My urns

The summer of 2011 marks the sixth summer I have lived in my condo.  And for each of those six summers, I have dressed up my balcony urns in slightly different ways...

In 2006, it was magenta petunias.

  

That following December, I planted small bushes in the center of the urn to get through the winter with some green...

But those little guys didn't quite look right with petunias around them, so they were replaced that following spring with dwarf Alberta spruces (and for the second year in a row, bright magenta petunias)...

The petunias gave way to pansies (jumping jack violas, to be exact) that winter...

And then to pink petunias for the summer of 2008...

And then red and pink for 2009...

In the winters, the Alberta spruces got hit with ice...

And snow...

But those pansies didn't give up...

By the summer of 2010, the Alberta spruces had about had it.  I had to remove them that fall.  This is a picture of their final summer in my urns, with some miniature purple petunias keeping them company.