Thursday, May 7, 2009

Blooming where planted

After school, I did the first of the spring planting. It took quite a few years to figure out what would grow and not wilt in the summer heat. The front of our house faces south and takes a beating in the summer sun sometimes. I have learned to stick with flowers that love the sun: vinca, moss roses, and geraniums are my favorites. This year I found geraniums that I love! Such a pretty shade of not quite pink, not quite salmon. The big splurge this spring is on an entirely new climbing flower for me: mandavillia. This one is red, and I love the little trumpet-like blossoms. I have no idea how to care for it, so I am doing some reading.
It will grow up to 6 feet tall, so I am having a student weld a trellis for me. I will have to continue twining the vines around the trellis as it grows. It will get a lot of morning sun, but be in the shade during most of the afternoon.
The plan is to cut it way back in the fall and move it inside for the winter. I'm hoping I can talk my FFA friend and local horticulture teacher into housing it in the school greenhouse. Maybe if she can take some cuttings off of it and start a few more plants, she will be game!! Wish me and my brown thumb luck! Me and my vinca, summer 2007, photo by local paper

3 comments:

ELK said...

the pink is so happy! it does take awhile to figure the lay of the land...looks like you have !!

Gayle said...

Beautiful flowers! The mandavillia is so pretty. Good luck with it! Happy Love Thursday!

Heidi said...

My mother had a lot of sayings, one was, "Bloom where you are planted." So, I love your blog post title b/c it reminds me of mom. When I was in high school, I worked at a greenhouse owned by an 80 year old man who also owned about 1/2 the town. He specialized in geraniums. I've loved them ever since. I can't plant until after Memorial Day in Michigan, threat of frost is too great.

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