I've seen pictures of beautiful containers that have shorter love lies bleeding in them. Can they be pinched back as they grow to keep them short enough to use? I don't want to end up with monsters in the middle of my containers. Has anyone tried using them and what were the results? Thanks!
Joanne
Edited to say: The attached picture is from a site selling the LLB, not my container. Sorry for the confusion!
This message was edited May 5, 2008 3:12 PM
I love Love Lies Bleeding and used it in a truck planter last year. It bloomed for quite a while, but then bit the dust. Most likely because there wasn't a whole lot of dirt in the container, mostly sphagnum moss. This is just an idea to show you how I used it myself. Mine were very upright and I only used one 4" pot of them with the rest of my plants.
Love your planters! It doesn't look like it got too tall for the arrangement. I'll give it try and see what happens. Was the LLB always pink or did it fade with time?
Joanne
Thanks. It stayed pink and I don't remember the blooms hanging quite as much as yours. I do love that plant and while I was outside watering just now, I found what I think is one of them in a pot that also has bell peppers growing (all leftovers from last year).
This is a major bonus for me because I am determined NOT to spend any money on blooming plants this year. I really blew the plant budget out of the water the past few years. So far the only thing I've bought this year has been herbs and today I bought some vegetable plants to start a veggie garden. Each day I get a new surprise of things that are coming back. Yeah!!!
Good luck with your plantings and be sure to post some photos when you decide. We all love photos. :-)
Janet
Janet, remember warning me about the bridal veil? Well look out for the LLB. I planted it 4 years and have been pulling up MEGA volunteers ever since. I think amaranth is the biggest self seeder on the planet...at least 1,000 times more so than cleome. I keep 1/2 dozen of the purple amaranth every year cuz it's just so darn beautiful. But those dozen plants produce (literally) millions of offspring each year.
Sorry...didn't mean to take away from your question Netwiz. That container looks gorgeous, but I wanted to give you all a friendly head's up on the excessive self-seeding.
Just to clarify, the picture I posted was from a seed site hawking the seeds for LLB. I was hoping to find out if they would actually look that nice in a container. Everything I read says they grow up to 5 feet tall and that's not what their picture shows. Hope I didn't confuse anyone :)
Joanne
P.S. And thanks for the heads up about the reseeding. I have enough thugs in my garden to contend with already. I already have sprouts so now I'll have to decide what to do with them.
This message was edited May 5, 2008 3:14 PM
I've been too scared to try LLb because of the seeding issue and warnings from real gardeners, but that container is very cool! It must have been pinched, pinched, pinched!!! But more artistically than I would do. More like TomTom does. Or a bonsai person who does it for relaxation or something. I guess what I'm saying is that I bet a regular person didn't pinch that and have it look like that.
Suzy
"because of the seeding issue and warnings from real gardeners."
Er. Is that an insinuation that I'm not a real gardner?
LOLOLOL!
...........you nut! You are one of the real gardeners, as opposed to seed companies trying to sell the seed, Natch!
I took a shot of this planter a few years ago at Missouri Botanical gardens. I thought that Love Lies Bleeding added such a unique architectural interest.
Very nice! Much taller than I originally thought it would be but very beautiful. I have a ton of sprouts and figure I'll try several different arrangements to see what looks good. Thanks for the picture!
Joanne
