Flower Pots

One of my lovely readers (thanks Susan!) asked how my flower pots turned out.  You may recall that, back in April, I attended a Saturday morning flower-planting workshop at a local greenhouse - for $20, I (along with a few other participants) got the exclusive attention of the greenhouse manager for a few hours.  She took us on a tour of the nursery, introduced us to various types of flowers that worked well together, and then was a huge help to me in choosing flowers for three pots that I brought along.  The greenhouse provided the soil for my pots and, after I'd planted my pots, the greenhouse fertilized them and then took care of them for 5-6 weeks in their greenhouse until the May long weekend when I picked them up.  I paid for the flowers I purchased, and the $20 participant fee covered the manager's time, the soil and the 5-6 weeks' cultivating time.

On the weekend that my neighbours were starting to plant the pots for their front steps, mine looked like this on the May long weekend (and of course they're much fuller now, but I don't have current pictures!):

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Pot #1.  I wanted two pots in the backyard on the deck, and for these pots I wanted bright colours...purples, yellows and oranges.

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Pot #2.  This pot was my least favourite, simply because I'm not wild about the look of the tall grassy plant in the middle.  But still, the flowers were my choice for the backyard, in purples, yellows and oranges...and the flowers have since grown more so that the grassy thing isn't quite so prominent.

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Pot #3...on the steps by the front door...to go with the red door and bits of yellow in the brick.  This pot is my personal favourite.  It was full by May 23 when I picked up the pots and it's even fuller and lusher looking now.

I will definitely be signing up with the greenhouse again next spring.  Because I do not have a green thumb, it was very helpful to have the coaching about how much to plant and what varieties might work well together.  And I also really enjoyed bringing some of my own creativity to the mix and trying something totally new!  It was a great experience all 'round.