Ok – I thought it was a gorgeous, drought-tolerant addition to a hanging basket. I was so pleased with the look of the white stonecrop when it started to flower in July. The blooms looked great for a month or so.
I was stoked.

AND then, as nature progresses, the flowers turned to seed heads.
hmmm. Brown.
Kinda messy looking. .. My inner tidy freak cringes. 😦
An over-tidy garden isn’t all that great for wildlife.

And THEN we went camping for a couple weeks in early September & I didn’t have to control my urge to deadhead the perfectly good birdseed.

Now, autumn is arriving & with it cooler temperatures + some moisture. The licorice ferns are coming alive.

The messy seed heads of the sedum album are overshadowed.
Crisis averted.

Last year the ferns on our rocky outcrop were not surviving the appetite of our local deer. Shifting sheets of moss that the licorice ferns were growing in & creating a basket hanging above the reach of Bambi has proved successful. 🙂
The baskets promise to hold my interest through the humidity of fall & winter,

So now the question:
Is there anything I could plant to distract from the brown look through August & early September until the licorice fern becomes The Show? It needs to be drought tolerant & happy in a bit of shade ….
Any suggestions?

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