Garden Photo of the Day

Summer scenes from Carla’s garden in Connecticut

Heucherella 'total eclipse', Persian shield (Strobilanthes dyerianus), and teucrinum in front of a box of assorted kales.  

We’ve visited Carla Wheaton’s (cwheat000) garden just up the road from me in Connecticut a few times (HERE, HERE, and HERE), but I thought this new batch of colorful photos she sent me in January (from last summer) would be perfect for brightening our spirits today. Is it just me, or is this winter lasting FOREVER? I’m hankerin’ for some SPRING! Thanks, Carla, for this cheerful ray of hope.

Perilla ‘Magilla’, dark leaf dahlia ‘Sunshine’, and coleus I forgot the name of. 

It’s almost SPRING, people! I know you’re going through your photos from last year, planning what you’ll do differently this year. Send some of those photos in to me! [email protected]

20 feet of cosmos seeds that were supposed to be all orange/yellow, but I like the happy accident  
large pot Brugmansia ‘Miners Claim’, thread leaf buckthorn ‘Fine Line’, Lysimachia nummularia ‘Aurea’, and yellow calibrachoa 
My love-in-a-mist seeds took! 
‘Lime Green’ flowering tobacco 
Afew dahlias, petunias, and silver plectranthus still hanging on in October (also perennial mum ‘Bolero’.)
Photo/Illustration: All photos courtesy of Carla Wheaton
Earlier in the season 
David Austin rose ‘Golden Celebration’. I wish you could smell this one. 
‘Catherine Woodbury’ daylily, purple perilla, a variegated sedum, pink petunias, orange asgastache. 
A little like an office park planting, but a vast improvement over waist-high weeds. Only took a few hours and 40 bucks and I have a new space in the spring, like I need one!  

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Comments

  1. perenniallycrazy 03/10/2014

    I am so,loving your color and texture combos Carla! What a bright and cheery garden - just what I need to jumpstart the week. Have a good one!

  2. user-1020932 03/10/2014

    Carla, your place is always snazzy. great colors, plants, combos all of it. hands down my favorite photo is the one of the mailbox legs :) i love that one!

  3. flowerladydi 03/10/2014

    It is charming Carla,,, Love all the color and combinations,,,, the cosmos are great!,,, so whimsical and fresh! The new mailbox bed is great!,, who doesn't need more are to plant!,, it all looks great!,,,and such cute mailboxes!!!
    Thanks!

  4. User avater
    meander_michaele 03/10/2014

    Great series of pictures, Carla, and the one with the golden orb of Cosmos is just what I need as I get used to the time change...it's like the bright happy sun that still isn't up and shining in spite of it being 7:45 in the morning. I love how the purple perilla sets off the Catherine Woodbury dalily...the perfect backdrop to make "Catherine's" soft luminescence really glow.
    Do you direct sow the seeds of the Cosmos and Love in the Mist? I must be braver about deliberately attempting to grow things from seed. I'm always quite appreciative when Mother Nature lends a helping hand with certain returning annuals or biennials.

  5. User avater
    Tim_Zone_Denial_Vojt 03/10/2014

    Such great plants and garden. I was going to say that my favorite thing is the large hitching stone, but like Jeff, I am quite charmed by the hidden observer with the floppy bunny in the last photo!

  6. mainer59 03/10/2014

    I love love love your close-ups showing your marvelous use of color, and have the past posts to see how they fit into your over all scheme. The brightness of many call to me, but I equally like the fern and nicotiana. Kudos on the love in a mist success. Mine did not germinate last year, but I can try again as I used only 1/2 the seed package. I failed, I think, because I seeded too late. They need a period of cold. Hey, I could put the seeds in the fridge right now. Planting outdoors for me is out of the question right now since the garden is snow covered and I have no idea were the seeds would land: lawn, hardscape or garden.

  7. tractor1 03/10/2014

    Great plants, very healthy looking! My favorite is the 4th down on the left, that meteorite with the sunlight striking it and all the flowers just right, and a perfect angle with that patch of sky. Is that an ET hitching a ride in that hole, or? I also envy your antique water pump, is that an operational well? Thank you, Carla, for brightening this grey skyed Monday.

  8. pattyspencer 03/10/2014

    Beautiful and bright and charming. The flowers in the 2nd row - 3rd down - are those zinnias? The magenta color is beautiful

  9. greengenes 03/10/2014

    Good morning! Well Carla,cweat000, [iam trying to remember everyones site names] anyway it is so nice to see flowers blooming for sure! I went back to the other three postings of last year and I must say, Carla, you have such a wonderful place! I love the freedom the plants seem to have to blow and be tall and just show off their colors. What a great place for your child to grow up in! Does she like to help out and enjoy growing things? I like you comment on the new space pic! Like you need one, right?! Iam that way too. Every year I say that iam not going to make any new beds but I get this creative sap going thru me and I end up making one because there is a new discovery of a plant I want..and I seem to always find an excuse to do one.. Iam at the place now where I need help with our beds. We just cant get enough of this great gift of gardening! Iam so looking forward to this years pics of your beautiful place! Thanks so much!

  10. wildthyme 03/10/2014

    Carla, these colors are wonderful and just what we need this morning in the dark, cold, and wet! I really like the color of that David Austin rose, and apparently the scent is also great? I'm stymied by the burgundy flowers. They look like dahlias, but the foliage looks like chrysanthemum, and the interloper looks like a zinnia!

