Category: Garden, Growing Flowers

Planting flowering annuals and perennials in the landscape. New posts are Florida gardening with the hydrangeas and some others being from the north.

Colorful Blooming Plants for Bees, Butterflies, and Me

Filling the yard with blooming plants to feed the bees and butterflies can take time. Even though I don’t have many, the insects come.

My focus has been on growing vegetables in the yard, but now I am focused on adding blooming plants.

I still don’t have a car, so getting out is tough. My son took me to a local nursery and I used a gift card (from Christmas – it’s September!) to buy some flowers.

Purple Sage
Bee on Lantana
Blue Agastache
New flower haul
New flowers from the local nursery in pots and ready to go in the ground.
Red pentas

I gravitate to the bee covered flowering pots at the nursery, but once the plants are home, it’s a wait for my bees and butterflies to find the flowers.

I chose red, orange, yellow and “blue” flowers. The bumblebees like small yellow flowers and tall spikes. They come every day to my Holy Basil (Tulsi) which has very tiny flowers (pictures below). However, some also like the big open pumpkin flowers. It’s best to have a variety.

Tulsi basil flowers – this basil grew all summer, which is impressive
Holy Basil (Tulsi) grown from seed

The Following Morning

I get out into the garden as early as possible because of the heat. My goal this morning was to get the Vegega bed filled with dirt. I always scout out the gardens in the morning. When I went to the back area, I discovered that both recently planted plants- were torn completely up out of the ground!!!!!

The blue Agastache and yellow lantana were lying on the ground with their roots exposed! The big planting holes were empty. (I was too mad to take pictures.)

lantana
Red orange lantana plant

Re-planting and Moving On

The good news is that both re-planted plants are now doing fine. The yellow lantana has not bloomed again, but I’m sure it will. I had made the mistake of adding fish bone meal into the potting holes. I’m betting the raccoons smelled it, and dug to find the “fish”. The plants were simply in the way. Lesson learned.

Gardening means dealing with pests of all kinds. For me, the Raccoons cause the most trouble. They are often destructive without purpose – as far as I can tell. They steal tomatoes and rip holes in them, but don’t consume them! They pull peppers off the plants, and dig up seedlings. Last year they stole one of my watermelons off the vine.

In the meantime, here’s what else is blooming in the yard:

  • Sunshine Mimosa ground cover with powderpuff pink flowers
    Sunshine Mimosa – Love it!
  • Spiderwort weed is a pretty blue
    Spiderwort – weed that insects love (foggy photo because of the humidity)
  • Firespike with tall red flowers
    Firespike – started from a cutting!
  • Celosia flowers
    Celosia – new to the garden, but loved by bees.

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Pink Hydrangea Flower in My Florida Yard

My little hydrangea shrub is blooming with one pink flower.

A quick little post to share a photo. My hydrangea is blooming and has one pink flower. I’ve mostly neglected this entire garden because I’ve focused on growing vegetables.

This garden is by the front door and is a bit overrun with dollar weed and other things. I haven’t done a thing here – no fertilizer, very little weeding, and occasional watering from the sprinkler system.

The bromeliad is also blooming, and it always reminds me of the friend who gifted it to me. 🙂

The sandy soil is alkaline in my yard so my hydrangeas will always be pink. This shrub had purple-blue flowers when I bought it – back in March, 2019. If I chose to add an acid fertilizer the flowers might become blue again. But, I don’t really care. I am happy the plant is still doing well after a few years, although it is not very large.

If you are wondering if hydrangeas will grow here in Florida, my answer would be yes. This plant is five years old now. It gets shade all day long.

More to read

Native Milkweed That Survived the Freeze

I’m still trying to fill my yard with native milkweed. After the cold spell over winter froze most things back, and killed many things, I have fewer milkweed plants. All the tropical milkweed is gone. Tropical milkweed is not native, and therefore not a great loss. Three of the four swamp milkweed seedlings I purchased…

Pam's avatar by Pam

Photos of My Summer Zinnias

Zinnias are some of the brightest flowers that can be added to the garden. Bees and butterflies use them for food, and even a place to sleep. The flowers are long lasting and the seeds are easy to save.

