Annuals-Route 30 Sign

Continuing on our annual tour now, we’ll hop across the road and look at what is planted at the base of the large Middlebury College sign across from Admissions.

We decided a while ago that Middlebury College has a lot of signs, and that it would be crazy to plant them all. So, our rule of thumb is simple-one post, no planting, two posts, planting. That only leaves the large Middlebury College signs anyway, and this one is visible enough to be worthy of annual plants, in additon to my ubiquitous Black Eyed Susans (more on those when they are in bloom).

Three plants here, all Proven Winners. (great insider industry joke I heard at a trade show once, “Who proved them and what did they win?”) Once again, I went the supertunia route, this time Royal Velvet, a dark purple. The supertunias have a good flower size, so cars flying past will still see them. Route 30 isn’t a place to be subtle. And now, they aren’t the Middlebury dark blue. There is no such flower color. Believe me, I’ve looked. That’s why my only option is to play off the blue in these locations with bright yellows, such as…

Bidens Solaire Yellow. While this is a small flower size, seemingly breaking my rule of large flowers next to busy traffic, this is such a prolific bloomer all summer that one can’t even miss it at 60 MPH. (slow down!) Also in the same bed is a very pale yellow, Vanilla Butterfly Marguerite Daisy. Great in containers, or nice massed together. Ridiculous quote on the back of this Proven Winner tag-“I am greater than the SUM of my POT.”

Leave a Reply