Tag: verbena

Phlowers – FOTD/Verbena

On By TimelessladyIn Phlowers4 Comments

I press quite a few flowers over the course of the growing season and verbena is one of my favorites for this craft. I was pleased to find a pinwheel variety this year and can’t wait to see if it will hold its colors. Verbena is easily preserved between the pages of books or in a flower press. The flower is somewhere between the size of a dime and nickel. For small pressed flower arrangements it is irreplaceable. Red is usually a fugitive color in flower pressing, but verbena holds the red color for years. An entry from the Philadelphia Flower Show 1994 hangs on my wall and the verbena still has a bit of red left in its petals.

Verbena comes in a great variety of colors. Red, purple, lavender, fuschia, peach and whites. Just like my new pinwheel variety, new looks are debuted every year.

I don’t plant verbena directly in the ground. Every verbena plant I have is in a hanging basket or pot of some kind because the greatest threat to a long growing season is powdery mildew. I’ve found growing the verbena in pots protects the leaves from this problem for a longer period of time. I’ve read fungicides will work, but usually I just throw the plant away if it becomes diseased.

Verbena is my choice for Cee’s Flower of the Day.

Quick Tip – Tips on Thursday/Perfect Plant Perches

On By TimelessladyIn Quick Tip14 Comments

I enjoy finding new ways to display pots of plants. This year I used a log from the woodpile as a plant stand and three tall stumps, leftovers from our crabapple tree. They look great, but the pots are precarious and easily fall off their perches on a windy day.

I planted the larger terracotta pot first. To keep it stable I hammered a large nail into the stump and lowered the pot onto it through the drainage hole in the bottom.

The plastic planters were not as easy to support. They didn’t have drainage holes; I had to push through the bottom with a pair of scissors. To keep these lighter pots in place I nailed right through the pot into the stumps.

This worked great but meant I needed the ladder to plant the flowers.

I planted varieties that hummingbirds will find nectar in. Pentas, petunias, and verbena will draw both hummers and butterflies. Several other flowers were added for their colors.

“For the want of a nail the shoe was lost,
“For the want of a shoe the horse was lost,
For the want of a horse the rider was lost,
For the want of a rider the battle was lost,
For the want of a battle the kingdom was lost,
And all for the want of a horseshoe-nail.”

― Benjamin Franklin

For the want of a nail my pots would have been lost. Thankfully, it’s unlikely now since I had a few on hand. I’ve also used pencils or dowels to stabilize pots on the ground: Stabilizing Pots on the Ground.

Pressed Flowers and Projects – Vintage and Classic Books

On By TimelessladyIn Pressed Flowers, Projects1 Comment

I treasure my classic books: Little Women, Heidi, The Secret Garden, Grimm’s Fairy Tales and many others. Often, at yard sales, I will find copies of these tales, battered and dog-eared, but still holding promise. I can’t resist these old books. I buy them and take them home to use in craft projects. Recently, I bought a paperback copy of “Little Women.”  A page describing Jo and Meg’s outing to a ball was the perfect background for a pressed flower arrangement of Verbena and Forget-Me-Nots.