Flower Deals

It's funny, when I was younger I absolutely loved gardening of any kind- flowers, vegetables, herbs, houseplants etc. but now I seem to go through "spurts". Sometimes I am just all into vegetables and do nothing but vegetables for a few years. Then I somehow get all into flowers.This summer has been a bit of a mix though. I did plant some vegetables but for the most part they were a failure (5 cucumbers, two eating's of basil and maybe 2 tomatoes) so I guess I have turned to the flowers instead. I have some nice planters in the front yard that had great pansies in it through the winter and then they were replace with begonias and hostas. I had a planter out by the mailbox that had lovely violas (Johnny-jump-ups as my mother called them) and then were replaced with tiny pots of chrysanthemums and begonias as well. I have some huge pots of chrysanthemums on either side of the front steps. Inside I added several house plants as they came on sale but today's sale were for flowers.
The chrysanthemums are on sale again and I really just couldn't resist as they are three times the size they were last year for $.97 and I had that little flower garden started out back by the fence that I had put the roses in. I am not good about picking and matching colors. I am more of a "cottage garden" kind of girl where everything is all jumbled together but pretty. For instance my front flower garden is a jumble of elephant ears, yellow lantana, red rose, pink daphnie, dark pink 4 o'clocks, and some white flowering bush that I have never learned the name of. The rose takes over in the spring and then the 4 o'clocks over run everything in the fall (there used to be morning glories and I will have to get more seed).
Anyway, here is the little garden so far, not really jumbled like the front garden but those are red roses on either side a lilac rose in the middle and the purple and yellow chrysanthemums.

I know the roses don't look like much but they are growing new leaves so I think they will be fine next year especially the lilac one in the middle that grew in such poor conditions on the other side of the house.  I have mulched this bed too since that is pure red clay here and on a slight slope which means all the good soil will just wash right off if I don't but I did buy this bag of mulch today and I usually just mulch with raked up pine straw from the yard. But I saw this bag and it was only $3.39 and I decided to try it. In the second handful I found a piece of rope about a foot long. A few seconds later I found a piece of tin foil and after that I found two circular pieces of plastic. Who knew mulch was just trash? Anyway, I was not real impressed and this tiny little garden took up half the bag and I could have used the whole bag on it but I had looked down at my legs and they were literally covered with mosquitoes. The mosquitoes are quite bad this year with all the rain. Almost makes us wish for drought again.
The 'mums aren't the only deals on flowers today though. I was not as good as Mark at finding perennials but then the petunia can be a perennial here. Though when they come back the next year they all seem to be the lilac color instead of the colors here.

At $2.50 I just couldn't resist these and I actually wouldn't have gone looking for them at all except some woman passed me with a cart that had these baskets hanging all over the outside. I restrained myself and just got one but petunias have been a favorite of mine since I found they could be perennial here. Plus this is a red, white and blue (purple) pot of petunias and it was very patriotic looking.
This might have been all the flowers that I purchase today but the grocery store had some marked down too and I had admired them when I went to that same store last Tuesday but would not buy them for $8. Today they were $ .99.

The two spiky ones in the back are Celosia cristata pumosa 'Venezuela DarkCaracas' and, of course, the plant in the front is hypoeses or as we call them Pink Polka Dot Plant.
When I lived in the North pink polka dot plant was just another house plant but here it is often planted outside. Since it is nearly fall here I think I will keep this one in through the winter and plant it out again next spring.
I am really not sure about the Celosia as I have never grown it before but it does say full or part-sun on the tag so that means the front yard for us. Maybe I will put them in hanging baskets (I have three hooks for hanging baskets on the porch and only the petunias out there now) and then try to over winter them in the greenhouse. Doesn't matter, they were unusual for a flower and I liked them.

I really am doing some vegetable gardening though. I have cleaned out one of the raised beds and planted lettuce and I have another almost clean and will do some cauliflower, spinach mustard tendergreens, and maybe some cabbage or whatever I can find for plants in the others. I also have another cutting of basil to harvest this weekend too. Hopefully the fall garden will be better than the summer one was.
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