I am done digging this bed. Even though it is only 12 degrees Celsius outside, I have broken a sweat doing this.
It now has the nice half moon shape that I was aiming for. And half of the bed has nothing in it, so it will be great to just plunk some flowering annuals into this next June.
In front of the boulder, I planted 10 iris reticulata. Let's hope they don't look like little soldiers all in a row.
These are dwarf iris that will be predominantly white with some blue and lime green accents.
This is a view of the bed from one side. The darker mulch is simply wet as it was just applied.
The area without mulch is where I planted two iris rhizomes. The advice is not to cover this type of iris as it needs to be warmed by the sun in order to produce roots. I don't know how long this has in this zone; it will be pretty cold soon and I think it is going to need some coverage. Perhaps just some dry leaves will do until the snow blankets it.
This is the place where I want to see a lot of bright pink flowers. I would love to see something like supertunias bubble gum, but I think that might be a bit hopeful for this location as it only gets about 5 hours of direct sun. A better spot for these would be in the back yard where there are some spots with all day sunshine.
Can you believe the above photo is of just one plant from a 4.5" nursery pot? incredible, I will definitely have to get one of those next summer. Supertunia bubblegum from Proven Winners. It seems that almost every plant I bought this year came from Proven Winners. There is a fascinating video on YouTube that shows the main nursery in Michigan where shrubs are nurtured and grown prior to heading out to the smaller nurseries where we can buy them. Quite the operation. I have put a link at the bottom as it is fascinating to see how they grow and cultivate shrubs.
I will probably do better with impatiens if they are available next year. They have been very scarce the past two years as they have been hit by a blight. The New Guinea variety seem to be fine however and they are lovely. Another possibility is dianthus or commonly known as "pinks". Whatever the choice, it is going to be pink.
Video of Proven Winners Nursery
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