They Call It “Confetti Blazing Maple”

All summer, my container garden brought me so much joy. Instead of fretting about work from the moment I awoke, I would walk out onto the stoop where it grows and examine all the changes that had occurred overnight—the new buds, the shoots that appeared from nowhere, the flowers that opened. I would inhale the scent of the herbs and revel in so much greenery in the midst of concrete.

So as fall grows frostier, I’ve started to look to the coming winter with the dread of a depressed patient whose shrink is leaving town for an extended vacation. Maybe that accounts for my late-season buying binge—pansies, ornamental peppers, purple fountain grasses, and, on the last trip, a mysterious floral combo called “confetti blazing maple.”

I stumbled upon this last one at the garden center at Home Depot and just couldn’t resist. But what is it? I may be a novice, but even to my untrained eye, I was pretty sure there was nothing in that hanging basket that resembled a maple. The clerk seemed just as clueless as I was.

Well, after some research, I can finally tell you. It’s a merchandiser’s code name for a group of three flowers—a small ivory-colored petunia called “Banana” Petunia (Potunia Plus series, shown above), a burgundy verbena known as Verbena “Empress Godiva,” and orange Calibrachoa “Kona Mandarin” (both in the photo to the right). I would probably never have bought these on their own, but as a combo, they’re perfect fall fare–and at least until the first frost arrives, a way to extend summer’s charms.