plantanarchy

[plantanarchy]

hiya! i work in/manage a greenhouse too (maybe half the size of yours i think?) i was wondering if you had any favorite basket or planter combos you made up this year!

i did a few combos i really loved- antique double salmon geranium with a fern and baby tears pilea

peachy keen verbena, double orange superbells, salmon sunpatiens, vista bubblegum petunia, and silver falls dichondra

really im just a sucker for everything in the peach/salmon/coral/pinks

Yeah!! It's hard to remember to take pictures but this year my favorites have been pinks-blue-yellow but also purples with silver.

In total I designed uhhhhh ~350 cone hanging baskets, ~450 planters of varying sizes, 140 big coco fiber baskets, and 50 big moss baskets. Most of those had 10 of each design. So??? Almost 1000 different designs.

So it is tough to choose a favorite lol or remember which was which.

I really like Salvia Icon Blue as a central thriller, then Petunia Miss Marvelous and Dekko Lavender Eye and Lobularia Stream Lavender as fillers, plus Dichondra.

Also I used Big Eeze Geraniums with Dekko petunias again for the big combos and that worked very nicely! Dekkos are a little smaller so resemble Callies but are more vigorous and less aphid-prone. A combo of those with trailing coleus fills in a huge basket well. Also Diamond frost as a filler. Lysimachia sunburst as a trailer.

Bridal Veil and swedish ivy as shade trailers! Spider plants as well! We have stock plants of all three and they grow super wonderfully. For smaller planters, wire vine, though I didn't use much this year.

And my classic and best selling mix is just. Dragonwing begonia, mixed seed impatiens, and ipomea or trailing coleus. I've found that most customers prioritize lots of colors and flowers over anything else in terms of planter design so impatiens mixes are a big seller even though they're pretty basic

Also, I went heavy on the double impatiens this year. I hate them so much they are so messy and dramatic once it gets hot in the greenhouse but they grow fast and fill in so nicely.

If I could get begonias to grow quickly enough, I'd use them, because I feel like they're the real mvp of summer baskets for longevity but unfortunately, I'm growing for looking good pre-Mother's Day. Anything but dragonwings just can't compete in a mixed basket in early spring.

Anyway lol

#greenhouse content

[plantanarchy]

things today: tropical shipment first thing. unloaded it in a thunderstorm. didn't have time to water almost anything but it was meant to rain all day so i thought that would be fine. it didn't rain all day. forgot my sunglasses rip. unpacked and priced all the tropicals with help and then started the effort of moving some down for sale. golf cart cut out on me just as I was starting my second trip. just was chugging along and stalled rip. the boss attempted to fix it but was stumped so no golf cart for restocking. restocking right now is constant. Rip. Switched to restocking by cart. got a $20 tip for moving palm trees (a rarity) but I'm also like. Good God those people spent $1k on palm trees but also were really nice? 28k steps which breaks my record of all time. anyway

#greenhouse content #also i had a few really fun customer interactions and the greenhouse feels reasonable organized #besides the perennials #i truly got some shit together this year which is whacky as someone whos like. in charge???? its just me managing this??? what

[plantanarchy]

well that's a steps record boys

#greenhouse content

[plantanarchy]

ok we officially just filled the new greenhouses to max capacity with the latest tropical shipment. Hopefully things move fast because we have one more lol

[plantanarchy]

it's kinda funny having manual labor type strength because I can lift excessively heavy shit and squat constantly with zero issue but no I cannot do multiple push ups

#it's all core strength babey #push ups take a surprising amount of superficial triceps and biceps that i dont have lol

[plantanarchy]

She's done this twice now and I mean. OK. Yeah it's fine.

#pebble #i also am unsure why i chose to install the fire alarm on the beam #maybe i'll move it

[plantanarchy]

look at this bug she has eyelashes!!!!!!

#a bug.....

[plantanarchy]

Agh. It's that time of year somehow. In just a few weeks, almost all of this will be off in the world in many people's gardens

#greenhouse content

[plantanarchy]

it was so colorful and smelled so nice today in the greenhouse I love it

[plantanarchy]

Hey! I’d like to design an annual hanging basket for full sun, high heat, and a lot of wind. From previous experience most plants can tolerate the wind physically (unless they’re super fleshy and fragile like larger succulents or begonias) but it does dry out the plants and soil pretty quickly even with frequent watering. I was leaning toward Calibrachoa but do you have any other ideas that might be more interesting? Thanks!

I'd say geraniums! A Geranium and Lantana mix would hold up to heat, wind, and drought very well, maybe also with Scaevola as a trailer, then add something like vinca vine, creeping Jenny, dichondra for length.

I mix scaevola, geranium, Lantana in summer mixes often (plus angelonia and Salvia mixed with all three for height in planters)

[plantanarchy]

I'm fond of these mixes this year mostly because they were three in one pre-mixed plugs that I could just chuck in and then add some fillers to and that's the easiest I've ever designed hanging baskets

#greenhouse content

[plantanarchy]

kinda whacky that I gotta like. walk 27k steps while also managing difficult new hires and helping many customers then come home and make a whole dinner and lunches for the next few days for myself. but I did that.

#zzzzzzzzz #i have successfully made TWO meals this week with protein and veggies and carbs and everything #mid-spring insanity

[plantanarchy]

had some challenges with the new waterer at work because she just. could not understand anything I told her to do. I had to have her water the one house I asked her to twice because she left dry stuff while watering wet stuff despite me showing her how to test each plant for water needs and I just. yeah, it's hard! but it feels easy to me. So it's tough to train that sort of thing.

#especially though when she seemed snippy and unwilling to learn #like when i tell you this is what a wet plant feels like versus dry please. feel them. so that you know? #i am trying so hard to be gracious and patient and i have so little grace and patience #greenhouse content

[plantanarchy]

We have nearly filled the new houses this year but I am also now moving stuff out of the new houses constantly. Ground growing hanging basket combos and having somewhere to dump thousands of tropicals is truly a game changer

#greenhouse content #but lots of walking up and down the hill forever rip

[plantanarchy]

I really love this combo i designed this year.... white double impatiens, trailing coleus, diamond frost, bridal veil, and Swedish ivy. I love shade combos with lots of texture

#greenhouse content

[plantanarchy]

[plantanarchy]

He also handed me a big list of requested plants from a country club and was like "what do we have from this list" and it was all specific proven winner annual varieties and colors in huge quantities. Bro. None of those.

spring fundraisers, my enemy