Butterflies

This morning a Monarch Butterfly was enjoying my Indigo Spires Salvia. This one salvia has brought so many new visitors to my garden. Bees, hummingbirds and butterflies love this plant. Everyone should have an Indigo Spires Salvia in their garden. All you need is one because they get big!

I love salvias! They bloom for months on end and attract butterflies and hummingbirds to your garden. Mine are able to survive with very little supplemental water. I love drought tolerant plants! The best characteristic is that salvias are perennials!

Now, there are a few types of salvias sold as annuals, but they usually set seed and come back through reseeding. There are many varieties of perennial salvias-that's what I grow in my garden.

My Bat Face Cupheas are doing so well! The bright red and purple flowers attract hummingbirds and make a statement in the garden....they are hard to miss! The Bat Face Cuphea is a drought tolerant plant, meaning that it needs very little water to survive. This is one of the top characteristics that I look for when choosing new plants. I hate dragging the hose around the garden to water plants. Now I choose only drought tolerant plants.

Coleus

A few days ago I was watering my container plants and I noticed this volunteer coleus. I was so excited to see it growing! If I remember correctly, this variety is 'Chocolate Chip' coleus. I bought it last spring from Cleggs and it grew nicely on my back patio. Winter came along and it died back and I thought I'd never see it again. Apparently, it had set seed and decided to sprout. Since I noticed it, I've been watering it and its growing well.

Bat faced Cuphea

Bat faced Cuphea (Cuphea llavea) has such an interesting flower! When you look at it up close, it does look like a bat's face.

I bought this plant about a month ago. Before planting, I cut it back so it could concentrate on developing a good root system. Today is the first day that it bloomed! It's a small plant now, but it will grow to 3 feet next spring.

Does anyone know the name of this catepillar? When I was taking pictures of the Cuphea, I noticed it walking past my foot. He moved fast! Hopefully it will turn into a pretty butterfly or moth.

Horticulture Hints

The Fall 2010 edition of Horticulture Hints is available on the LSU Ag Center website. To save time, I've included a link:
Horticulture Hints

Three for Thursday: New Additions

This is a picture of my new plants Cat Whiskers (Orthosiphon stamineus). I bought these over the Labor Day weekend and they are doing great. They are shade loving plants, so I've got them planted under my live oak. Cat Whiskers are available in white or lavender, although white is the more popular color. My favorite is the white variety because they closely resemble real cat whiskers.

I can't say enough good things about Salvia Indigo Spires! Even though it has been in the high 90's Indigo Spires is in constant bloom. The heat doesn't seem to bother it. I'm not sure what kind of moth or butterfly this is, but I was able to snap the picture when he was looking right at me!

This is another plant is bought during Labor Day. Its called Agastache 'Heatwave'. I got this at Lowe's for $5 for a one gallon pot, which is a good price. Had it been at a private nursery, the price would be doubled. So far this Agastache is living up to its name. It has taken the heat very well. Since planting, it has only been watered once.

Trip to the Nursery

This morning Dave and I headed to our local nursery (Louisiana Nursery) to browse the clearance plant section. Since it's the end of summer, the nursery had all annuals and perennials on sale. I picked up two Cat's Whiskers, two burgundy Gaillardia, and one red mum. We also bought carrot seeds. The Gaillardia was a steal at fifty cents!

I wanted to get catnip, but they didn't have any. My cats love it! I also wanted to find Pentas, but I only found the dwarf and I wanted the full size. I'll look for them again in the spring.

Yesterday I found Agastache 'Heatwave' at Lowe's. They had a huge selection of them and surprisingly they were all in good shape. They must have just gotten a shipment in. In Louisiana, Agastache can be hard to find in garden centers, so when I saw them at Lowe's I had to get one.

Some of my favorite plants

It's very overcast here in St. Gabriel and I think it may rain again today. Yesterday we got a little over 1/2 inch of rain. These are pictures that I took this morning.

This is a Rajin Cajun Ruellia (Ruellia elegans). I haven't put a picture of this plant on my blog yet. While I was looking at the plants this morning, I realized this and took a few pictures of it. Yes, I know the plant needs fertilzer, just ignore the yellowing leaves. And ignore the nutsedge. I hate nutsedge. It's the main weed in my garden and I can't get rid of it!

I love the bright red flowers! This plant blooms all summer long, no matter how high the temps get.

These are unopened flowers. They may open up later today or tomorrow.

And now for more pictures of Indigo Spires Salvia! I love this plant! The bees love it too. Every morning I see bees buzzing around the flowers. That is one of my Black eyed Susans in the picture too.

We've gotten a lot of rain lately and this salvia responded by putting out lots of flowers.

This is another plant new to my blog. It is a Chocolate Mint (Lamiaceae mentha). It smells like Junior Mints! I planted this in the corner of my garden 3 years ago. When I bought it, it was in a 4 inch pot. Since then it has tripled it's size(which is what I wanted it to do!). It does spread rapidly, but thats OK. Unlike other mints, it doesn't get very tall and it doesn't try to push other plants out of it's way; instead, it creeps along the garden floor.

It does go dormant in the winter, but when spring comes it puts out lots of new growth. In early summer it blooms and the bees love the flowers! After blooming, I cut it back to around 3-4 inches and let it put on more new growth.

Here is a close up of the leaves. I took this picture around 8:30 this morning and there was still dew on the leaves.

I love Butterfly Ginger (Hedychium coronarium). It smells just like a Gardenia. Give it shade and it will grow quickly. I've got mine under a big live oak tree and it seems to like it there.

Lastly, this is picture of a bluebird house that my dad built. The house is mounted on a live oak tree. I don't have any bluebirds around my house and I was hoping to attract them with this bird house. It didn't work! The only thing that lives in the bird house is spiders. I'm thinking about moving the house to my grandparent's camp in Clinton. They have lots of bluebirds there and they could make use of the house.