  11. GrannyMay 03/10/2014

    So nice to wake up to sunny colours and cheery combinations! Golden Celebration is one of my favourite David Austin roses too, always beautiful and amazingly fragrant! Thanks Carla!

  12. Wife_Mother_Gardener 03/10/2014

    The rose is my favorite! Thanks for sharing!

  13. CJgardens 03/10/2014

    Carla,
    Beautiful colors and combinations to enjoy on this winter morning (although our snow is finally starting to melt.)I love the perilla with the daylily; plan to copy that combo. I was surprised to see the nicotiana with the other shade loving plants. I always thought of it as a full sun plant. So is it growing that well in partial shade? I looked back at your previous photos and they're all beautiful (especially the peonies.) Your yard is colorful year round. Thanks for sharing more photos.
    Carol Jean

  14. cwheat000 03/10/2014

    Good morning everyone!I am so glad I checked my email this morning. My laptop is on the fritz so I have only been accessing my email with my phone. I think I have missed a few good posts. Thank you for all the encouraging words. tnttreeman,Those mailbox legs actually helped me plant that space( with a little extra patting down of the soil by mom). Meander1, thanks as always for your beautiful words, and yes those seeds were direct sown, as well as cleome and a few others. With my growing confidence, i think I will try others. Vojt, I too fell in love with the hitching posts when i moved in. There are several here. Mainer59, I am trying to remember, but I think i planted the love-in-a-mist when it was still chilly outside. Tractor1, I am suprised that photo turned out as well as it did, being taken at midday. the antique pump is fully operational and we tested the water. It is drinkable. When we moved in, my husband realized he drank from that pump, years ago. He would run past it, with his high school track team. Pattyspencer and wildthyme, those are all dahlias. There is a perennial mum in there that is not blooming in that pic. Wifemothergarder and grannymay,after smelling the old english roses, I must get more. Greengenes, thank you and the little one is definitely getting into gardening, or at least getting muddy.

  15. GrannyCC 03/10/2014

    Wonderful colour combinations. Looked back at your other posts and obviously your garden is a riot of colour and scent throughout the seasons. Spring is at last starting here on Vancouver Island.

  16. sheila_schultz 03/10/2014

    Carla, it's always obvious how much you love flowers in your gardens, you're surrounded by color! Your photos always make me smile... and they are just the inspiration I needed to head out the door do a little spring cleaning in my own gardens this morning. 70's today, snow tomorrow ;)
    Two ???'s... any chance Cosmo seeds would grow if I just tossed them in the air and let them fall where they may? Real legs? (I may need to go find a mannequin at goodwill!)

  17. cwheat000 03/10/2014

    Cl gardens, I don't the nicotiana would normally work with the hellebore and ferns. However,you can't tell by the pic, but it gets more sun than the other two. The hellebore and ferns get their shade from the arching branches of a mock orange and the nicotiana sticks

    out more in the sun.

  18. GardenersWK 03/10/2014

    Love the combinations you sent in today! I now have two new plants on my list for this spring: the two perilla that I never grew before! Love the foliage on that plant. I am also ready with my annual seeds this year and more excited now that I saw your results! Cosmos, zinnias, larkspurs and Love in the mist to compliment the existent nicotiana and cleomes that I had success with every year.
    Thanks for today's pictures and plant names! Send more pictures from last year that we did't see! I know that you are holding back!

  19. Meelianthus 03/10/2014

    Hello Carla ~ I am in ahhhhh of your beautiful flowers. You certainly have a great charm with all of the colors. I especially liked the subtlety of the nicotiana and the fern pictured together. Your new little garden out in front will be quite charming, don't you just love to find 'new spaces' to garden! Unfortunately I have none left. I also enjoyed looking back at your past photos - that is always fun and they were so refreshing. Thank you.

  20. grannieannie1 03/10/2014

    Your photographs are so sharp and clear: beautiful job.
    I especially like the boulder picture that has the little seed heads of ? a grass? mixed in with cosmos: wonderful textures. And I too would like to smell that rose of yours.

  21. cwheat000 03/11/2014

    Grannycc,shielaschultz, still snow on the ground here, but some is melting. Your commentsgarden made me smile. Yes shiela, cosmo seeds are that easy. Gardenerswk, i am excited to try zinnias this year too. Warning, the purple perilla reseeds very easily. I love it, some do not. I like the new combos it creates each year and i find it easy to pull out where i don't want it. The perilla magilla is well behaved. Grannyannie they are the seed heads of a switchgrass called heavy metal. And thank you meelianthus and everyone for the kind feedback.

  22. GardenSmiles 03/11/2014

    Hi Carla, Totally enjoyed going thru all your posts to view your beautiful garden! You are a very ambitious young lady, your little girl is so sweet in the tree on a previous post. You are making memories together. You have a lovely neighborhood and it's great to see it preserved so well. Love your rock walls and rock foundation on your home (previous posts). Is that a contorted filbert tree in your yard by the house? We have one that's burgundy in our small lawn area. Sun Gold cherry tomatoes are our favorite cherry tomatoes, they are like candy. Try to find a few, they produce very well and your little girl will love them. Ajugas are one of our favorite groundcovers and so many different varieties. I like the fact that they are easy to control and great to share. We have snow here today in SD but not too cold, great moisture. Enjoyed several warm days and more to come! Our tomatoes, peppers and zinnias are now growing in our sunroom, warmest spot in our little house!

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