Views of our Garden

Here's a look at some of the flowers that we've grown this year:

Silhouette Red Double Impatiens. We've got them growing in morning sun which they really like. There are about three plants in the photo. No work other than watering occasionally. Actually the hose doesn't reach that far, so I guess they were ignored all season long!. My kind of plant.

Whirlybird Nasturtiums. Nasturtiums are a great filler. Plant them in a "hole" in your garden, and they will fill it in with beautiful blooms that are good to look at, and also to eat! Nasturtiums spread out over walkways as you can see in the picture.

A Monarch feeding on Lantana

Lantana is one of the new flowers we are growing this year (see earlier post on timing). It is described as a flower you can plant to attract butterflies. Imagine my surprise this morning, as I was making my "what needs to be watered" rounds, I saw, on Bandana Orange Sunrise Lantana a monarch butterfly happily feeding! Wow! I rushed back to the house to grab my camera. This one is a male (you can tell from the distinct dot)

It's all in the timing

I try to grow our flowers so that each plant has one fully open bloom by the second week of May. If it blooms later than that, customers won't see the colour, so it won't sell very well. An earlier bloom will be past it's prime for peak May sales. Timing is easy when you've grown a particular plant before, it's the new stuff that is a problem! It's always a guess the first time you grow something, and boy did I get the Lantana wrong this year. The buds are just about to open up today -that's nearly a month late! Better luck next year.
(btw, Diamond Frost was new this year, and timing was perfect for it)