Red, White and Blue for the Fourth and other times, too

Happy Fourth Of July!  When I think of the 4th it's all about red, white and blue.  In the garden these colors are not usually used together, unless you are doing a theme planting or a flower arrangement.  Occasionally it happens, though, by accident.

This mostly native arrangement has 'Annabelle' Hydrangea for white,
Monarda didyma and non-native Salvia splendens for red, and the blue
 is supplied by Campanulastrum americana and Salvia farinacea 'Victoria blue'.
The green fireworks are bottlebrush grass, Elymus hystrix.

While I didn't plan this color scheme, this combination of
blue flag iris, Iris versicolor, and the red and white striped flowers
of myrtle-leaf mountain laurel, Kalmia latifolia 'Minuet'
made a pretty nice display in late May. 

Here are some North American native plants that can supply you with red white and blue flowers for each season of the year.

Reds:

Scarlet sage is not hardy here so I grow it as an annual.
However, its seed will overwinter with a little protection

 In picking out these plants I looked for true reds rather than the many pinks and purples that are out there.  Roughly in the order of bloom from spring to fall  there is red trillium (Trillium erectum), wild columbine (Aquilegia canadensis), Indian pinks (Spegelia marilandica), fire pink (Silene virginica), red beebalm (Monarda didyma), various red salvias (Salvia ssp.), standing sypress (Ipomopsis rubra), turkscap (Malvaviscus arboreus), scarlet  rosemallow (Hibiscus coccineus) and cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis).

Cardinal flower makes a strong statement in late summer in sunny moist locations

White:

The pure white flowers of bloodroot are one
of my favorites in early spring.

There seems to always be something white in bloom. Here are 10 native plants with white flowers roughly in order of appearance:  Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis), Phlox (all species have some white forms blooming from early spring to late summer), beardtongue (Penstemon digitalis), elderberry (Sambucus canadensis), hydrangea (H. arborescens and quercifolia), summersweet (Clethra alnifolia), swamp rosemallow (Hibiscus moscheutos, often with a scarlet center), tall snakeroot (Ageratina altissima), white turtlehead (Chelone glabra) and various asters.

Elderberry has large flat flower clusters
for nearly a month in late spring.

Blue:

There are also native blue flowers throughout the growing season.  These plants tend to prefer shady locations.  Also their blue flowers show better in part shade than they do in full sun.  Many of the blues tend toward lavender or purple, I've tried to select more mid-range blues.  Here are a few, again in order of bloom:

Virginia bluebells carpet moist ground in early spring.

Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica), Jacob's ladder (Polemonium reptans), Ohio spiderwort (Tradescantia ohioensis), blue flag iris (Iris virginiana), American bellflower (Campanulastrum americanum), gayfeather (Liatris spp.), mealycup sage (Salvia farinacea), blue mistflower (Conoclinum coelestinum), great blue lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica) and various blue asters.

This smooth aster is one of the bluer (less purple) native asters in the eastern US.
(Should be Syphyotrichum laeve, sorry)

There are many other red, white and blue blooming natives out there and I would appreciate hearing what your favorites are.  And again, Happy 4th!!!

Water for the Potted Plants

We have a much larger and sunnier deck than in our old place so we have nearly doubled the number of pots to make an impact in that space.  In general I chose plants that like it on the dry side and will recover quickly if they get dried out.  Also these plants do not need to be deadheaded to continue blooming; however the Pelargoniums do look neater when they are cleaned up.

Here are a couple of photos of my compositions for full sun.  Aside from the Pelargonium cultivars these plants are all derived from North American species.  These Medallion Flower are doing quite well.  I've had mixed results with these.  I think they like warm moist sites.  This is the first year I've had the 'Evolution' Salvia, I usually get 'Victoria'.  They are doing well and I would not hesitate using them in the future.  This is the second year for 'Profusion' Zinnias.  These are great for pots low growing and dense, a great 'filler' plant.

Starting from the bottom are: Lantana camara 'Luscious Berry Blend',  

Melampodium padulosum/divaricatum (Medallion Flower), Zinnia 'Profusion',

  Pelargonium 'Balcon Princess', and Salvia farinacea ‘Evolution’

Here are more Zinnia 'Profusion' with Salvia splendens cultivars
and Salvia farinacea ‘Evolution’ backed up by Pelargonium 'Merlot'

Being in full sun these plants are in need of regular watering.  While there is a spigot nearby, we really did not want to deal with a heavy garden hose.  When we saw one of those light-weight expanding hoses in the store (as seen on TV) we thought it would be perfect.  At 50 feet it could reach from one end of the deck to the other with room to spare and its light weight would make it easier to maneuver and store.

The first few times we used it were OK, just a little leaky, but what the hey.  However, by the fifth time out the hose was hemorrhaging water at the nozzle end fitting.  I just waved the leaking nozzle end over the plants to water them.

