SPRINGTHYME IN THE GARDEN!!!
Spring has finally arrived! Temperatures may still be a little on the chilly side! Here are 7 cold tolerant annuals for Spring!
Are you curious about cold tolerant annuals for Spring gardening? I would love to introduce you to several of my favorites!
As an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases
Know Your Zone
6 of my Favorite Cold Tolerant Annuals for Spring:
Snapdragons
Petunias
Dusty Miller
Dianthus
Dianthus & Pansies
Geraniums
Nemesia
How to Design a Patio Pot with Cold Tolerant Annuals
3 of My Favorite Cold Tolerant Annuals
For Spring, I like to design a pink themed cold tolerant patio pot. The first step is to add potting mix to a 12″ terra cotta pot that I had given a makeover with white Chalked paint.
When designing a patio pot, I try to use the thriller, spiller, filler technique. The thriller is the focal point. The spiller is a plant that will grow or spill over the edge and filler is the plant or plants that fills in the empty spots. For my pot, the petunias are actually filling both the filler and the spiller category.
In order to get a full look right away, I used quart sized containers of snapdragons and petunias. The dusty miller was in a 4-inch pot and I also used another annual called bacopa which is also spiller. Because I used larger plants to start with and I live in Florida, I will probably have to transplant this color pot into a larger pot in about a month.
I placed the snapdragon to the back of the container. Then I added the petunias to the front. These petunias are the Proven Winners Bubble Gum Vista petunias. To learn a little more about Proven Winners and their petunias, please check out this blog post.
After adding the dusty miller and the bacopa, I filled in around the plants with extra potting soil. To finish the color pot, I added sheet moss on top in order to help keep the moisture in.
The Early Spring Color Pot in the Garden
A Pink Themed Patio Pot with Cold Tolerant Annuals
The light is so bright, you can barely see the rustic bunny peeking through the blossoms! You can see the detail on him better in this photo!
and this one as well!
Patio Pots & European Dish Gardens
One of my very favorite things to do is to design using combinations of blooming and green plants. When these combinations are for outdoors, they are called patio pots or color pots. If they are going to be used inside your home and they are left in their original containers and grouped together in a basket or similar type container, they are called European Dish Gardens. Here are some links to other blooming plant combinations I have designed.
Yellow Rose European Dish Garden to Brighten Your Day!
Extreme Makeover Home Edition Philo, IL Sept 2009
Other Garden Related Posts you Might Enjoy
How to Design A Hanging Geranium Basket
Introduction to Dessert Herbs Part 1
Early Spring Blooming Plant Centerpiece
An Easter Poinsettia?
A week or so after Christmas last year, I brought this Peach Glitter Poinsettia outside and placed it in the back of this extra-large pot of Diamond Frost. The poinsettia did remarkably well outside! It was still going strong at Valentine’s Day and I wondered if it would make it to Easter! and it did! Now, I wouldn’t recommend doing this in zones lower than 10a but for those of you living in Florida, putting your poinsettias outside really extends their life!
Thanks for joining me today!
Shopping links:
This is the sheet moss I like to use to top dress my patio pots & European Dish Gardens
these are a smaller container than I used but the same color
This is a set of 6 pots similar to the ones I used in the Extra Large Dough Bowl centerpiece.
Denise/My Home of All Seasons says
Great post Kim! This is always such a hard time for me here in Colorado. It’s been beautiful weather this weekend so all I want to do is get out there and plant! I will do some small pots of pansies that I can move inside and out for awhile. Thanks for the tips as I had no idea snapdragons were so hardy. Have a wonderful week ahead!
Kimberly Snyder says
Thank you, Denise! It is so hard to resist the temptation of starting to pot or plant once the temperatures start to warm up! I love pansies! Thanks for stopping by! have a wonderful week yourself!