Last year (2023) I grew zinnias for the first time. I’m not sure why I never grew them before in Florida, but I’ll always grow them from now on.

Look at the colors! The reds are so bright, and the orange is so true. The hot pinks are incredible, and the butterfly thinks so too! I think it is a Monarch.

Floret zinnia
butterfly on zinnia

The bees and butterflies especially love the Zinnias with those yellow centers. It’s where they eat and gather pollen.

A Zinnia flower will change day by day as the petals open and the center grows. They are quite long lasting also.

pale pink and white zinnia
Floret Zinnias
So red…
orange zinnias with lots of petals
Fluffy orange

I’m partial to the flowers with lots of petals that create layers. Sometimes I find a bee nestled inside those petals. What a fun place to sleep.

Save the Seeds

Zinnias are direct sow, so put the big seeds right into the dirt. Saving Zinnia seeds is also easy. Each petal has a seed at the end. I cut off the flower heads when they seem to be gone by and drying out, and place them into a box to dry further. I will be writing a separate post about saving the seeds, but that is pretty much it.

Zinnia seed and petal
Zinnia seed

I leave the flowers whole, but usually they become so dry that the petals fall out. Sometimes I can still see the color of the original flower. Every photo you see on this page (except the Florets) came from seeds I saved from last year’s flowers.

I also read at the UF/IFAS extension that the flowers with few rows of petals should be tossed! What? Why? I disagree.

I’m wondering if I should take off the petal before planting the seed? Will they grow better and faster? I always leave the petal on.

Zinnia Disease

This year I learned that Zinnias can get a spotted leaf disease called bacterial leaf spot. And sure enough, most of mine had it. They can also get powdery mildew on the leaves. (Pegplant’s page lists some varieties that are mildew resistant.)

One way to help prevent both problems, is to give them space to grow. Air flow helps, but I live in a very humid place, so I’m not sure these things can be avoided. Overhead watering is a no-no for these flowers also.

zinnia powdery mildew
powdery mildew
leaf spots on zinnia
Leaf spot
Green zinnia leaves
Perfect leaves

Zinnia Varieties Less Susceptible to Disease

I can’t remember where I saw this information, but I wrote it down. This list is the varieties of Zinnia that supposedly are less susceptible to disease. The Southern Exposure Seed Exchange has the Marylandica variety (also called Zahara), but it’s currently out of stock. It has small, white, daisy-like flowers.

  • angustifolia
  • marylandica
  • crystal
  • star (bright?)
  • profusion

The varieties to avoid, for disease, are “elegans” and “heageana“, which seem to be the most likely available! I think all of mine are Zinnia elegans.

I found some Zinnia marylandica seeds at a shop on Etsy and will give them a try.

zinnia garden

I hope you are having a wonderful summer. If you love to grow Zinnias, I’d love to hear about them.

More stories from the backyard…

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Mimosa Strigillosa, Sunshine, Powderpuff, and Thornless

Be careful when buying sunshine mimosa as a ground cover. I made the mistake of growing the type that has thorns on the stems!

About a year ago I ordered Mimosa seeds. I did not realize there are different varieties of Mimosa and I got the “Sensitive Plant” or “Shameplant”. It is called Mimosa pudica.

What I wanted was the Sunshine Mimosa I had heard so much about. Plant it in the yard to replace grass and feed the insects. Brighten the landscape with pretty pink, puffy flowers. It does not have thorns.

I made a big mistake when I ordered the wrong seeds. The seeds I grew became plants with thorns on the stems.

sunshine mimosa
Sunshine mimosa plant
sunshine mimosa
herb and flower seeds
Not all mimosas are alike!

