Zinnias - Zahara and Lilliput

Zinnias are famous for being among the easiest annuals to grow.  The seeds are cheap and they readily come up if planted in warm or even hot weather.  They are very drought tolerant, come in all colors, come in all sizes, and attract tons of butterflies.  The blooms are long lasting for bouquets and vases.  The only problem is that some of the older varieties can get mildew in the humid summers of the Southeast.  Newer varieties are nearly immune to mildew and stay healthy and nice all the way till frost.  Above is Zahara Double Fire, one of the new varieties.

The Zahara series is a shorter variety that doesn't get tall and floppy like many of the older zinnias.  I'm trying these out for the first time this year.  Thus far, I love them.  They are bushy and short with none of the floppiness of many other zinnias.  Plus, they easily germinated from seeds.  The double type makes the normal pom-pom flowers that typify most zinnias.  I'm thinking of using these instead of the Profusions because they have shown themselves more easy to grow from seed.  I've had to purchase plants for Profusions, which gets costly.

This is another variety of zinnia called Lilliput.  I mistakenly thought because of the name that these would be a shorter variety.  They get tall and become floppy, which is my one gripe against them.  However, they bloom prolifically and readily reseed themselves all over the place.  I didn't plant any of them this year and they are just coming up voluntarily all over one of my butterfly beds.  They are so happy and healthy that I don't have the heart to chop them all down.  Plus, the butterflies adore them.

As you can see, this variety comes in many colors.  I have a fondness for the peachy-orange ones.  They look nice in bouquets and brighten up the flowerbed beautifully.  The flowers aren't huge and full like the Bennary's Giant series, but there are far more of them.  I haven't noticed any disease on this variety at all.

  Zinnias should be a staple of the summer landscape.  They love hot, sunny locations and seem to never stop blooming.  They are so easy to grow that everyone should have some of them.  I especially love them because of all the butterflies they attract.  The many colors available make it easy to match them in any color scheme.  They thrive in drought conditions, make good potted plants, and need almost no care.  Need I say more?

My "Other" Roses

Nope, these are not miniature roses, neither are they some of the new "Carpet" roses I've seen advertised.  They are moss roses, or portulacas.

Portulacas are a low growing (4" - 6") annual that flowers for months on end with little care.  They come in both single and double flower forms.  The doubles that I have remind me of carnations.  My variety is known as the Sundial portulacas.  The flowers close up at night and on cloudy days.  The leaves are fleshy like most succulents, which explains why they do well in dry heat.

These great annuals are quite easily grown from seeds.  Just dust the ground with them, water in, and watch grow.  Many times they will re-seed themselves voluntarily in sundry neat places.  In fact, the ones pictured in this post are all volunteers.  The ones above are growing near the base of a mock orange I planted this year.  I have no idea how the seeds got here.

Portulacas need full sun and good draining soil.  They are perfect for an area that the hose won't reach.  They also make wonderful "spillers" for containers.  I recommend them to neglectful gardeners who are prone to forget watering their containers for a few days.  The plants will spread to about 12" in diameter.  They are great for rock gardens and sandy areas.  Did I mention that they are an heirloom flower that your grandmother probably grew?  Let us never forget these old time favorites.

More Tidal Waves

Back in March, I made a blog post about my Tidal Wave Silver petunias - see A Tidal Wave of Silver.  There I posted about this one petunia plant that I am trialing this year.  As you can see from these pictures, this is one experiment gone good!  The flowers are covering every inch of plant available and they are beautiful in a silver and purple sort of way.

The plant is at least 5' x 5' in size, and that's without any fertilizing.  It has nearly taken over my little area.  It's also highly visible from a long distance away.

Next fall I fully intend to plant a number of these.  They are still looking great now in late May too.  I'll eventually pull them up, but not until they start to fade and look bad.  I cannot say enough good about these Tidal Wave petunias.  I think they are a wonderful cottage plant and the unusual color of these is quite refreshing and welcome.

This One's for the Birds

Sunflowers are among the easiest annuals of all to grow.  Wait till the danger of frost is past, put the seeds in the ground and cover with 1/4" of soil, water, and leave alone.

The variety I planted the last two years is called Autumn Sunset.  This year, I didn't plant any sunflowers at all.  I just allowed natural seeds dropped from the plants last year to grow.  They easily re-seed if you let the flower heads mature and drop the seeds.

I prefer to let the flower heads dry on the stalk anyway because the local birds really appreciate it.  They will happily visit the dry heads for a snack.  Meanwhile, they will spread the seeds around for me.

