I have been tasked with coming up with a flower/plant scheme to depict the colors of Auburn University and Alabama University for my Mother and her brother. The idea is that there will be two sides of one bed. One side will have Auburn's Orange and Blue colors and the other side will have Bama's Crimson and White colors. And on each side of this bed, there will be lawn gnomes in team colors (which have already been purchased). On the day that these two teams have their face-off, my mother and unk are going to move the gnomes out front and center of the bed and with each touchdown or quarter, whoever's team is in the lead will go out and lay the losing gnome down and pile the winning gnome on top (tackled).

I have been going through my sources of plants and while it has been somewhat easy to come up with plant combinations for each team, it has been difficult to come up with plant combinations that will work as a whole. One side ends up being too tall or too gangly or the blooms/foliage don't work, etc. The closest I have come so far are petunias.

The problem is, as I see it, is that petunias like warm weather and the Iron Bowl (when these two teams face off) is in late November. We don't normally have frosts by that time, but I'm wondering if it will still be warm enough for the plants to bloom. Since the plants are normally sold during the spring at the big box stores, I know I will have to get my own seed and germinate them in the summer if I hope to have them bloom by November. Still, I am looking for plants that would serve this purpose a little better. So I am pouring through my books and trying to come up with other plant combinations. While I do so, I would like to know if any of you have any suggestions or have input on Petunias in the fall.

Thanks!

Leekle