fall and share them with friends and family; my Mom has already called dibs on my purple lily when it needs to be slip up.

This gnome is a recent addition to the flowerbed.  I spotted him at WalMart this weekend and just had to have him.  John wasn't too sold on the idea of a gnome but when he saw that it was a team Italia World Cup Soccer gnome he really couldn't say no.

We also have a few pin-wheels in our flowerbed.  My Mom gave Roman his first pin-wheel and he was immediately in love, so I picked him up another on one of our many trips to the holy land; the dollar store!  This particular pin-wheel is actually Roman's second I purchased for him because he snapped the first one in half while playing with it this weekend.  This is why we buy things from the dollar store!  There is also a tiny owl on a spike that Roman just had to have (or maybe it was me).  All of these things make great distractions when I'm trying to pull weeds with Roman.

 

 

Let's start with the perennials.  I have loved lilies since I was little and found wild tiger lilies growing behind our house.  This year I planted two daylilies (pictured above) and one traditional lily (at least that's what I call it.)  The pink daylily is called Lacy Doily and the purple/orange is called Exploded Pumpkin.  The traditional lily is called Graffity and is a gorgeous lily.  The base color of the petals is a bright yellow color with deep purple spots starting at the centre of the flower and fading out toward the tip of the petals.  I can't wait for this to bloom!

 

 

This interesting looking flower is called Lupinus "Tutti Frutti" Mix.  This flower was so unique looking that I couldn't resist picking it up.  I was told at the greenhouse that if you don't trim back the flowers in the fall the seeds will drop and they will re-seed themselves, but they aren't particularly invasive.  I can't wait to see what other color flowers this plant will produce!

 

The last two perennials I purchased were Primula Pubescens "Exhibition Series Mixed" and a 3D Purple Osteospermum.  The Primula Pubescens has clusters of small flowers that form balls.  The flowers themselves have yellow centres with deep purple/pink petals, so cute!  The Purple Osteospermum resembles a gerbera daisy but it has a centre that almost looks like a mum.  So pretty!

 

I already had some tulips and irises that were planted in the fall.  Unfortunately we've had a few visits from deer and my tulips were on the menu.  I was lucky enough to have one tulips bloom out of the three bunches I had planted.  Maybe I'll have better luck next year.

 

 

I only planted a few annuals this year, mostly because I had bought so many perennials before I started looking at annuals, and partly because John banned me from the greenhouse after he saw all the plants I bought....  I did manage to snap up some super cute ones though!  The first is the Colorblaze Keystone Kopper.  I bought this plant because I love foliage plants and this one had such a unique color that I couldn't resists.  It's also deer resistant which was also a selling point.  The second flower is a Miss Sunshine Sunflower.  This is a dwarf version of the regular sunflower that doesn't get seeds.  As soon as I saw them I knew I had to have them!

 

For a little ground cover I picked up a couple Goldilocks Creeping Jenny.  This is another foliage plant that looks like a vine and has small, bright yellow-green leaves.  As I was hunting for a site to link to this post of the Creeping Jenny I also learnt that it's also deer resistant.  Win!

 

Now that we are starting to get more heat during the day it shouldn't be too long before these beauties start blooming.  Here's hoping I can keep the deer and Roman away from them long enough to enjoy the blooms!