Autumn Sunset is not meant to be used for people to eat.  There are much better varieties for that.  This is supposed to be an ornamental type.  As such, it makes multiple, small flowers per plant as opposed to one big one.  The flowers can have many different shades of orange and yellow in them and are very attractive.  They make a fine back-of-the-border flower in a butterfly/bird attracting garden.  The only pest I have seen on mine have been Leaf-footed stink bugs, but they didn't seem to damage the sunflowers.

The Larkspur Ascending

(For those who don't get it, the title is a reference to a beautiful classical piece by Ralph Vaughn Williams called "The Lark Ascending.")

Larkspurs are an annual related to Delphiniums (which unfortunately don't grow in the Deep South.)  They are planted from seed in October or November down here and will grow throughout the winter and bloom profusely from March through May.  The flowers are highly prized by bumblebees and hummingbirds.

My variety is called "Rocket" larkspurs and they get quite tall.  They are very reliable re-seeders and come back year after year without me having to replant.  I sometimes scatter the seeds in new places if I want them in other areas.

They come in all shades of blue, purple, pink, lavender, and white.  I really like the blue ones.  They are essential for the cottage garden look and for the insects and birds that I love so much.

They are best planted at the back of a bed because of their height.  I think they mix well with sweetpeas, dianthus, nigella, and petunias for a cool season bed.

A Tidal Wave of Silver

This perfect bloom comes from my Tidal Wave Silver plant.  It looks so good that I wish I had planted more of them.  The blooms are lavender with a deep purple throat and the color really sticks out against the deep green of the foliage.

Not only that, but there are lots of these blooms covering the plant.  This plant was on a trial run for me this year, hence there being only one of them in the ground.  Next year there will be more of them! 

Down here, petunias should be planted in October or November and allowed to over-winter in the ground.  This particular cultivar is known to get larger and more "filling" than other types.  It should be a wonderful addition to a Southern cool season cottage garden.  If the bed this one is in looks over-run, it's because of all the clover and nigella growing in it.  I don't want to pull up the clover for fear of uprooting my beautiful, self-seeding nigellas ("love-in-a-mist.")  This will be one of my summer butterfly beds after the petunias and nigellas play out.  It will be filled with zinnias, salvias, and tithonias starting in May.

End of Season Awards

It's almost November and the flowering season is nearing its end.  That means it's time to give out some of the awards for best performance of the year.  These awards go out to the flowering plants that performed best for the longest period of time.  Longevity is the key here.  These are not necessarily my favorite flowers, but they have merited favor by looking good for the duration.

In the perennial category, there is a two-way tie for the win.  First up is Arizona Sun gaillardia.  This plant brightened up the flower bed from mid-spring all the way till now and is still going.  It has never been without blooms and is in a bed where I don't have irrigation.  It's taken all nature can throw at it and kept on smiling. 

The other winner is lantana.  I'm not breaking it down into varieties because all three of my lantana varieties did equally well.  They too have bloomed from mid-spring on and with little to no care at all.  Above is Ham and Eggs.

The lantanas bloom like crazy and are never without the constant buzz of insect and hummingbird wings.  Above is a mix of Miss Huff and (I think) Dallas Red.

In the annual category we have a surprise winner.  I didn't even plant this vinca, but it hasn't taken this slight to heart and has performed through heat and drought without a blink.  I've never watered it and it has happily bloomed away from it's crack in the concrete.  It is constantly covered in bloom and has a very pleasant form.  No other annual in my yard has looked this good for such a long time.  Next year I will definitely plant a bunch of these. 

In the shrub category, a couple of roses share the honor.  None of my other shrubs bloom as often or as long as these roses.  Above is Earthsong.  It keeps large blooms even in the heat of summer, gets no disease, has a pleasant fragrance, and asks for little care.  It has almost never been without at least a couple of blooms.

Belinda's Dream has a similar description.  Huge blooms, nice fragrance, pleasing bush form, no disease, and carefree.  It puts on a new flush of blooms at least once per month and the blooms are not diminished by heat.  It has not been touched by blackspot, even without fungicide. 

Honorable mention in the shrub category goes to my Royal Red buddleia ("butterfly bush.")  It has also bloomed all year, spreading sweet fragrance to people and sweet nectar to butterflies and hummingbirds for the duration.  I don't have a decent picture of it to post here. 

