'Tis the season: container change-up

Rather than just have empty metal posts sticking out of the ground all winter I planted up a new trio of dishes with winter hardy plants.
 

Each dish has a nice big chunk of black mondo grass combined with a small pot of light green Scotch moss and a selection of carnivorous plants that were previously living in dish planters plunged into/above the stock tank pond.
 

Nothing terribly earth shattering, but it will be interesting to see how the carnivorous plants do in these dishes over the winter. 

In other container changes, since the shade pavilion is now enclosed as a green house for the winter, I moved the fern bowl over to this corner. It's hard to see, but there on one of the paver squares...I do love this planting, it's one of my very favorite things in the garden.

The Dryopteris sieboldii are stunning.

Better than anywhere else in the garden.The Pyrrosia sheareri are knock-outs as well.

Shout-out to this Agave sisalana ‘Variegata’ pup my brother sent me in July, I pulled it from it's spot in one of the drive way stock tanks to pot it up and protect it in the greenhouse, of course I stopped to admire it's good looks. 

The view of the patio is sadly empty...cause all the containers have moved elsewhere.Here's the greenhouse view from the patio...Since it's the season for such things, I also removed the ceramic hanging containers from the front of the garage and replaced them with the metal clamp-on "light shade" hanging containers. These have great drainage with the bonus of not breaking when there's a freeze. Thin ceramic containers don't do so well over the winter months.

These are going into (I think) their fourth winter. 

I also threw together this grouping by the back door. The bougainvillea had been in that tall container but was past it's prime, so I planted Erica arborea 'Estrella Gold' instead.

The two small black containers are filled with Calluna vulgaris 'Firefly'. I added a couple of pumpkins for my autumn-loving husband.

 

That Erica arborea is just so gorgeous!Also in the group is a Fascicularia pitcairnifolia, I am wondering why some of the leaves are starting to color-up, that usually only happens when the plant is going to bloom, yet there's no sign of a bloom. Curious.

Black mondo and pumpkins seem like a natural pairing, don't you think?

Finally, I brought home a few of these large cones when I visited Secret Garden Growers in September, I thought they made a great combination with the leaves from my Quercus dentata 'Pinnatifida’ (Cutleaf Emperor Oak).