What a Beauty!
Now that I am not frenzied over finishing our little yard project, I wanted to talk a little bit more about why I chose those specific plants for our front yard plant bed. I will once again plug the great site of Floridayards.org because most of the deciding factors came from the information I found on that website. Here is a rundown of the plants we decided to use:
Angelonia
Love the delicate, white flowers
At first, my thought process was to get a plant that resembled Lavender, but needed less care and could easily grow in the harsh environment of our sandy, semi-dry, sun-scorching, front yard plant bed. Angelonia met all the requirements and at the last minute I decided I wanted the white variety instead of the purple. We already have a lot of purple in our whole yard and so I wanted to spice things up with…….White! At Lowe’s, they described Angelonia as an annual, but on this site it said it can survive winters in zones 9 and 10, so I am hoping that with the right care in the Winter time, it will last for a while.
Blanket Flower
Can be used in bouquets
This Yellow/Orange Perennial is also great for the harsher conditions of our plant bed and it also is used in bouquets, which means I can clip some of these flowers for pretty bouquets inside of my house! It is supposed to grow and naturally be a bit shorter than the Angelonia, growing to a max height of 2 feet.
Marigold and Vinca
Vinca and Marigold
I chose a yellow Marigold and placed it closest to the door, in hopes that it’s mosquito deterring fragrance would help keep those blood-sucking creatures away from the door.
Vinca are a common, easy to maintain flower that add a little pop of pink to the area and compliment the white and yellow flowers in the rest of the plant bed.
Celosia
Unique Flowers
This is an annual that I didn’t research, but while at the store, my husband really liked them and so we got them. I looked them up after arriving at home and found that they are used in bouquet and dried arrangements. They grow up to 2 feet tall, so it shouldn’t interfere with the look of the plant bed as a whole.
Purslane
Blooms Yellow Flowers
This is a flowering plant we actually found growing in our yard and then saw what is when we were looking for other plants at our local home improvement store. It is edible and it grows really fast, so it is great as a ground cover for our little plant area.
Red Fountain Grass
This will be replaced with Lemongrass
I took a little clipping from our other Red Fountain Grass plant in hopes that it would grow, but you actually have to divide it from a piece of the roots, so this is a dead plant standing ;) But it is good because I decided that I want to divide my Lemongrass instead and have it aid in the whole mosquito repellent concept.