In the tree category, the winner is my Chaste Vitex tree.  Such lovely flowers, interesting foliage, a pleasing form, and sweet fragrance.  I also love that it attracts the friendly flyers that I delight to see. 

Rioting Flowers

Several of my flower beds have run amok.  They are refusing to stay in bounds, re-seeding everywhere, clashing colors, and inviting every insect in the neighborhood to come over for nectar.  They are completely out of line and in open rebellion against any rules. 

Other than the Heavenly Blue morning glories, this bed is all volunteers.  The zinnias, cosmos, and sunflowers did not ask permission to party here.

These sunflowers are seeking to intrude into the yard and have even invited BIRDS over. 

The zinnias, meanwhile,  are openly flirting with every winged butterfly that passes by.  They will recklessly dance with ANY butterfly that chances by. 

All these intruding volunteers have passed on their attitude to the morning glories who have now flaunted their wares to every passing bumblebee. 

The place is in shambles!!

If that's not enough, another of my beds has started openly rebelling too.  This once orderly bed is now a shadow of it's former self.  The lantanas are sprawling everywhere in baudy profusion. 

Even the Double Knockout and the plumbago are waiste deep in lantanas.  Every traveling stranger of a hummingbird that passes through stops by for a nip of nectar at this nefarious-looking facility.  It's all too far gone for me to to anything about.  I'll just have to wait for a freeze to run this riff-raff off.

Being a Pansy

I can't help it - pansies always find a way into my shopping basket at the local garden supply centers.  They are such appealing and colorful plants for the cool season down here.  They come in such a variety of vibrant colors, from deep reds to sunny yellows.  Did I mention they work wonderfully in containers?

I have this large container that will house a large tropical next year.  A batch of pansies will keep it looking interesting till mid-spring next year when tropicals can be planted.  Pansies also look great in a bed with bulbs as they can be planted over the bulbs and provide color and vegetation till the bulbs send up shoots.

These are the pansies I had in a container last cool season.  Hopefully the new ones will be this nice in a few months.  Down here in Louisiana, these should be planted in October or November.  They easily can take the freezes we get here and will look good till hot weather comes in April.  Give them moist, loamy soil and full or part sun.  If you plant them in the ground, be sure to plant a bunch of them together to make a better visual impact because they are small plants.  Even in a container, it's best to stuff at least several plants in for a fuller look. 

Riding the Tidal Wave

I just recently planted some Tidal Wave Silver petunia plants.  I really love the silver/purple blooms with deep purple throats.  The Tidal Wave series gets larger than the normal petunia so they make nice additions to beds.  I think they are really nice in a cottage garden setting. 

Ideally, petunias should be planted in the Fall down here.  They are able to get roots established well before hunkering down for the winter.  Then they are ready to really burst forth in the spring when warm weather starts back up.  The Wave series can take heat a little better than other types, so they tend to last longer into the warm spring before melting in the heat.

I'm adding this picture since I got a better camera and this shows the colors of Tidal Wave Silver better than the other photos.  

Orange Cosmos

This beautiful, orange flower is the common, everyday, lowly Orange Cosmos.  Nothing special about it except that it's beautiful, easy, care-free, attractive to butterflies, and re-seeds itself. 

It blends well with zinnias and sunflowers in my west butterfly bed.  All of these plants volunteer and come back on their own if you let them.  Butterflies flock by the droves to this patch of flowers.  I've seen swallowtails of all sorts, common buckeyes, sulphurs, monarchs, fritillaries, and many others stopping by for a drink.

The feathery, fern-like foliage is pleasant on the eyes.  These plants can get pretty tall, so I like to shear them back before they bloom to make them more compact.  None of the flowers in this bed need supplemental irrigation to thrive since all of them are quite happy in dry areas.  I really encourage everyone to plant a bed like this to help attract butterflies and flower-loving people.

Heavenly Blues

I don't have as many of these Heavenly Blue morning glories as normal this year.  I've gradually replaced them with other vines over time.  However, a few always seem to find their way into my dirt every spring because they are so easy and beautiful.  The sky blue color is delightful.

For me, this type of morning glory usually takes longer than others to bloom.  They usually don't start till September or even later.  The good thing about this variety is that it is sterile and will not send up seedlings all over the following year.  Most MG's are terrible about re-seeding everywhere.

These will grow anywhere in the continental US.  Just plant them in a sunny spot once the ground warms up in spring.  Keep them watered till they get established.  Be sure to provide something for them to climb on and wait for the show.