November pansies

From Red October to Yellow November.

On my balcony and in the condo courtyard, butter and lemon and touches of red-purple have brightened November's gray days.

I'd like to say this is due to my careful planning, but to be honest, it's because of the limited colour variety at the garden centre earlier this month.

Here are some images of the flowers and grasses in pots in our condo's courtyard garden.

I wonder what colour December will be. I'm thinking white.....lots of white.

Lemon Chiffon

Viola SorbetTM Lemon Chiffon.  An essential ingredient in my autumn hanging basket recipe. If you garden in Zones 4-9 may I suggest you include a generous portion in your next container creation. This yellow beauty will put a little Spring in your Fall, add sunshine to gray November days and -- here's the edible bonus --  sweeten your salads.

This hybrid selection is more tolerant of summer heat and winter cold than the annual pansy types. Excellent for massing, edging, rock gardens, and in containers. Nice for combining with spring flowering bulbs. Trim plants back by half in early June. This variety has little flowers in a range of bright and soft yellow shades. Nice compact habit. Sometimes these will flower all winter in climates with mild weather. (Source)

Tête-à-Tête among the Heuchera

Blooming this week...

...on the hottest days of the summer, Lewisia cotyledon:

My Mom's 'Alba' bloomed in May so this is my second round of enjoying the white flowers and this time, on my own plant.

I'm still doing research on identifying this variety  -- could it be one of the 'Sunset Strain'?

This balcony gardener/designer has inspired me to include alpines among the vegetables. If you have a balcony garden, you MUST visit her site.

Do any readers have favourite soil "recipes" for alpines, especially Lewisia?

Nasty flowers

This is one flower on the first variety of nasturtiums ("nasties") to bloom in my balcony garden. Although they are from the seed packet labeled 'Vanilla Berry', they look more like "banana peel" to me. The nasturtiums are next to a pot of Heuchera 'Obsidian'. The colour combination is quite striking.

Sweet, sweet peas

sweet

Adj. An intensive used to express satisfaction, acceptance, pleasure, excellence, exaltation, approval, awe, or reverence. When used individually, the level of satisfaction expressed is most often directly proportionate to the duration of the vowel sound. Source: The Urban Dictionary

Yes, I agree, describing sweet peas as "sweet" is redundant, but I'm going to use the term because... ... it's so sweet to  inhale the flowers'' delicate scent and cut a few fresh blossoms every couple of days -- even though I have to climb on a ladder to do this -- and even sweeter to share a gardening experiment that worked.  I  had no expectation of success although I did have very high hopes because this flower is a sentimental favourite. My Mom grew the most glorious sweet peas during our family's Manitoba years (the late 1960s).

Sunlight through Sweet Peas. This variety is 'Explorer.'

Some gardening notes to self for next growing season: 

1. Try other varieties. Renee's Garden Seeds has an excellent selection of sweet pea varieties including container varieties.
2. Grow 'Explorer' in pots at deck level and the trailing varieties in the hanging baskets.
3. Follow Renee's tips for success:
   Sowing seeds directly into the garden
   Starting seeds indoors and transplanting
   Secrets to Sweet Pea Success 
4. Grow more sweet peas and fewer nasturtiums. To make room for the sweet peas, I had to give my Mom 75% of the nasturtium seedlings I started.
5. I'm amending #4 to "Grow more sweet peas AND nasturtiums and share the surplus."
6. Immerse myself in the literature on Lathyrus odoratus, especially The Sweet Pea Book by Graham Rice. The Google Books preview includes excerpts on dwarf sweet peas (page 27) and growing sweet peas in containers (page 31). Based on the preview and rave reviews, I added this "beautifully illustrated and poetically written" book to my wish list.