The summer season for the containers is almost over and for some of them it is none too soon. I won't be doing the change outs until the second week of October so there is still time for the cool weather to help the plants restore their energy and maybe put out another burst of blooms, but I wanted to start telling you how the plants fared.
In the next few postings I'll share the successes and failures but I can safely say that no amount of cooler weather is going to help the Sunpatiens. What a disappointment they have been....and a constant worry all summer.
A lot of you are probably saying I was crazy to even use them but the grower raved about them and I was excited to try something different. But an impatiens is an impatiens no matter what other name you want to call it....they hate the heat and love water, lots of it. I tried three different colors: white, coral and fuschia. The white one had the most shade during the day and did the worst -- constantly drooping. The coral and fuschia were in all day sun and while the fuschia did droop when regular watering was missed, the coral never showed stress like the others.
That said, none of them ever got to the full size quoted -- 2 feet by 2 feet. And they were given regular doses of fertilizer. Admittedly, the white was sharing a container with an aggressive coleus but it did have its chance to win the race early.
So where is the Sunpatiens? Between the coleus and the sweet potato vine -- hiding -- as well it should, pitiful thing.
But thank goodness for the assertive coleus and the aggressive vine -- they made this container in front of Perk coffee shop look down right impressive.
The vinca is hanging in there, trying to make a showing but it was no match for the other two.
The container with the fuschia Sunpatiens lost one of the three original plants to a fungus a couple weeks ago so it really looks sad -- so sad that I didn't have the heart to take a picture. Guess I should just to remind me of what NOT to plant next year.
This coral Sunpatiens planted with purple Homestead verbena did pretty well all summer but they have both stopped blooming so it is nothing to write home about either.
Lesson learned -- don't even think about planting something in these containers that is a water hog.
On a positive note, the containers with caladiums and dragon wing begonias are strutting their stuff and would keep on going right up to the first hard frost if I could let them stay. I'll write about them in the next posting, but check the real thing on the streets. The map in the tab at the top of the blog will help you find out where they are -- love that map.
