Funny Halloween: Some New Plants for the Garden

A week ago Friday was the fall plant sale at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden and I couldn’t help but get a little more color for my fall garden.

I’ve already taken the caladium tubers indoors for the winter, and had this empty spot. I thought a colorful snapdragon would be great! If it does anything like the snapdragons did at my last house, they should be around for at least a full year of color.

Orange-Purple Snapdragon

They came in a 3 pack, and I also got this pretty pink snapdragon that I placed in the front side yard.

Pink Snapdragon

And also this deep red shade. I desperately wanted a little more color in this bed. I think it’s been looking a little scraggly.

Other snapdragons

Another color I just couldn’t resist was this pink Lobelia cardinalis (pink Cardinal flower).

Pink Lobelia Cardinalis

The red ones are doing so well in the lower garden (and self-seed quite well on their own), that I thought I would try this lovely hot pink color. I’m going to plant it towards the top of the ‘rock slope’ in the back yard. I will either clear out some of the gooseneck loosedstrife to make room for it, or will clear out the grapevine. I was planning on taking out the grapevine anyway as it wants to take over a nearby rose of sharon and choke it out.

Heuchera ‘Fire Alarm’

I also picked up this brilliant Heuchera, called “Fire Alarm”. It’s got a great color and I planted in the side yard, in a deeply shaded spot that needed a little oomph. I’m not entirely sure I like where I planted it though, and may decide it needs to be potted instead. I am excited to have this year-round plant in the garden (at least I think it is here), since this is one type I have not seen in this garden.

Iris Indian Chief

I bought some Iris bulbs too- since this is the only time of year the Iris society sells them and it’s the best time of year for planting. I bought this one bearded Iris called ‘Indian Chief’ and planted it out front. I’m hoping for a little more color in this spot. This is what I hope it will look like next spring:

Courtesy of the Historical Iris Society

I also bought two species of shade tolerant Irises (since I have so much shade). The first is Iris Tectorum. I planted it in the lower garden.

Iris Tectorum

Which will hopefully look like this next Spring:

Courtesy of the Missouri Botanical Garden plant finder

And I also planted Iris Cristata along the driveway, under the Japanese Maple, which should look like this:

Courtesy of the Missouri Botanical Garden plant finder

There were so many beautiful varieties, it was hard not to buy more (but where would they go?).

New plants in pots

But back to fall color- I bought this pretty purple aster and a yellow mum to set each other off in the veggie patch.

Fall in the Veggie Patch

I love how they look with the fairy white asters, and the pink anemones.

Peter II Purple Aster

Here’s a detail of the purple aster – it’s called peter II. I think it’s going to live in the hypertuffa pot where I planted it. I moved out a small phlox that didn’t bloom this year (to another pot) to make room. The mum was also planted in a pot- so that I can move it indoors for the winter. Mums are quite hardy in this area and it would survive outside, but I’m going to do everything I can to see it come back next year.

Plastic Pumpkin Mums

I also got some cheap mums from Lowe’s this year- and put them in some plastic buckets from Target for a ‘Halloween’ decoration for the front porch. I haven’t even re-potted them yet, I just stuck them in the pot with a smaller, empty pot for a spacer. Like so: