Author Topic: What to group together?  (Read 1426 times)

nilly71

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What to group together?
« on: January 20, 2009, 19:20:18 »
This is the list of flower seeds i have:

Mullen
Fairy mixed (dwarf annuals)
Aster duchess mixed
Durage
Evening Primrose
Fox Glove, white & pink
Candytuft fairy mixed
Nigella Blue
Pennyroyal 'mentha pulegium'
Mirabius jalapa
Phlomis russeliana
Aquilegia
sweet william 'pink'
Stock
Morning glory 'heavenly blue'

I want to plant some around the fruit trees and some in recycled 6pint milk bottles.

What ones are best grouped together for contrast and height?
How many would i be able to get in the 6pint bottles?

Thanks
Neil

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Re: What to group together?
« Reply #1 on: January 28, 2009, 09:39:46 »
Hello.

Most of the plants you list tend to be sun lovers so planting around fruit trees might be too shady for them. However the foxgloves and the aquilegia do well in light shade (in fact the foxgloves prefer it to full sun) and the tougher annuals like evening primrose, nigella and the mirabilis might be worth trying there too as they would probably cope OK. The rest would be better off in full sun.

6 pint milk bottles is a bit small for using as a long term container (fine for growing on to plant out later), so i would probably only plant one or two of the plants in each one as more than this would soon suffer from drought and lack of food (not to mention growing space!). That said you could broadcast sow the nigella, the candytuft and the mixture onto the top of the containers and thin them out as they grow and start to crowd each other.

As for arranging them , its purely a matter of personal choice, but I would tend to arrange the plants with the tallest plants towards the back and the smaller ones at the front (closest to where you will view them from). Check the dimensions of the plant provided on the seed packets for specifics as different varieties of the same plant vary. Try to get a good contrast between flowers and foliage and avoid planting in lines or blocks, a more random arragement always looks more natural and pleasing.


I hope this helps.

 

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