Water is no longer coming out of the end of the hose.
The inner rubber hose broke free of the nozzle.

The inner hose expands like a water balloon

At this point I should have found the receipt and took it back to the store, but I really wanted to find out if I could fix it.  My opportunity came when the inner hose totally separated from the nozzle.  Now something had to be done!  I cut off the end or the hose to reveal a super stretchy rubber tubing about 1/2" in diameter.  This expands like a balloon under pressure and is kept in check by the nylon mesh outer hose.  The problem was that the original attachment to the male fitting was not done well.  Since I had some repair fittings for a 1/2" hose I thought I would give that a go.


My first attempt with the repair kit worked, so I got a male coupling from the store, 'slipped' it on and thought I was all set.  On closer examination of the on/off fitting supplied with the expandable hose, I found that it was leaking in two locations.  Not just at the valve, but also at what appeared to be a stress crack in the body of the fitting.  This was troubling but not entirely unmanageable.

The rubber hose was stretched over the 1/2 inch coupling, then the nylon outer hose was pulled into place.
The two-piece clamp was screwed tight and this seemed to hold well even under pressure.
I then replaced the coupler with a male fitting.

Note the two spots where the
on/off valve is leaking.

What turned out to be the killer was the catastrophic failure of the hose that occurred while I was taking the the photo of this fitting.  The nylon outer hose gave way allowing the inner balloon hose to burst.

The first image is of the hose conveniently rolled up into an extra flower pot.
Next is after the water was turned on and the hose was pulled out and tested in the photos above.
The last image is 2-3 minutes later when the outer hose failed, allowing the inner hose to burst.

 Since I had the coupling kit on hand,  rather than tossing out the hose, I chose to repair it one last time.  Now I am just using it to water the pots without putting any pressure on the hose (i.e. no nozzles or on/off valves).  I may have been partly to blame for this last failure, since the hose was not allowed to expand freely under pressure.  While I love the concept of this hose, mine was not particularly well made.  I will continue to use this one without putting pressure on it.

If you have one of these that has failed, it may be repairable.  If you don't have one, proceed with caution, there is more than one brand of this type of hose available.

North American Natives for a Patio Container

Last year I had spotty results using the combination of Mealy-cup Sage (Salvia farinacea), Phlox drummondii, and Bidens ferulifolia to do a Native-species planting box scheme using primary colors.  The sage performed well, but the Phlox didn't transplant well and the Bidens bloomed in cycles, so I rarely had all three color blooming at once.  This year I stuck with the Salvia (cultivar 'Victoria Blue') as my tall plant and used a Lantana cultivar 'Bandana-Rose Improved' as the 'spiller' and Zinnias from the 'Profusion' series as 'fillers.'

This Lantana starts out yellow and ages to a pinkish-red.
The Zinnias had not bloomed yet.

In this flower box I also got a surprize.  A Drummond Phlox reseeded itself and has grown much better than the ones I grew indoors last year.  This past winter was mild enough to allow the seeds of this Texas species to overwinter in the flower box.  I also got a bunch of Salvia reseeding themselves as well.  This was great, I got bonus plants for free!

Native species that I have found to work well in a sunny flower box are native to Mexico and the Southwest US.  The hot and often dry conditions encountered in these containers is not unlike their native environment.  At first, I hesitated to use the Zinnias.  They have been highly bred and manipulated, but then I remembered the these plants actually have their origins in the North America, Mexico to be more specific.  The ones you see in the garden centers have been horticulturally improved for features like color, long bloom and resistance to powdery mildew, to name a few.

The 'Profusion Series' are hybrids of Zinnia elegans (the common tall Zinnia) and Z. angustifolia (Narrow-leaf Zinnia).  They tend to be about a foot tall with 1.5 inch flowers in a wide variety of colors that are supposed to bloom all summer.  I am using the cherry- and the white-flowered cultivars.  So far the cherry-form matured more quickly and is a little larger than the white-flowered form.

In checking out the progress of this Zinnia the first thing I noticed was the intricacy of the flower bud.  Maybe all Zinnia buds look like this, but this is the first time I noticed.  So now I'll watch and see if these Zinnias keeps pace with their neighbors.

I was happy to see that this cultivar still has fertile flowers
 - a bonus for the pollinators.

In another sunny area a random selection of blooms caught my eye.  Here the magenta-colored Wine-cups (Callirhoe involucrata) have encroached on a new planting of 'Apricot Sparkles' Day lily (yes, not everything I have is native).  To these, some self-seeded Wild petunias (Ruellia humilis) have also popped up.  I don't think I would have planned on this color combination, but the three taken together work for me.

I don't think the Daylily and the pale lavender Petunia would work
together if it weren't for the intense color of the  Wine-cups.