I picked up another Porterweed plant a week or so ago. Planted it in my backyard over the weekend in a garden bed with a bunch of other pretty purple flowering plants. Well ...... wouldn't ya know it .... turns out it is the Coral porterweed! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.................. I HATE it when the plants are mistakingly marked at the plant nursery. I had visions of an all purple flowering section of one of my garden beds. Those peach/orange blooms just shattered THAT image. So aggravating!!!!!
This is the bed I planted it in. Burns me up!!!
This message was edited Apr 9, 2007 9:23 PM
I have had the coral for a few years. I bought the red and purple at Lowe's last year. Both are sprouting this spring.
Hmmm...I see duranta and plumbago :o) They are doing good. Guess that purple plot will have a spot of orange sunshine from that porterweed :o)
I received some blue porterweed in a trade. It is doing fantastic!!! They don't sell it down here. If ya ever decide you want to dig up the peach/orange porterweed...just let me know...got more purple duranta than I need - but then again, I believe I can never have enough duranta!!! I plan to plant several more along the inner east side of my backyard to the butterflies can nectar in the afternoon sunshine.
~ Cat
Becky, I like it! I wish I could find some at Lowe's here, but haven't seen it. Did you want that bed all purple?
Thanks, y'all!
fly - Yes! That was "supposed to be" a purple flowering garden bed. But .... I guess now it will coordinate with the Coral Honeysuckle on the trellis behind it!
Does everyone find that the Coral Porterweed attracts the butterflies like the Purple variety does? I hope so. I also heard that the hummers are attracted to the Coral color as well. Is that true?
I ask because I've never had the coral color porterweed in my yard, so not sure about how it will serve it's purpose as a butterfly/hummer nectar plant.
Cat - You KNOW your plants!!! You were right on the Duranta and Plumbago! The 4 little plants in the front are Ageratum (purple also), and there is a purple flowering Liatris on each side of the porterweed. The size of the leaves on this porterweed tell me that it is going to get big like the one I have in my front yard. :-) I think I'll keep it!!! Please tell me that it is as popular with our winged friends as the purple!!!!
And speaking of hummers ...... I can NOT believe that no hummers have been spotted in my yard yet. Look at this corner of my backyard. I have Cape Honeysuckle, Firecracker plant (Russelia equisetiformis), and Milkweed all blooming like crazy! The plant in the pot is a pink blooming Gaura Lindheimeri. Definitely enough nectar for at least one little hummer!
So ......................... WHERE ARE THEY??????!!!
This message was edited Apr 9, 2007 10:37 PM
Ah, I also recognized the ageratum. Had that growing in my yard last year. The ruellia overtook it :o) And I saw the milkweed peeking at the bottom corner.
Am thinking you and I have the same plants! I have gobs of duranta and orange cape honeysuckle. Also have liatris started in large pots. Your firecracker is similar to my firebush (hamelia patens) :o) Great minds think alike!!! Have plumbago at the ranch. Don't have it in my yard as the seed pods stick to the cocker spaniel's fur :o)
Do you get hummies on the duranta? They frequent mine all the time. They like zipping between that and the honeysuckle...and they also zoom over the house to the firebush hedges that line my driveway. Hummers like the Mexican Flame vine too so am sure they'll go for the peach/orange porterweed.
Here's a photo some of my duranta from this past weekend. I pruned them last month!!! They were way too big. (to the west is the orange cape honeysuckle...but can't be seen in the photo) - the hummies zip back and forth between them.
Back corner is a Mexican Flame vine (bloomed out...need to clip the spent flowers soon) and a Yellow Butterfly Vine. Couple of strawberry guava trees in the large plastic terra cotta colored pots in front of the duranta and a tray of rue starter plants. Gobs of other plants started in pots as well.
Will have to make time to photograph the yard - just waiting for the weather to warm up.
~ Cat
I've been looking for russelia for two years now and forget about finding porterweed in my area.
P
Cat - LOVE your selection of plants! Looks like you are going to have a great butterfly year! I would love to see more photos of your yard!!! :-) What is a Yellow Butterfly vine? Have you noticed if the butterflies also like the coral porterweed? I may dig it up and put it in another place in my backyard and get a purple porterweed for that area. I haven't decided yet. I'm kind of bummed that it is orange blooming instead of purple for that area. Though I DO want a coral porterweed in my yard, too! Just wasn't expecting it to be there! LOL
I am waiting patiently for the hummers to find my yard! You'd think they could see all the red flowers from the sky!!! Humph!
bigred - The butterflies LOVE my purple porterweed! It's their favorite nectar plant in my entire yard!!! I highly recommend it!!!
becky,
finding it locally will be the trick.
