White at Night and I'm Not Riding A Bike

How do I go from bashing the electronic gadgets lots of us shlep around in over-sized purses straining necks and shoulders to planting annuals? It's a stretch. But life goes like that. One minute "seriously now folks," the next I've got to take a breather and smell the flowers even though it's ninety something degrees with 43% humidity. Given torrential rains and tornado watches and blistering sun and heat advisories all in the same week, maybe there's something to that guy's prediction? But Honey and I hit the nursery anyway. When the end comes, I want to be on my deck surrounded by flowers with a glass of wine in one hand and the bottle in the other.

After a long, wet spring, it's plant the pots time. Not a very controversial subject--unless you're crazy about mixing many varieties in assorted colors. There I disagree. I used to fool around with a large number of assorted annuals, but now I'm down to the tried and true: geraniums because they love the warm and the cold, continue to bloom throughout Fall and are excellent cut flowers; and petunias because you just need something different and profuse to break up the monotony of geraniums and spill over the sides of the pots. I have only one rule: deck flowers must be white. While the reds, violets and golds fade as darkness falls, white lights up at night when we're around to enjoy the show.

But every rule has an exception. Mine is coleus. Nothing beats mixed coleus for color in deep shaded areas. There would be those that would disagree--the Impatience lovers--but numbered among them are the deer who devour them as soon as you've packed up your planting gear and head back to the garage. No, Impatience is deer candy. Most four legged animals ignore coleus. However, not this two legged one; I like to paint them and do so every year. Unfortunately, yesterday's purchase doesn't move me to get out the brush. I'm missing the green & white leafed variety and the magenta and green variety. I'm not done at the nursery.