My gardens are planted primarily with perennials and reseeding annuals. I fill in the "empty" spots with a few annuals from a garden center. My favorites are the wax begonias. They come with many variations in foliage color, are always covered in blooms that don't require dead-heading, seem happy in both shade and sun, and tolerate the feast or famine rainfall that characterizes central Alabama summers.
This year, I decided to try out two new (for me) annuals as fill-in flowers.
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| Torenia |
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The first one I chose is torenia. Although it is "officially" a shade loving flower, mine get some hot afternoon sun. They are exceeding all my expectations. They have been covered with blooms since the day I brought them home, require no dead-heading, and went through the June/July dry spell with only a few splashes from my hose. I will definitely be using more of them in the future.
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| Riviera Midnight Blue Lobelia |
Not so successful was my attempt to grow lobelia. I was originally drawn to their dainty, dark blue flowers and foliage. I only purchased one cell pack, planting them around a white water bowl that I put out for the birds. I envisioned how lovely it would look to see the white bowl surrounded by the striking blue flowers. However, no amount of compost and regular watering produced any growth from these plants. Two of them died shortly after planting and the remaining two plants still look pretty much like they did when they came out of the little cell pack. I won't be trying this annual next year.
my attempts in the past with lobelia were that it tends to not care for the hot days of summer. it flourished as a spring/early summer plant in a container but hot summer turned it to toast. they are beautiful when they are happy.
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