P
The butterflies and hummingbirds both love my coral porterweed
This message was edited Apr 10, 2007 3:06 PM
Looks like you may have had a happy accident Becky.... Your purples will *pop* well with the coral accent!
Deb
Becky-
The butterflies love the coral porterweed...not to worry. We do have a trailing native FL porterweed that's purple.....(hee,hee) Oh! Since we're talking about your purple bed and hummers...have you tried Salvia Black & Blue? The Hummers freak out for it in my garden. Want some?
~Adrienne
Deb - I like the coral, I just don't think it's going to look good in that particular garden bed, so I am moving it and getting a purple porterweed for that area.
Adrienne - Thanks for letting me know that the butterflies DO like the coral porterweed. I knew that hummers like the coral, but wasn't sure about the butterflies. I will be moving that porterweed to another location where there are lots of red and orange flowers. Just for color coordination in a couple of my garden beds!
I got a call from the nursery and they just got more of the blue/purple flowering porterweed in today. So I will be making another trip to pick one up. They apologized for the mix-up in porterweed. The tag from the coral one was missing when I grab the plant so that is why I didn't realize it was coral instead of blue/purple.
I have a small patch of the Black & Blue Salvia in one of my garden beds. Thanks for offering me some. Just curious ..... do your B & B produce seeds? Mine don't seem to.
I've got so many nectar plants for hummers. Most bloom year round. I can't explain why I've yet to get a single hummer to visit my yard. I even hung feeders for 2 months in the Fall and still no hummers. There ARE hummers in my area. I don't know why they have not found my yard yet. I have lots of bright red tubular flowers! Oh well................
When they finally find you Becky there will be a hummer frenzy, and then there will be a new thread on hummie behavior with sightings of hummingbirds kicking themself for not finding your yard sooner, LOL!
.....They'll be saying, "Where has this lady been all my life?? I'vw been slummin', bigtime!!!"
lol
ROTFLMBO! You are too funny, Deb!
I'm considering a NEON sign next ................ "Eat at Becky's Nectar Cafe". All the red flowering blooms you can visit! Flashing sign should work! LOL!
Hi again-
Too funny ladies! My gardening neighbor and I have set up feeders and plants in the middle of our yards and we call it Hummingbird Central!
Becky...my Black n Blue propagates by runners. They're sending out tons of new shoots now.
Adrienne
Thanks Adrienne for the info on how BnB propagates. My plant has spread since I planted it back in November. I should've known. lol
Well ...... I dug up the coral porterweed and planted it in a different spot in my yard. I went down to the nursery to get a purple porterweed and wouldn't ya know it ..... it's the native porterweed that is really small, not the giant variety. That was a bummer! I bought one anyway and a few other plants. (I need to stay away from the nurseries as I ALWAYS see plants I want. I have no self-control at all! lol) Thank goodness this place sells plants relatively cheap.
When I got home I pondered the Purple Porterweed dilemma and decided to dig up the huge Purple Porterweed in the front yard garden bed and transplant in the back yard garden bed. Surprisingly, it came up fairly easy. I just hope I didn't kill it as I had to really trim the roots and the branches back to transplant it in the backyard garden bed. I decided to do that because my dh hates that huge porterweed next to the walkway and he always intentionally breaks the branches off. Plus it is usually packed with bees, butterflies, and moths which freak everyone out when they come to my front door! LOL! And it does get so large that it is partially covering the walkway. lol
Anyway, the large Porterweed is transplanted. Looks good where I planted it. So now I have to get busy and clean out the front garden bed and add the smaller variety Purple Porterweed to that bed. I've got some canna and the ditchlilies that I want to add to the front garden bed. This weekend just went by too quickly. Not enough time. I am hoping I can get that bed done after work during the late afternoons.
One good thing .......... we got that cool front that moved across the southern USA and the temps dropped into the 70-low 80's during the day. So maybe I can get out there after I get home from work and get that front bed done this week. It was close to 90 degrees before the front moved in. Miserable high temps for April !!! At this rate the summer is going to be a scorcher! Not good. Global warming???? I truly hope that we do NOT get any severe hurricanes this year. I don't mind the 100-110 mph hurricanes, but hurricanes with higher winds is gonna be trouble for Florida! It's something I think about every summer/fall now since the destruction of Hurricane Season 2004 in my area.
I hae the purple, coral and blue porterweed. I love them all. The butterflies do love the coral.
Becky, I jsut found some coral Porterweed and had to have it....thanks to you! I think is't so pretty. Do you think it will have those tall spiky flowers like on the purple?
They also had some dwarf red....I didn't get that one but may have to go back.
I ask for Porterweed around here and they look at me as if I grew another head... I will not give up!!!!
