The Pot Garden Revisited

The Pot Garden Year in Review--Containers that I'd plant again....




Angelica gigas (above).  Not the edible variety, but even so, this was a great biennial plant for a container during summer. Yes, a flower in my favorite color--aubergine. Not quite burgundy, not quite purple.

 

Salvia guaranitica (right) -- the best annual for attracting hummingbirds in the midwest. Perhaps my favorite annual. 

Caladium in the raised planter in the foreground. Red-leaved fountain grass (Pennisetum) to the left. And a hibiscus trained as a standard in the center back. The hibiscus is another wonderful plant for hummingbirds (and Japanse beetles--grrr).  It's underplanted with petunias, calibrachoa and vines.

What are YOUR favorite annuals for container gardening?

Vintage Magazine Covers -- House & Garden

A valuable source of period garden design ideas are gardening magazines, books, catalogs and photographs--especially the old ones. Although I'm particularly fond of (and collect) 19th Century publications because they provide a peak into what was going on in the lives of gardeners and farmers back then, it's the covers of early 20th Century home and garden magazines that I find really intriguing right now.

Love the illustrations on these WWI-era House&Garden magazine covers. It's all about the art.  No slamming captions or headlines or anything.  Everything that needs to be said is portrayed in the illustration, i.e., a picture is worth a thousand words.





 Or in this case, sighs.

Also love the Art Deco effects of later issues.  Notice how the typefaces have changed in an effort to stay "up-to-date" for readers.  No matter how many times they changed the typeface, House&Garden magazine covers in the 'teens a century ago are the ones that I find most comforting and interesting.