ABC Wednesday follows the alphabet and uses a letter each week for participants to come up with all sorts of things that start with that letter. I’ve been following a gardening theme which gives me a chance to review various plants and decide if I will add them to the garden again if they are annuals or decide if they were in the right place if they are perennials.
This week the letter is I and I’ve chosen impatiens also called busy Lizzie.
Our house faces north so I need to get shade loving plants if I want any blooms or colour at the front. Impatiens grow really well in big pots by the front door. I buy a tray of bedding plants from the local nursery. Did you know the closer you plant the impatiens the taller they will grow? Each bloom is about 2 to 3 cm. across. If they get a bit ‘leggy’ later in the season, just snip off a bit and it should encourage some new growth.
A lot of the north facing garden is planted with hosta, bleeding heart, solomon seal and trillium. Each only blooms for a brief time so I love pots of impatiens to move around the garden to give some extra colour (even though I usually choose white). They love lots of water so I’m watering them daily because pots dry out quick.
One of my favourite displays for impatiens is in the tipsy pots. A few years ago I had an old wicker shelf that sat to the back of the garden against a tree. Pots of impatiens grew really well in there. The shelf gradually fell apart and eventually ended up in the burning barrel. I’ll have to keep a look out for something similar this year at garage sales as it was a lovely display area in the garden.
A cute little sign that I found at a dollar store a few years ago is a fun plant poke in a pot of impatiens. I think I’m losing my patience waiting for spring! How about you?
I’m sharing with ABC Wednesday and Signs, Signs.
more plants … seed info … veggies & herbs … bulbs, corms, tubers
