Why I Oughta...

The EPCOT Center annual Flower and Garden Festival is headlined by character topiaries and food booths.  Those are both just lovely.  But, in each of the last few visits we've made down there during the festival, the star(s) of the show (for me) are the bedding annuals that the horticulture team at Disney plant in large, colorful masses all around the park.  Here, below are a few of my favorite views of annual flowers in/around the World Showcase. First is a trio of purple, red and white - all planted in their own colonies: Closer to the Butterfly room, they have this colorful combo: SunPatiens made a big splash: This bed below is mixed with a number of flowering annuals all about the same height: Of course, I couldn't include a roundup of the EPCOT Flower and Garden Festival beds without a look at the UK Pavilion.  I included a similar look from 3 years ago ( 2021 Festival) where they planted a similar red/yellow/purple mixed bed .   These below are my fav...

Earlier this Spring, we came home with a Standing Micky Mouse metal wire topiary frame from the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival and I went ahead figuring out how to acquire the material, stuff the thing, wire it up and plant it with a creeping Fig Vine.  Here's that post from April that shows the steps I took to get it set up initially.   Mickey Mouse topiary spent the first few months of its life on our counter top in the kitchen sitting in a bowl.  I tried to keep it pretty wet and the vine grew just a little bit.  Then, I had a setback with some dieback on the tips of the vine.  I think I let it dry out too much.  Around the beginning of June, I decided to try to move it outside on our back stoop and patio.  After a few days of trying to harden the vine off (I put it out in the shade for a few hours, then brought it back in.  Repeat that process over the course of a week or so, each day adding a little bit of time.), I decided to give i...

Over the years, I've posted about various places that I've found gardening inspiration around the world.  There's the big one - Luxembourg Gardens in Paris - that maybe had the BIGGEST impact on me.  But there's also all of the things I've taken in around Japan including the pretty great Gotenyama Garden and all of their street trees . And, the boxwood hedges outside of the FedEx HQ that have an almost cloud-like form . And the Jacques Wirtz hedges that I've never seen in real life, but love online .  The fountain/pond at the cut flower garden inside the Morton Arboretum .   And, of course, there's Disney Parks. I've posted about their roses, trees and plants many times .  And I've added Disneyland Roses and a Belgian Fence espalier based on what I picked up there.   One of the things that I recently noticed was the color combinations in some of their annual beds.  Let's start with this bed showing off a really great Pooh Bear topiary (he's...

I've been thinking about topiary for a number of years.  I've talked about backyard topiaries - including (recently) the idea of a Block I one and as far back as 2017, I bought a topiary wire (angel) at an Estate Sale and never did anything with it .   It is something that I've included on my to-do lists over the years ( 2019 and 2020 ), but never was able to tackle the project.  I've also set it as #24 on this year's list (topiary), but I've taken a little veer off course. Instead of moving on an outdoor topiary, I've somehow started with a tropical topiary on a stuffed frame. This, too, has been like five years in the making.   Over those five-or-so-years, we've been down to the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival a number of times and EACH TIME we're there, I always pause and pick up a Mickey Mouse-shaped topiary and THINK about buying it.  But, each time, I've put it down.  Either logistics, or impulse control or something.   But thi...