Hi All!! Saturday was our annual "Planting Day" here at the McVey Ranch (hee) so I thought I'd share some pictures with you. I have to tell you that I looooooooove planting day. We head out to the nursery usually on Friday night to load up on flowers, and then on Sat. morning, we get up and spend the day planting all of our new beauties. In all the years we've been married, we've only missed planting day one year and all summer long we really missed not having any new flowers planted. Of course we still have some perennial gems that come up every year, like rose bushes, clematis, rhododendron and peonies, but I so missed having flowers in our front flower bed, in pots on our front steps and in all of the pots and containers on our deck. SO, this year, we were determined to get our planting done as soon as we got back from Hawaii! We had perfect weather for it and I'm so pleased with our selections! We usually add some new perennials each year, and we mix in some annuals as well.
Of course you have to consider climate and light conditions and all that jazz when selecting your flowers, but I'm also a stickler for color! (you know me and color!) Everything we select to plant, is carefully considered for it's colors and how it will coordinate or contrast with the other flowers that will be planted near it. I just love that! I'm not saying that everything we get is the same color or is even in the same color family for that matter, but I want my garden's color combos to be pleasing to the eye just like I strive to with my cards and so with that said, I here are a few of the flowers we planted this year.....
This pot has some dahlias and some coleus and I'm not sure what the orange leafy plant in the back is. :)
Flower box of petunias. The box sits on hooks that go over the railing on our deck.
Can't remember the name of these (yes, I could go check that tag in the box but it's past my bedtime at the moment! Haha!) but aren't they cool looking?? :)
Geraniums.....LOVE this variety!
More dahlias and spikey things as well as some caladium.
Lots of coleus and caladium here........we have grown to LOVE planting both because they stay leafy and totally colorful even when lots of other plants' flowers poop out. :) I'm all about keeping color around as long as possible! Don't you just love that caladium with the great raspberry fizz color in the middle and green around the outer edge?! Oh, and those little white flowers are called strawflowers and the petals totally feel like stiff paper! So weird but so cool!
Variety of daisy?? Darn, can't remember at the moment....
Some hanging plants next to one of our clematis plants. We've got quite a few different varieties of clematis planted all along one fence-line. We've added a couple clematis each year for the past few years, so they're all in different stages of growth, but one we're hoping that one of these years, the whole fence will be lined with fabulous clematis. :)
More clematis......wow. Such beautiful flowers.
Azalea....so happy this one has finally taken off. It's been a puny little guy for several years!
Along one side of our house, we've now got a row of several varieties of columbine and this happens to be one of my favorites. Isn't that just a totally cool flower? AND, it's a perennial.....love that!
Rhododendron.....we planted this one a couple years ago and it's done SO well. I'll probably share pictures of it again later in the season -- it gets SO many blooms on it. I just love it. Mmmmm......more of that fabulous fuchsia color! We added another one of these this year to fill a whole next to this one. Can't wait to see them filled out and blooming next to each other!
More amazing coleus. SUCH cool leaves! I love that the color stays vivid all summer long! No flowers to bloom and die on these babies! ;)
More petunias. Fab color!
And just so you know, you'll probably be seeing some of these types of photos popping up in future Raspberry Suite Color Challenges! Aren't they fun?? :)
Hope you've enjoyed this little backyard tour!
Have a goodie, Peeps!