:-D!eb
When I went to purchase the purple porterweed last weekend, they had pink, peach, and then the smaller blue/purple as well. I had never seen pink flowers on porterweed before. Don't know if it produces lots of nectar too. Sometimes the hybrids aren't as attractive to the bugs and birds.
Rox - Any porterweed that I have seen always has the long spikes of flowers on it. As to whether or not yours will gets big, that I am not sure of. There are at least two types of porterweed in my area. One is the native porterweed (Stachytarpheta jamaicensis) and the other is what I consider the "giant" variety (Stachytarpheta urticifolia) which has much larger leaves and flowers and actually has branches forming a shrub. I find that the butterflies (and supposedly the hummers, too) love this larger variety because the larger flowers of course produce much more nectar. But both are attractive to butterflies.
Here is a photo of Stachytarpheta jamaicensis which I have in my backyard garden bed. I also just bought another one for my front garden bed. It stays a bit more compact and doesn't have the branching that the larger variety porterweed has. This has been in the ground a year already and you can see that it hasn't grown very large.
This message was edited Apr 20, 2007 9:53 PM
Here is a photo of the larger variety of porterweed (Stachytarpheta urticifolia). This is the plant I transferred to my backyard in the purple flowering garden bed.
The difference in size it obvious as you can tell.
Deb - I am very surprised that you have not been able to find porterweed in your area. It's fairly drought tolerant once established here in hot Florida. I can send you a seed spike if you like of either variety. I just don't know how easy they grow from seed. They are NOT invasive in my yard, which surprises me because they both produce a LOT of spikes. But I have never seen a seedling sprout around either of them.
I sent Paige some seeds and she did not have any luck getting them to sprout the last I heard. She also sent me some coral porterweed seeds and they have not sprouted either. So I don't know what the trick is to get it to germinate from seed.
This message was edited Apr 20, 2007 9:53 PM
Janice - I bet your yard does get tons of butterflies with all the varieties of porterweed you have in your garden beds! Are all of yours the Stachytarpheta urticifolia or Stachytarpheta mutabilis variety?
Love those Porterweeds!! I don't have any right now tho! Last year I had about 50 purple ones so surely I'll have some coming up from seed. I finally got 2 seeds to germinate but they were the last thing I had and they got moved and I have no idea if they are coral or purple. They aren't under lights so I'm not sure they'll even survive. I'm working on my beds now but soon I'll just go throw some seed out.
Deb, I got the "blue" one a few years ago at Redenta's. I'm thinking I got my coral one several years ago at the plant sale at the Dallas butterfly exhibit sale. That's a beating to go to tho!
Becky, I got a wild hair and moved a big Mexican Bush Sage today. It opened up an area, then that led me to taking out a big patch of "dis"Obedient plant. I've got more in other areas so I decided this space could be used more wisely. Sounds like Porterweed is what I should put there!
Paige - I think you have just found the PERFECT spot for a porterweed or two!!! Go for it, girl!!!! The butterflies will thank you! :-)
I will call Redentas again this week...Last I checked they didn't have any, and didn't know when they would.
Sounds like your garden is really taking shape Paige, whooooohoooo!!
:-)
You might have to just go out there occassionally when you are in the area. They could have more knowledgeable personnel now but once I asked them about Pipevine and the woman said "I've never heard of it" snootily like I was asking a really stupid question. HA....it wasn't me! lol
They grow really easy from seed, or they did last year. Do you have any to toss out? Let me know if you need some. I really liked the "blue" (of course it's purple) that I had because it was smaller and not a full size bush.
That would be so nice Paige. The one I got from you last year didn't pull through :-( winter. I can send you an env, if ya prefer..or I will get you back with something you like. Let me know. Is your address on the Trade list?
Thank you!!!
Deb
Here's a photo I just took a few minutes ago.
Oh Jan, That's beautiful!!
:-)Deb
Jan - That's what I am talking about!!! :-) I love my Porterweed! Great photo!
A funny thing ..... I dug up my huge Purple Porterweed in the front yard and transplanted it to the backyard garden bed. It, of course, went into shock. I probably should've cut it back much more, but thought I'd wait to see how it fairs in it's new home. I water it every night to soak it good. The leaves are hanging all wilted by the evening. I even spray the foliage down good. Every morning when I go out to put seeds in the bird and squirrel feeders, I check the bush. Every morning the leaves are perked up and it looks like it's been there all along doing great. This goes on each and every day. Wilt, water, perked up ..... day after day. Now wouldn't ya think the plant would just drop all the leaves and get it's roots established???? NO! It refuses to let the leaves die. I guess that's why it's called a "weed". Refuses to die! LOL!
