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Coleus is always cool.

I love foliage that has colors other than green. Because it's a way of having some color in a garden that doesn't depend on the particular fifteen minutes of the year that a plant might condescend to flash you its blossoms.

Coleus is a memory prod for me too. I had pots of different colors of coleus in college in a house I shared with a couple of other people for a year or two. Whenever I see coleus, I think back to that time with nostalgia--I think of people who were in that room, the dining room, food I ate there, the view to the backyard, partying, a flood of details of day to day college life. Coleus is definitely a Proustian madeleine for me.

I thought this contest was planters, not plants. Congratulations about having a plant. Now what about the planter?

Planters wouldn't be planters without, ya know, plants in them.

Well said, Abby. You truly are the king of kings. But this is a contest about planters. Maybe this entry will win the "Make Townies Nostalgic For Their Lost Past" Contest, but that's next week.

O Smelbo The Narrow, it's ABOUT urban green space!
Under good circumstances, the plants grow and cover the boring little containers that house them.

Green. Plastic. Boring. I probably picked it out of the trash!

Since it's virtually impossible to tell what this "urban green space" is about from these pics, I abstain from both the wander-down-coleus lane and the flower-boxing match.

So this contest is entitled "My Favorite Flower Box" and yet it's not about the "Box" at all. Silly me for reading the fourth word in the title of this contest... I should be like everyone else and economize my time and stop reading titles after the third word.

It seems all you geeks would be drooling all over the MAC flower box. Have you forgotten who you ARE???

Um, that MAC box was not entirely covered in drool, if you take the time to reread the comments.

But, to smellbo's point, that *was* a box...

As to the nature of the contest . . .
I read past the title and on to the body of the call, which was about tiny bits of urban green in NYC: window boxes, roof gardens, lapel pins, whatever.

We're paved over here!
Some of us get happy with those little efforts our fellow new yorkers put out - even the most simple (or mundane) - geraniums/hostas,/petunia/pansies/geraniums/coleus and even the dreaded impatiens.
Or fabulous weeds, like 8' of chain link fence covered in morning glories. That's all we got! Now, could somebody please take some pictures of our flowers over concrete?

P.S.
It's not like San Francisco...no date palms, no bizarro bottlebrush trees...just dried up little geraniums...

So send in some photos where we can tell what you're getting so @$#^&* excited about.

ps: I do think smellbo is getting a little caught up in the title semantics (but I understand why), and agree with ms. guido that the spirit of the request for entries was indeed a bit broader than s's interpretation.

To completely belabor the point:

"Weekend chatter.....
(YO, SEND IN MORE FLOWERBOX PHOTOS! We can't just GIVE these big prizes away....)"


Now, the word "box" is fairly prominent in that missive...

My point is, the bar is set low here.
"Something alive?" "Yes please! How lovely!"

My little workhorse coleus are on the higher end of average. Low low lower your standards! And please repeat after me, "A wall of purple petunias! Yeah!"

That said, there's lots of great community gardens, but I can't spend my day photographing them. And for the record, I was just being a good sport since nobody is sending in pix. I tried to give you a chair to talk about for heaven's sake!

Belaboring, continued...
Since you are being a stcikler to language here...

Um, in THAT line, the actual word "box", not so much.
The word "flowerbox", yes, which one could interpret to mean the collective of container and profusely flowering/Wandering/budding/fruitbearing contents.

When someone says, "My, what a lovely flowerbox!", do you think they are commenting only on the container? Unless you are in Smith & Hawken, in the flower box aisle, I don't think so.

Guido--
I was not saying to send in other pics, and we applaud you for keeping the contest going singlehandedly, what with all that coleus nurturing... I just meant that the pictures you did send give no context whatsoever on where these are/how they are planted, giving rise to smellbo's box obsession, as it were.

But context IS everything! So put that oft-commented-upon-by Brooklyn-men coleus in perspective for us, please.

P(too) since you keep the comments sections rolling every day, I felt sticking my head out the door for a photo was the least I could do... ; )

It's a window box in a window, parlor floor. Two actually - 2 windows and 2 boxes.

This is one of those things that's fun until it's not . . . so let's just enjoy the flora and move on to something else!

My old boss entered our office "Second Annual Pumpkin Bread Bake-off" with a banoffee pie.

ah, but did he win? :)

god that is soooooooo one of my pet peeves.. when someone else determines when it's time to "move on."

okay, I couldn't help coming back.
p(too) I wouldn't dream of telling you or anyone else what to chat about. Me, I move on. Now.

He was shocked when I refused to let him enter the competition on grounds it contained neither pumpkin nor was it a bread.

hey, don't make me come in here again and tell everyone how great guido's bathroom is, 'cuz I *will*...and nobody wants that now, do they?

now play nice.

I don't have a flowerbox or green space, but I was planning on walking around this weekend with my camera and taking some pics. Lately I have seen so many flowers and plants around town that just make me smile. Has anyone else seen the gorgeous Hydrangeas on Bennett Ave near the 190th A stop?

pphillipp--
correct. nobody wants that.

Wow, this made me laugh out loud more than once.
Mostly because so about "nothing."

Oh yeah, Guido-thanks for being a good sport and tossing in your coleus. I for one appreciated it.

one more: I think the complainers are just jealous that guido has an outdoor space for plants.

Uh ... you're both pretty.

Argh, my pet peeve is when people drag out the jealousy thing. I don't think anyone sounds jealous. Someone just made a point, and it all got out of hand. I seriously doubt anyone is seething with jealousy over window boxes.

I was just kidding.

lol

LOL!!!!!!!!!