An interest growing like a weed

Over the span of a few shifts, I collected plants from the perennial and annual departments and tucked it away on the flat with my name on it. Customer Appreciation Day, a twice-annual event that takes place in May, means 20% of everything in the store (including stuff already discounted!) So, with a fresh paycheque burning a hole in my pocket and ideas forming fresh in my mind, I kept a keen eye out for how I'd want my next planter to look. And after going in yesterday before I started my shift to pick it all up, I finally got those puppies into a planter and, well, I'm pretty proud of how it all looks:



My thriller in this is the Cordyline Australis, that dark brown spiky plant in the middle. There's a dark-leafed heuchera in the back corner, a Hens and Chicks plant in front of it (the spiky succulent plant), Coleus in front of that (the tiny red-and-lime green variegated leaves), and an assortment of morning glories, begonias and impatiens as the fillers. Lastly, for my spiller, I've got Baltic Ivy diagonal from the heuchera that'll spill over the sides of the container in no time.

My mom, who I took shopping with me, kept giving me suggestions. 'You need a potato vine,' she said, 'to add in that punch of colour. Right now your colours a little monochromatic and drab.' Gee thanks, Ma. That was sort of my intention! Usually I go all in for mixing colours but this time, I wanted to step out of my comfort zone and play around with shades and textures instead of complementing colours and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

I also planted a few things in a hanging basket and while it looks fairly sparse right now, it won't in a few weeks:



With hanging baskets, the formula of 'thrillers, fillers and spillers' should be abandoned because a) hangers tend to be too small to accommodate it, b) it's too high to see the full effect of the arrangement, and c) there's the risk of the thriller bumping into the ceiling. So, what I did was centre the basket with an Ajuga Dixie Chip and surrounded it with a yellow marigold, a couple of begonias, and some morning glories to fill it all out.

And as much as I love seeing the growth of plants, of seeing their little leafy heads poking through and expanding, I am antsy with excitement over how it'll look when it's fleshed out.