A COLORFUL PART-SHADE ANNUAL
Today I want to share with you a garden where a simple change has been used to really switch things up. Rather than relying on annual flowers for summer long colour, Coleus, a plant valued typically for its colorful foliage, has been used instead.
Coleus is one plant that I find is a bit ploarizing. You either like it or think it's hideous.
Its crazy colors are not exactly for the faint of heart: burnt orange, vivid magenta, lime green, deep burgundy and chartreuse to name, but a few. Even more outrageous is the fact that these wild colors are often splashed across a single leaf.
Personally I like coleus, but it never occurred to me to use them in a mass planting as you would annual flowers.
The originality of this simple switch-out impressed me.
Read more and see additional images of this garden:
http://threedogsinagarden.blogspot.ca/2014/03/one-simple-change.html
Coleus is one plant that I find is a bit ploarizing. You either like it or think it's hideous.
Its crazy colors are not exactly for the faint of heart: burnt orange, vivid magenta, lime green, deep burgundy and chartreuse to name, but a few. Even more outrageous is the fact that these wild colors are often splashed across a single leaf.
Personally I like coleus, but it never occurred to me to use them in a mass planting as you would annual flowers.
The originality of this simple switch-out impressed me.
Read more and see additional images of this garden:
http://threedogsinagarden.blogspot.ca/2014/03/one-simple-change.html
Wether you like Coleus or not, the idea you can take away from this garden is that interesting things happen when you think outside the box.
Coleus has been used here as a colorful annual.
In this garden, coleus has been used in many of the flower beds, and also in a more typical fashion in the container plantings.
Coleus with Sweet Potato Vine, Ipomoea batatas at its feet.
Here we are just inside the back gate and to the right of the dining area.
The backyard is also nicely designed. We enter through a side gate that you can see on the right. The land is sloped towards the back of the property and so the back garden has been terraced.
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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2 comments
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Count me in the like camp.
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I love love love coleus! Looking forward to planting several varieties this year! I love how I can pinch it off, the original plant branches out, & I can make more plants from the pinchings/cuttings! I am already preparing my order for Rosy Dawn Gardens, where I have found I can get a wider selection than my local garden centers carry. I had good luck with the plants they shipped me last year. I love mixing coleus in with my container plantings! In the fall, I especially love seeing the fullness & color of the container coleus! I'm so sad to see my coleus die with the first or second frost! I'm excited now, & can't wait for spring!
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