More Annuals for 2014
Nursery News: Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a retail nursery located in Bryn Mawr, PA, specializing in showy, colorful, and unusual plants for shade. The only plants that we ship are snowdrops and miniature hostas. For catalogues and announcements of events, please send your full name, location, and phone number (for back up use only) to carolyn@carolynsshadegardens.com. Click here to get to the home page of our website for catalogues and information about our nursery and to subscribe to our blog.
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Since I revisited the boat planting last post (click here to see those photos), I thought I would also pay a repeat visit to the window boxes I raved about last year. To read my 2013 window box post, click here. They are located at a little market on Main Street in Yarmouth, Maine. I am happy to say that they did not disappoint, but you can judge for yourself:
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Although the plant material and the color combinations are not as wonderfully creative as 2013, I would still be happy to have these window boxes at my house. I hope they have given you some good ideas for your containers.
Carolyn
Nursery Happenings: Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is closed for the summer and will reopen in early September. You can sign up to receive notification emails by sending your full name and phone number to carolynsshadegardens@verizon.net.
Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a local retail nursery in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, U.S., zone 7a. The only plants that we mail order are snowdrops and miniature hostas and only within the US.
If you are within visiting distance and would like to receive catalogues and information about customer events, please send your full name and phone number to carolynsshadegardens@verizon.net. Subscribing to my blog does not sign you up to receive this information.
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CAROLYN'S SHADE GARDENS 
July 14, 2014 at 9:26 pm
I love the variety of flowers and the colors especially the red, white and blue box!!
July 15, 2014 at 9:54 pm
Usually I wouldn’t like red, white, and blue, but this combo managed to retain some subtlety. Carolyn
July 15, 2014 at 7:41 am
They are nicely done. Very pretty.
July 15, 2014 at 9:53 pm
Glad they pleased you. Carolyn
July 15, 2014 at 10:27 am
Such a great reminder that when annually selecting annuals for mixed planters, we all have some years of better success than others. I also observe that the process of selecting plant combinations seems more fun for novice and experienced gardeners alike than making more “permanent” choices for the garden beds. Containers provide such wonderful opportunity to develop skills in composition, color, & texture for both flowers and foliage. And those skills translate to creating better choices when the shrubs and perennial combinations are being considered, too!
July 15, 2014 at 9:52 pm
That’s a great point—you can practice color and texture combinations in containers with annuals before applying what you learn to your in ground garden. Carolyn
July 15, 2014 at 10:41 am
Nice! Someone has a good eye for combinations. I could do the nasturtiums, but the alstroemerias and ferns might make me double check my wallet.
Are the seats there just for relaxing, or do they have good food to go with the flowers?
July 15, 2014 at 9:50 pm
They have very good soup and bread, and we sat at the tables out side while we ate ours and admired the plants. Carolyn
July 15, 2014 at 3:17 pm
They look very cheerful. But I agree that last year they were more surprising.
July 15, 2014 at 9:49 pm
Amazing last year, very nice this year! Carolyn
July 15, 2014 at 9:31 pm
I wish I had window boxes as beautiful. Enjoy your summer.
July 15, 2014 at 9:48 pm
It does take a lot of plants to make them that way. Carolyn
July 15, 2014 at 9:50 pm
I am sure it does, and a lot of upkeep!
July 16, 2014 at 5:17 am
What fantastic window boxes,, they are so colourful and with different textures to the foliage too.
Seeds of Primula aurantiaca are coming on nicely, could you send me an e.mail with your address please so that I can post them to you when they are ready?
July 16, 2014 at 2:03 pm
Pauline, thanks so much for the offer. Do you think I can sprinkle the seeds or do I have to grow them in a pot. I am afraid that I only have time for sprinkling. Carolyn
July 19, 2014 at 8:27 am
I wish more businesses would realize that great landscaping, or even a colorful window box draws customers in, and puts money in the register, no matter the nature of the business.
July 19, 2014 at 5:50 pm
Les, There are studies done I think by UPenn that show this in real numbers. Even planting grass and a tree on a vacant lot raises the property values in the whole neighborhood. Carolyn