Fertilizer Friday -- Annual Pots and a Few Others

I actually have flowers to show off that I haven't shown in a previous post! I guess that means stuff is really starting to pop, despite a continuing lack of much sunshine (we've had a little), and no heat. We were lucky to just hit 80 on the first day of summer.

I realize I haven't shown my annual containers. I usually plant up quite a few and I just cram them onto my front porch. I don't believe that less is more. Maybe that works with writing, but not with plants.

A couple of months ago, Proven Winners sent me some free plants to trial. There were several different Calibrachoa and Verbena in the package, so I decided to use them in my porch containers. I was originally planning to sow my own annuals, but time got away from me, so this package was most welcome.

This Calibrachoa hybrid, which Proven Winners has named Superbells Grape Punch, was in the package. I planted it with their Verbena called Superbena Royale Peachy Keen.

I cut them back a bit when I planted them (as suggested on their website), and it took them a good few weeks to bulk back up and start blooming again.

Here are a few other Proven Winners that are growing in my porch pots.

Superbells Cherry Star

Superbells Sweet Tart

Superbena Royale Iced Cherry

These Proven Winners plants are new introductions, so new, in fact, that they are not available yet to the general public. They will be available in 2012.

I also have two hanging baskets on the pillars by my porch, but when it came time to plant them up, I had run out of Proven Winners annuals. But I found similar plants, in similar colors. It will be interesting to grow them both this year, and compare them.

Calibrachoa Mini-Famous Compact Orange, Calibrachoa Mini-Famous Lavender Blue, and Lobelia Magadi White

Also flowering in pots on the porch:

Euphorbia Breathless Blush

Zinnia 'Starlight Rose' (grown from seed)

Also flowering out in the garden:

Spirea 'Magic Carpet'

Heuchera 'Snow Angel'

Hypericum 'Albury Purple'

Mimulus aurantiacus 'Apricot' (bought from Annie's Annuals earlier this year)

For lots more flowers from all around the world, check out Tootsie Time's Fertilizer Friday post.

P.S. In the interests of full disclosure, I'm including a pic of the letter that I received with the plants from Proven Winners. The plants were free, and I wasn't told what I could (or couldn't) say about them. You may notice that I haven't included the name of the letter writer. It came from Proven Winners' PR and Brand Development Coordinator, and contained that person's phone number and email address. I'm not publishing that info.

Click to make it bigger so you can read it more easily, you nosy people.