October Bouquets

One of the few perks of having a mother who is a wild and crazy plant ho is that she bedazzles your house with beautiful bouquets for your pumpkin carving party. Wondering what to pick at this time of year? Well here’s what I picked for my eldest daughter Monica.

That pink flower is one of my favorite plant ho plants. (Plant ho plants are the little presents I get because I’m a ho.)  I got this Echinacea ‘Southern Belle’ from Plants Nouveau last October  at the 2012 Garden Writers Symposium, and it has been amazing. Those clever plant breeders have made coneflowers that look nothing like a coneflower. It will likely be one of Peggy’s Picks in 2013, so you’ll have to buy Alabama Gardener Magazine to read about it. – ‘Peggy’s Picks’ is not a real thing, but it should be. It’s a catchier name for an article than ‘Hot Plant’, and classier than ‘Plant Ho’. –  In the vase I combined it with a little rosemary and the Penisetum ‘Princess Caroline’, which I wrote about in the October 2012 issue of Alabama Gardener Magazine.

Coleus ‘Party Time’

I’ve written about these zinnias ‘Crayola Crayons’ before, and I picked a big bouquet of multi-colored ones for the party. But in this small arrangement I used only a few red ones combined with purple dew drop flowers and some foliage from my scented geranium.

Hydrangea ‘Endless Summer’ has been blooming mostly on, and a little off since May.

Last year this yellow-flowered Heliopsis  was 6-7 feet tall and Blue’s favorite plant, but this year the bunnies ate two thirds of the plant (damn bunnies) and the other third blew over in a storm. It’s still beautiful.

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Anemone ‘Honorine Jobert’ and Cuphea ‘Bat Faced’

I didn’t pick the red and purple Cuphea ‘Bat faced’ for Monica’s party, but I wanted to show it to you because it’s so pretty. It’s an annual that blooms from the time you plant it in spring until a hard frost. I did pick the white flower with the yellow center. This wonderful fall blooming perennial, Anemone ‘Honorine Jobert’, makes a quick-spreading ground cover, but I don’t think it’s agressive enough to be called invasive. Can you see Dale’s honey bee on this plant? If not, read my next blog. I’m going to show pictures of the bees in celebration of my article, ‘The Buzz about Backyard Bees’.

And speaking of bees, the Birmingham Botanical Gardens has an interesting talk coming up. Bee-havior for Bipeds is next Thursday, October 25th from 6-8 p.m. If you want to register, here’s a link for more information.

This last one is my favorite. I love the sculptural qualities of the iris, and I added a little of the dark coleus ‘Marooned’ to give visual weight to the base of the arrangement. I wish I could tell you which cultivar this is, but all I know is I walked into the Catbird Seat Nursery, and asked for a white, reblooming iris, and this is what he sold me. I suspect it is called ‘Imortality’, but I don’t know for sure. What I do know is that I’ve had a lot of different iris, and this is my favorite. It has a big bloom for the standard two weeks in spring, but then indiviual plants have sporatic reblooms in fall. They decorated the Thanksgiving table last year.

In addition to the iris on Monica’s nightstand, I also found this coaster. I think Santa tucked it in her stocking a few years ago. Santa has an odd sense of humor.