Sizzling Summer Combos

Anything Goes: Sizzling Summer Combos

Think big and think anything goes. These days, don’t limit yourself: create colorful mixed plantings with annuals and perennials, and be sure to mix foliage and flowering varieties. This wider range of choices allows more flexibility in color themes and in seasonality. Every year, Ball Horticultural Company features varieties and combinations in our West Chicago, Illinois Trial Gardens. The examples in this article are plantings from the 2017 Hillside Garden in the Gardens at Ball. These are large format containers that highlight different varieties of plants that grow well together. Be sure to visit the Gardens at Ball on Field Day & Landscape Day 2018 to find even more design ideas for ideal landscape plants. Sign Up Today!

Anything Goes: Sizzling Summer Combos

Archangel™ White Angelonia

AngelMist® Spreading Bluebird Angelonia

AngelMist® Spreading White Angelonia

Archangel™ Purple Angelonia

Archangel™ Dark Purple Angelonia

Archangel™ Raspberry Angelonia

AngelMist® Spreading Series and Archangel™ Series Angelonia

Angelonia offers a heavenly addition to mixed plantings. It stands up to extreme heat, humidity and drought, and is easy to grow: no need to prune or deadhead. And, as a bonus, it attracts butterflies. Low-growing AngelMist Spreading Angelonia makes a unique groundcover or filler/spiller addition to containers. Archangel provides more height, with the largest blooms of any angelonia series.

AngelMist® Spreading Angelonia

Height: 9 to 12 in. (23 to 30 cm)
Spread: 12 to 20 in. (30 to 51 cm)
Exposure: Sun

AngelMist®

Archangel™ Angelonia

Height: 12 to 14 in. (30 to 36 cm)
Spread: 10 to 12 in. (25 to 30 cm)
Exposure: Sun

Archangel™

ColorRush™ Series Petunia

For big garden performance and vigor, add the vibrant bubble gum pink and dark blue cascading blooms of ColorRush Petunias to baskets, containers and pots for sensational color accents. These beauties hold up in heat and rain, from Spring through Summer!

Height: 10 to 12 in. (25 to 30 cm)
Spread: 24 to 36 in. (61 to 91 cm)
Exposure: Sun

ColorRush™ Pink Petunia

ColorRush™ Blue Petunia

FlameThrower™ Salsa Verde Coleus early growth

FlameThrower™ Salsa Verde Coleus mature growth

FlameThrower™ Chipotle Coleus

FlameThrower™ Spiced Curry Coleus

FlameThrower™ Salsa Verde Coleus

FlameThrower™ Series Coleus

Check out this more compact coleus series that thrives in sun and shade! With stunning colors and patterns, the low-maintenance, high-impact series is the perfect accent in mixed plantings. Add texture and pizazz with its uniquely shaped and brightly colored leaves, like FlameThrower Salsa Verde’s electric chartreuse green!

Height: 12 to 18 in. (30 to 46 cm)
Spread: 16 to 18 in. (41 to 46 cm)
Exposure: Shade, Sun

SolarTower™ Series and SolarPower™ Series Ipomoea

Sweet potato vine is a useful filler or spiller in mixed plantings. These medium vigor varieties won’t overtake companion plants in containers or beds.

SolarTower is an excellent foliage accent plant that can climb a wall or trellis, and it quickly fills large pots. For a stunning accessory in a colorful mixed container, add a bamboo support for SolarTower to climb!

SolarPower is shorter than SolarTower, but densely branched, and holds its shape and color all Summer long. The newest SolarPower varieties have heart-shaped leaves, providing stunning foliage accents for mixed containers and garden beds.

SolarTower™ Ipomoea

Height: 48 to 84 in. (122 to 213 cm)
Spread: 36 to 48 in. (91 to 122 cm)
Exposure: Sun

SolarTower™ Ipomoea

SolarPower™ Ipomoea

Height: 10 to 12 in. (25 to 30 cm)
Spread: 24 to 36 in. (61 to 91 cm)
Exposure: Partial Sun, Sun

SolarPower™ Ipomoea

SolarTower™ Lime and Black Ipomoea, Bloomify™ Red Lantana

SolarTower™ Lime and Black Ipomoea

SolarTower™ Black Ipomoea, Headliner™ Night Sky® Petunia, Mystic Spires Improved Salvia

SolarTower™ Lime Ipomoea

Mixed container with SolarPower™ Lime Ipomoea

Purple Prince Alternanthera

This colorful foliage plant provides beautiful burgundy-purple leaves with ruby-rose undersides for a colorful component in beds or containers — wow! Purple Prince isn’t just a looker – it also stands tough in heat and humidity, and has low water needs.

Height: 10 to 16 in. (25 to 41 cm)
Spread: 18 to 20 in. (46 to 51 cm)
Exposure: Partial Sun, Sun

Mystic Spires Improved Salvia

Incorporate an impressive crown of Mystic Spires Improved into mixed plantings for a royally stunning accent. Mystic Spires Improved offers dark green leaves and is covered with true-blue flowers – it’s naturally compact, well branched and heat hardy.

Height: 18 to 24 in. (46 to 61 cm)
Spread: 12 to 18 in. (30 to 46 cm)
Exposure: Sun

Mystic Spires Improved Salvia

SolarTower™ Black Ipomoea, Headliner™ Night Sky® Petunia, Mystic Spires Improved Salvia

Mystic Spires Improved Salvia

Cannova® Bronze Leaf Orange Canna

Cannova® Rose Canna

Cannova® Yellow Canna

Cannova® Bronze Leaf Orange Canna

Cannova® Series Canna

Add some height and a touch of tropical blaze with Cannova Canna! With its tropical appeal and bold, bright blooms with green and bronze foliage, Cannova offers a striking contrast with other flowers in mixed plantings. Seed-grown Cannova has exceptional garden performance: it loves the heat and humidity, and it blooms all Summer long.

Height: 30 to 48 in. (76 to 122 cm)
Spread: 14 to 20 in. (36 to 51 cm)
Exposure: Sun