Container plantings for some color.

After several nice days of enjoying the sun and some temperatures in the low 60's we ended up with a rainstorm that brought the amount of rain in one day that we normally get for the whole month of May.  The upside to it was that it watered many of the seedlings that are finally sprouting and kept the newly planted containers watered.  Normally I have planted most of my containers by now, but I wasn't feeling very inspired too because it had been so cool.  But my inspiration arrived at the beginning of last week when my winnings from a giveaway from Heather at Dusty Bay arrived.

Heather hosted a contest by Proven Winners and the winner (lucky me) won $100 worth of Proven Winners annuals.  The plants came packed really well, each huge and flowering 4 inch pot was individually wrapped in brown paper.  The whole box and wrappings went right into the recycle which I loved, many mail orders plants come with plastic and packing peanuts.  Every plant was healthy and loaded with flowers.  I was sent Calibrachoa Superbells 'Blackberry Punch', Euphorbia 'Diamond Frost', Lobularia 'Snow Princess', Mecardonia 'Gold Dust', Supertunias 'Vista Bubblegum', 'Royal Velvet' and 'Pretty Much Picasso'.  I've bought their plants many times at nurseries, but after seeing the great quality the mail order ones were I wouldn't hesitate to mail order from them either.

My husband and I had lots of fun planting our new flowers in all the containers I've been collecting.  This is a small galvanized washtub we found at a flea market.

A row of containers between the two big beds in the front yard.

The large washtub I found at an antique mall awhile ago full of water garden plants.  Two of the plants are just emerging but will be tall with flowers later in the summer.  I'll share pictures of how this changes during the seasons.

This year I decided rather than buying a hanging fuchsia already planted I'd make my own using the starts I found at a grocery store.  I love how this hanging basket looks compared to the plastic or pulp pots I usually find them in.

I went outside to find my husband planting this shade container by himself, usually I do all the containers and he helps carries them to where I ask him to put them.  Now if I could just find him outside weeding one day I'd really be happy!

You can see how huge the plants were by how they already fill out the window boxes.  Normally I fill them full of lots of different flowers, this year there was only room for three each.  One day I'm hoping my husband will build a wood window box for this window.

I still have several planters to fill and others that are still holding on from last year, but the now there are lots of spots of color until the perennials finally get a chance to start blooming.

All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.