The One With Thorns

Once my mimosa seeds began to grow, I was so happy. Then, I noticed thorns on the stems. Because the Sunshine Mimosa is known as an excellent ground cover, I was baffled. No one would walk barefoot on this! Animals would hurt their feet as well. I thought I had been steered wrong.

I gave up on Mimosa.

Recently, I saw a post on Instagram by The Urban Harvest. The post was about alternative ground covers, including Sunshine Mimosa. I left a comment that it has thorns, and was quickly corrected. “Sunshine Mimosa does NOT have thorns”. Any they are correct!

So what the heck did I have? I took this photo of the plant in my yard and discovered that it is a mimosa, but the wrong kind. See those thorns? I will probably rip this one out.

mimosa pudica thorns
the Wrong Mimosa

The Sunshine Mimosa is Mimosa strigillosa, or “Powderpuff” and is thornless – and N O T Mimosa quadrivalvis, or pudica. Be sure to know which type you are getting.

Be careful, because the different varieties look very much alike. They both get pink, puffy flowers and have leaves that close up when touched. Both types sprawl, but the thorny one grows taller.

The huge difference is that one has thorns, and the other can be used to replace your grassy yard with a blooming, soft, ground cover.

Where Can I Get a Sunshine Mimosa?

The trouble I had a year ago was that I wanted this ground cover for my yard. I looked for plants and seeds and found NONE. All I found was mimosa seeds from Eden Brothers and so I bought them, not realizing I’d ordered the incorrect type.

The info in the pink box comes from the Florida Wildflower Foundation website. And, YAY they have a link to a place to buy seeds…. but, guess what? No results.

All my favorite online places don’t have seeds. I get very frustrated when I live in Florida and yet have such trouble buying native plants.

I still can’t find Sunshine Mimosa seeds to buy.

I’ll be ripping up the one that has thorns. I don’t want my cats hurting their feet.

Mimosa plant with thorns
Mimosa with thorns

Garden blogging…

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Beautiful Zinnia Flowers Are Useful to Bees

Zinnias are bright and beautiful flowers that also serve as a shelter for honey bees.

This summer I am growing zinnias from seeds. I’ve come to love seeing the new blooms pop out in this mix. Their colors have been stunningly bright. Some blooms have a more flattened appearance and others are very puffy and full.

I grew these from seeds that were planted a few months ago in my new little flower garden.

Zinnias Growing in My Yard

I have done nothing to these photos, the colors are exactly as they really are!

pink zinnia flower
light pink zinnia flower
bright red zinnia flower
Zinnias
magenta zinnia flower
Beautiful magenta
orange zinnia
Bright orange zinnia
Zinnia garden
Zinnia garden
Zinnia flowers red pink
pink zinnia

The Perfect Flowers for Sleeping Bees

The petals of the zinnia also serve as a shelter for sleeping bees. Each morning I see them tucked among the pink petals of this one flower.

This magenta zinnia, which has a fading bloom, seems to be a favorite for little bees. They look like honey bees, and they crawl way up under the petals toward the center of the flower. I counted four bees, but I believe there were more.

Bees inside the petals

I’ve also caught tiny tree frogs in the petals, but they hop away as soon as I get close.

Zinnias are not the only flowers that make tired bees happy. I’ve seen them within the curl of marigold flowers too. We get accustomed to watching bees gather nectar and usually never think about where they go when they need to rest. Why, a zinnia hotel, of course!

Zinnias
The pink flower is the bee’s favorite

Keep reading…

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Marigolds in the Florida Vegetable Garden

Marigolds are beautiful and easy flowers to grow in a Florida yard and vegetable garden. They may also have some great benefits.

