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July 3, 2010 · 12 Comments

Spitfire Nasturtiums: Pretty in Pots

Plants

The ‘Spitfire’ nasturtiums I’m growing as part of the bloggers’ Seed GROW project have really taken off in this container area near my front door. I love nasturtiums for their big showy foliage, but these also have vibrant orange blooms that stand out in my otherwise green, pink, and purple garden.

I planted the Spitfire nasturtiums in three different areas of my garden: the container area, which gets morning sun and is otherwise shady; a little spot near the garage, which gets morning sun but has tough clay soil; and near a pergola in back in a flower bed with rich, black soil.

Flowers peeking out from behind foliage.

In terms of bloom and height, the container nasturtiums are way ahead of the rest. They began climbing the simple wire trellis I put in the pot, with just a bit of encouragement from me. (I wound the plant tendrils around a few wires and tied one main stem loosely to the trellis.) The plant now covers much of the trellis and is spilling out of the pot. It  has been blooming for a couple of weeks. The orange flowers are bright enough to be seen from the street and are a great illustration of the power of orange.

“I’m growing Nasturtium “Spitfire” for the GROW project. Thanks, to Renee’s Garden for the seeds.”

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Comments

  1. Laura says

    July 3, 2010 at 2:26 pm

    I’m still waiting for blooms on the seeds my daughter planted. Your look fantastic! So tall. Mine stand maybe 6″. Sigh hopefully we will get a few blooms. For my kids sake at least.

  2. Monica the Garden Faerie says

    July 3, 2010 at 4:37 pm

    Love the contrast of the orange blooms with the blue pot!

  3. MrBrownThumb says

    July 4, 2010 at 12:03 am

    Oh, wow. That looks beautiful!

  4. Lisa says

    July 4, 2010 at 1:25 am

    Wow! My nasturtiums want to be like yours when they grow up! 🙂

  5. Colleen Vanderlinden says

    July 4, 2010 at 6:51 am

    Mary, your container ‘Spitfires’ are absolutely gorgeous! I’m envious 🙂

    Happy 4th of July!

  6. Diane McCarthy says

    July 4, 2010 at 10:34 am

    Wow, your container nasties are gorgeous! I suspect my plants are getting too much sun; I think that part sun/part shade combo is probably ideal.

  7. Mary Schier says

    July 4, 2010 at 12:32 pm

    Thanks, all, for your comments. The nasturtiums do seem to perform much better in partial shade. It may also help that I water and fertilize (fish emulsion) the pots, which I have not had to do with the rest of my garden because we’ve had a lot of rain.

  8. Gardenmom29 says

    July 5, 2010 at 9:36 am

    Those are beautiful! I am going to try some fish emulsion on mine…I haven’t fertilized in quite a while, I’ve been so busy. I wonder if mine get too much sun as well. Seeing yours, I have something to aspire to…

  9. Xan says

    July 6, 2010 at 2:33 pm

    Really lovely– this is what I expected them to do, but mine are just not loving where I planted them all.

Trackbacks

  1. My Northern Garden » Blog Archive » Easy Come, Easy Go says:
    August 3, 2010 at 3:10 pm

    […] have been growing as part of the SeedGROW project. By the time I took them out,  my formerly lovely pot nasturtiums were sad, indeed, (there is apparently a reason these are nicknamed “nasties”) with a […]

  2. My Northern Garden » Blog Archive » Deep Orange Nasturtiums for Fall says:
    October 3, 2010 at 8:55 pm

    […] have been a bit up and down with these nasturtiums, but I admire their persistence. With the heavy rains we had a week […]

  3. Garden Recycling | My Northern Garden says:
    November 10, 2010 at 2:23 pm

    […] climbing plants, such as this cucumber, or for plants the like the climb and tumble too, such as ‘Spitfire’ nasturtiums, which could grow up one side and down the other. It would also be a convenient place to tie tomato […]

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