eileen
Moderator & Resident Taxonomist
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Joined: 07 Feb 2005
Location: Scotland (Map)
Posts: 11169
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| Posted: Sun Aug 20, 2006 11:02 pm Post subject: What are your favourite bedding plants? |
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Mine have got to be violas which bloom from early spring right through until the summer and then busy lizzies for summer flowering. They just last and last. 
Here's a piccie of the violas I had in baskets this year:
Here are my wooden patio planters with their newly planted (double) busy lizzies. This is how they looked when I first put them in. (Only three plants to each container.)
This is them now:
Neither violas nor buzy lizzies are expensive (usually around £2-£3 for 12 plants) but they are definately worth every penny I spent on them. 
I also have 10 hanging baskets in my back garden - each one filled with (single-flowered) busy lizzies. I must remember to take a piccie of one to let you all see. 3 plants in each of the baskets too so all I spent was around £9 for them all. Not bad at all for a whole seasons flowers!!!
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bethie
Highly Skillful
Joined: 08 Jun 2006
Location: WestTennessee (Map)
Posts: 1593
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| Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 1:41 pm Post subject: |
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Very beautiful. I love violas, they have a lot more flowers than pansies. I plant mine in October here and get a few blooms all winter. I plant a lot of impatients up around my back door. I also love torenia as an inexpensive bedding plant that reseeds itself. For years I had the traditional blue then I got some hot pink. Now they have mixed and I have some that are a purple violet. The "faces" on these are not quite as open as the other colors.
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cajunbelle
Daylily Diva
Joined: 04 Jun 2006
Location: zone 8b Louisiana (Map)
Posts: 3011
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| Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 2:52 pm Post subject: |
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Well ladies, y'all just named my 3 favorites. Torenia is hard to beat, if there is such a thing as a foolproof plant this would be it. Sun, shade, heat, rain it takes it all and just keeps blooming. I love violas, their little faces are too cute. I have some red impatiens planted around a stump and they must be 3 ft tall. I also like flowering vinca and moss rose bc they tolerate the heat well here.
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Phil. 4:13
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glendann
Official Garden Angel
Joined: 19 May 2006
Location: Texas (Map)
Posts: 6738
PlantStew: 219 |
| Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 3:19 pm Post subject: |
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I love Zennias they have never let me down and Bachlor Buttons,Verbenas are spring and summer plants.Also Wish Bones.
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glendann
Official Garden Angel
Joined: 19 May 2006
Location: Texas (Map)
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| Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 5:15 pm Post subject: |
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I didn't know what the Wish Bone was.JThank You jubabe told me it was wish bone the lady at the nursery called it Clown Face since jubabe has a Clown Phobia we call it Wish Bone 
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eileen
Moderator & Resident Taxonomist
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Joined: 07 Feb 2005
Location: Scotland (Map)
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| Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2006 12:51 pm Post subject: |
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Here, as promised, are just a few of my hanging baskets full of busy lizzies.
I like to leave the baskets on show as they are all different and woven by a friend of mine who runs a nursery/garden centre in the Clyde valley.
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glendann
Official Garden Angel
Joined: 19 May 2006
Location: Texas (Map)
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PlantStew: 219 |
| Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2006 4:28 pm Post subject: |
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Thank you Eileen,those are so pretty.Thank you Cajunbelle for telling me those are Torenia's and they sure are.
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jubabe296
Official Garden Fairy
Joined: 18 Mar 2006
Location: south central Texas (Map)
Posts: 1180
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| Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2006 6:18 pm Post subject: |
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Eileen thanks for posting the great pics!! I love violas with their cheerfulness!!! The hanging baskets your friend weaved are beautiful. I would definately show them off too!!!
Your busy lizzies are beautiful and I know the maintance on these wonderful little plants is easy, so it makes them one of my favorties also!! As mentioned already I absolutely love Torenias. Aunt Glenda mentioned we call them wishbone plants. I have always heard them called that because of the wishbone shaped stamen they have. But my all time favorite bedding plant has to be the petunia!!! Petunias come in so many beautiful and endless colors,and they require almost no care just give 'em some sun and water and they put on a show all Spring, Summer and Fall!!!
One of my Torenias (wishbone plants)
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eileen
Moderator & Resident Taxonomist
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Joined: 07 Feb 2005
Location: Scotland (Map)
Posts: 11169
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| Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2006 11:49 pm Post subject: |
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I must keep an eye out for some of those Torenia plants for next year Julie!!! I'm intrigued by the fact that the stamen is shaped just like a wishbone. 
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jubabe296
Official Garden Fairy
Joined: 18 Mar 2006
Location: south central Texas (Map)
Posts: 1180
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| Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2006 3:45 am Post subject: |
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Oh Eileen I do hope you find the wishbone plants next year!!! They would look lovely with your busy lizzies!!
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stratsmom
Flower Fanatic
Joined: 23 Aug 2006
Location: Southern Oregon (Map)
Posts: 906
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| Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 7:11 pm Post subject: |
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Well, I think you've got me convinced to try Torenia! Sounds like it can't be beat! I thought they would be too fragile so I've never tried them before, but next year I'll give it a shot. I think my all time favorite is a good old-fashioned, dark red geranium. Mix in a few yellow marigolds and there's my favorite color combo!
Deanna
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