While many flowers I grew in my northern garden can’t be grown here in Florida, the marigold certainly can. The scent of marigolds will repel mosquitoes, which are a bother all the time in my yard. I’m not sure if they work on no-see-ums, but maybe! As my garden space grows, so will my number of marigold plants. They are colorful and so easy to grow.

orange marigolds in garden
Marigolds grow among peppers, pumpkin, and watermelon

Marigolds and Nematodes

Marigolds may also help keep nematodes away (maybe not – read on). They do not hinder all types of nematodes, but do help with common root-knot nematodes. My Great Garden Companions book, by Sally Jean Cunningham (Amazon affiliate link), says to turn the entire marigold plant into the earth after the growing season is over.

To Till or Not To Till

My thoughts on cleaning out a garden is to cut off the plant and leave the roots for the earthworms. Disturbing the soil disrupts the ecology of the soil, or so I’ve read. BUT… if you have nematodes, doing this helps them survive! Maybe I just need to find out if I do have nematodes and go from there.

What is a nematode?

Once I began planting my garden I kept hearing about nematodes. I did not know what they were, only that they were damaging to crops. (Apparently there are also good nematodes.)

Nematode damage appears as yellowing and wilting of crops. The little buggers affect the roots in a way that removes the ability of the plant to take up nutrients and water from the soil. When nothing you do helps the plant, maybe it’s some kind of nematode (there are many types).

Don’t look for them with the naked eye because they are microscopic. (Think “monsters inside us”.) This page at the University of Florida gardening site has excellent nematode pictures to show the size of nematodes. It also explains them really well. So well, in fact, that you may be scared off gardening all together!

Reading all this info on nematodes is very disheartening. Florida can have all kinds of nematodes because nematodes love sandy soil.

The UF site says this: French Marigolds – particularly the yellow or gold “Petite French” Tagetes patula variety can help keep certain nematodes (the root-knot) away. (This info was found in Table 2 in the link above.)

And then… I read this, on the same UF site: Garden Myths: Volume 1 which talks about Marigolds and false beliefs that they can deter nematodes..!!

Holy cow. I guess marigolds can’t hurt, but we can’t see them as the one great answer to destroying nematodes either.

Marigolds and Beneficials

Not only do marigolds repel possible pests in the vegetable garden, and help deter nematodes (we hope), they constantly flower throughout summer – and more seasons here in Florida. That means butterflies and other bugs can enjoy the flowers as sources of food. They are not high on the list for nectar, but I’ve had bees and butterflies on my flowers.

Bee on yellow marigold
Bee climbing through the marigold
orange Gulf Fritillary butterfly
Gulf Fritillary butterfly

I have marigolds growing in some raised beds and among the ground garden veggies. The tall yellow flowers wind their way up through eggplant and help shade the oregano.

The fluffy orange flowering marigold is so pretty, I will save its seeds and plant many more. Saving marigold seeds is easy. I simply scatter the seeds around the gardens and see what grows. Or, they can be scattered in an empty grow pot and then the seedlings can be transplanted. They do very well when transplanted too.

Marigolds in the garden
My orange and yellow marigolds
damselfly
Little damselfly

This frilly gold-orange marigold flower is interesting. I keep waiting for it to “open” but this is all it does. The older flower is now looking like it’s gone by. I hoped it would be more than this. It is different, and I’m not sure what type it is.

  • Golden orange marigold flower that is frilly

Marigolds Can Handle the Heat

Marigolds are wonderful choices for this humid and very hot location. I’ve never had them wilt or seem stressed by the baking sun. The big yellow flowers can get ants, but other than that, no pest problems.

Red-orange marigold flower

Be Careful of the Rains

Once we began getting big afternoon storms (July), my marigolds fell over. Big sections of the plants just fell to the ground!

I’d already planned to put cages around the yellow marigolds because of their height, but it seems these orange ones need support as well.

The broken parts are going into the compost. Next year I will buy some short cages, sold near the tall tomato cages at Home Depot, and put them up for all the marigold plants.

  • composting broken marigold
  • Short cage for flowering plants

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