Hot colors, sleeping woman

Finally, I got the patio pots planted. Some of those bedding plants had been on my porch for so long their roots had wound aroung the bottoms of the containers. I had to wield the scissors to cut and pry them out. These are my "hot" color pots. I want to see some pizazz when I walk out the back door and the pots are in my direct line of view. The tall yellow plant is Euryops, mixed with grocery-store zinnias, Laguna White lobelias, and a calibrachoa.

More of the same in another pot. See how the leaves have yellowed in the center of the white lobelia? I tried to tidy them up but it soon became obvious I'd have a plant with no leaves.

This is a broken strawberry pot. I have lots of broken clay pots, I just turn the broken parts to the back so only my neighbor sees them. You can see where I tried to reinforce the top with a piece of leather shoelace. That's annual Gypsophila "Gypsy" in the pockets. I usually put bright blue lobelia in there but decided to throw caution to the winds and try something else. Also I couldn't find the bright blue, only the dark blue.

This is the view of my hot colors "Mexican" corner. My dinky pond is in the background. I've given up putting fish in there as the raccoons will come snack on them at least twice each week. I bought a big plastic turtle that "swims" in the pond when you press a button. The grandchildren should like that.

The big plant on the left is common mullein (Verbascum). The birds sow this all over and I always hope I get lucky and a couple will sprout somewhere other than in the middle of the path. This one almost made it. The path is just a little narrower now. Mullein is probably a noxious weed in Colorado but I can't help but reap what the birds sow. And it's no wonder they do, one mullein can produce up to 180,000 seeds per plant and the seeds remain viable for 100 years. How do you beat odds like that? It comes full circle for the birds though. By the end of the summer they're busy swaying back and forth on the tall seedheads gleaning their breakfast.

The grasses in the pot are Stipa, or Korean Feather grass. I love to see the light shine through these early in the morning or at the end of the day. The silky tips of the grass look frazzled which remind me of how my hair looks sometimes when I wake up. It's amusing on the grass, but not on me.

Here's the sleeping woman. I bought this head at a garage sale a long time ago and each year she's lost parts of herself to frost and ice. Now she's only half what she used to be so I put her to sleep with her head resting on the groundcover. Not so sure the grandchildren will like this. Even I think it's a little creepy. Her "thyme" may have come.