One of the hardest parts about the beginning of fall for me is taking out the annual plants in my garden. I always have the best of intentions of taking pictures of everything so that I can keep track of what really took to its growing spot and exploded, versus performed average to sad, sad underperformers so I never buy them again.
Sadly, I so rarely remember to take pictures, and then I end up repeating some of the same mistakes as the last year….BUT, not this year. I put this topic on my blogging calendar, which means I’m actually going to stick to it. So here it is – my favorite garden performers this year:
Top Garden Performers:
I was BLOWN AWAY by our lantana on the garden path did this year. It went from this at the beginning of June:
To this by the end of the season:
I wish I had put some sort of size reference next to that first picture, because i was actually concerned that the lantana at the garden center this year didn’t look terribly healthy, but man, was I wrong. This stuff LOVED its spot.
Final grading: LANTANA in Havana Sunset: A+
I was also so pleased with the mandevilla vine I grew in a container on our patio this year. These vines can grow quickly and little out of control, but I specifically bought a smaller one at the garden center, so it would have plenty of room to expand, and it did beautifully:
Final grading: MANDEVILLA in Sun Parasol: A
The last two years, I’ve done very similar flowers in the back patio containers. I switched out a handful of plants this year just to see how they would perform, and everything in these containers did SO well. I wanted to point out the coleus, though, in particular. This is the second year I’ve planted this coleus, and it’s an amazing performer. I cut it back EVERY WEEK, and it doubles in size EVERY WEEK. It would have taken over the whole container if I would have let it.
I love the color of the leaves too – a good contrast to bring out the colors in the rest of the pot.
Final grading: Purple COLEUS: A+
Marguerite SWEET POTATO VINE: A
CALIBROCHOA (I’m the idiot who decided I could write this post in South Dakota without any of my detailed notes and tags – so I’ll come back and update for the specific variety when I get home): B
Miss Sawyer wanted to get in on the flower photo shoot:
The other flower I wanted to highlight that always performs well for me are these marigolds:
They add a bright pop of yellow to our front yard.
Final grading: Gold MARIGOLDS: A
Disappointing Performers:
And here come the sub-par performers. I was so disappointed with how the pentas and lisianthus performed in our garden path:
This is the best the lisianthus looked all season, and it had a few more buds on it to bloom, but it sat for probably close to a month with no blooms at all. And the pentas just sort of looked lack-luster all season.
Final grading: White PENTAS: C
Blue LISIANTHUS: D
And the last thing I wanted to highlight, in case you’re thinking that I’m a decent gardener at this point, is this lackluster container:
A whole bunch of dead or in varying stages of dying succulents. Succulents are supposed to be super easy to grow and require very little care, but clearly, I need to do more studying up on taking care of succulents if I ever want to try this again.
Final grading: A whole mess of succulents that had an uneducated caretaker: F
We’re headed back to KC this weekend, and I’m spending a few hours over the next couple of days cleaning up containers and starting to get the gardens ready for the fall and winter. I’ll be happy to have these bright pictures to look back on when the weather is chilly and gray, and get some inspiration for next spring!
Have a wonderful weekend, friends!