The red, white, and blue at 1082

Awhile ago while at Target [love that store!], I was browsing their dollar section [love that section!] and stumbled upon these cute, little metal containers.  They were all different bright colors, and had star designs punched out of the sides.  I bought three-a red, white and blue one-with the intention of putting cute flowers in them for the steps out front.  My vision?  Red in the red, white in the white, and blue in the blue!

Sounds easy, right?  Well...if you know anything about flowers, you know that finding a blue flower small enough to fit into a 2-cup planter is like trying to find a trowel in a haystack.  Not as hard as finding a needle, but challenging enough.  But I was determined to plant the appropriate color plants in my newly made planters!
In all honesty, I would have loved to have had the same type of flower in all three planters.  When I walked into Linvilla, my eyes were graced with beautiful impatiens [on sale, too!].  They are great spring/summer plants-small, colorful petals, plentiful blooms, and long lasting.  As I walked in, I immediately saw crisp whites and beautiful shades of red.  But alas, blue was not going to be found in the impatiens section.  I immediately realized this would be a lot harder than I thought, and should probably begin with the blue flowers.

The Blue

After about 10 minutes of perusing Linvilla's Garden Center [which I highly recommend if you have not seen it already!]; I realized the closest I was going to get to blue was a deep violet/purple, or a pastel, on the lavender side of blue.  I also was restricted by the size of my planter.  Finally, I found the little Hawaiian Blue that was a nice, small bloom and a relatively "blue" blue.  Once I planted it in the blue planter, I knew I had selected the perfect plant!

After the blue was found, I decided to go for different plants in each planter!!  

The Red

I did stop back by the impatiens for the red flower, as they were beautiful and bright, and small enough for the planter.  Since I had a lighter blue, I wanted a red that was not the traditional red.  I found it in beautiful cranberry colored impatiens.  I also didn't notice that the red planter had a different star pattern on the outside--too cute!








The White

I spotted these flowers while looking for the blue ones.  Different from the others, which are larger individual flowers, these little guys are small and adorable.  The shape of the petals is a nice change from the larger impatiens, and a nice transition with the Blue Hawaiian.  I am hoping that it will spill over the container and be just beautiful.







All together they made for a very cute display of gardening and patriotism.  They are near the patriotic pansies, and a small American flag was placed in the lavender plant up top, to bring it all together.  Thanks to Picnik for helping me make the photo luscious!

Happy Memorial Day!!

One love,
Sara :)