Hypertufa Basket

When my wife finally threw out her broken wicker laundry basket, I knew just what to do.

Mine is a little heavier, but it's going to last longer.

Bog Planter

I know I'm late to the pitcher plant craze, but I've been infatuated with this container of bog plants this spring.  It's the first thing that I look at when I get home from work.  The planter is a two-walled plastic one I picked up on sale last summer.  The plants are almost all from last August's trip to the incredible Rare Find Nursery.  There are five different sarracenias, plus bog asphodel, a small spiranthes orchid, a cardinal flower, and a dwarf cranberry.  

For drainage, we drilled a hole into the inside wall of the planter a couple inches from the bottom.  Since the planter has no drainage hole in the bottom, this allows the bottom couple inches of planting medium to stay moist.  We used a mix of peat moss, decomposed pine needles, and granite chips, with a little sand if I remember correctly, to ensure that the plants were growing in the low fertility medium they need.  We top-dressed the planter with a couple inches of pine needles for the winter, and buried it in the garden up to the rim to help keep the temperature more stable.

detail of sarracenia alata

vaccinium macrocarpon 'Hamilton

sarracenia 'Carolina Yellow Jacket'

About half of the tubes have bugs in them. I was so excited to see a dead mosquito in one.  Only about a million to go...

sarracenia 'Scarlet Belle'

I can't wait until these all bulk up and fill the container.