One Fun Mum

A clean green mum

Now, this is truly a mum of a different color and I have to say it’s intriguing. Did you take a second glance? Yes, that’s actually a flower and not simply part of the foliage. Once the initial novelty wears off, I think you’ll agree that this bold, clean green holds a wealth of design potential.

 ‘Coleosaurus’—our jumping off point

Up here on the hill we have another one of our Display Gardens—an interest bed we did with coleus as a backdrop. This was new last year: ‘Coleosaurus’—it’s kind of neat: a bicolor burgundy and chartreuse with a pattern in the leaf. We like the strong contrast of the colors so we used it as our jumping off point.

You can see more gomphrena—it’s a nice purple that goes with the coleus backdrop. There’s also ‘Zahara Double Orange’ zinnia and in front, some yellow lantana.

Plant it , forget it, enjoy it!

Now, other than the gomphrena, these are all noted landscape plants that do well in the beds. They’re good, faithful, reliable, money-in-the-bank kind of plants; we don’t have to worry about taking care of them; they kind of take care of themselves. This is our No Touch bed: plant it, forget it, let it go and do its thing. We think it’s handy to know what No Touch can do. This is a very pretty bed—we’re happy with it.

Instant fall color to make life easy

Our glowing ‘Cosmic Mix’ is ready-made for brightening autumn beds and containers. You know we’re fans of mixes—they make life easy, and this one fits right in with all kinds of harvest displays: golden yellow blooms combined with vivid orange and scarlet red. 

These cosmos are dwarfs, reaching only about 12 inches tall, and they’re covered with flowers continuously in late summer and fall. You’ll find that the green, ferny foliage gets nice and bushy and the plants keep a fairly rounded shape. We like to use them at the front of the border—they’re also handy for filling in here and there where we have empty spots.

Containers of ‘Cosmic Mix’ make eye-catching accents for sun to part shade areas; they provide instant fall color for porches, steps, and walkways. To pick up the orange of a nearby pumpkin patch try adding this mix to an autumn combo—the brilliant blooms attract butterflies for added interest.

We grow ‘Cosmic Mix’ in the 4.5-inch pot.