You Need This Plant in Your Garden

When searching for a great addition to your pollinator garden, what are some of the prerequisites you require?

•     nectar rich
•     continual blooms
•     waterwise
•     perennial
•    disease resistant

There may be many plants that meet these requirements, but there is one that is often overlooked.  That plant is Zexmenia (Wedelia acapulcensis var. hispida). 

Zexmenia defies our hot summer weather and is unperturbed by the humidity.  If it suffers from any disease issues, I have not found them.  Producing bright golden flowers from May thru November, this tough perennial will provide excellent nectar for smaller butterflies and other pollinators in your garden.  It will grow to a height of about two feet. 

I very successfully grow this winner in a brick-enclosed courtyard where most other plants have failed. 

Zexmenia happily survives on nature's rain and most any soil from clay to sand.  

You need this underutilized perennial Zexmenia in your pollinator garden.

PLANNING NEXT SUMMER'S GARDEN

Look around your garden.  Do you have a few plants that really suffered or even succumbed to our blistering summer?  I certainly do, and now is the best time to make a commitment to those plants which will withstand our super hot summers.  Don’t wait until next April when nurseries stock all those beautiful plants that thrive in 80 degree temps but go into shock when the thermometer registers 100.  Spring time is too late to commit because your resistance will be low, and you will be tempted to try that special plant “just one more time.”  Those plants which are toasty now will be just as toasty next year.  Make your sketches, make your lists, make your promises--do whatever is necessary to make your gardening less stressful next year, but do not wait—START NOW!

Here are a few of my happiest plants in full sun (I’ll suggest part-sun plants later).  They have survived the summer and still look quite good.  Plan for next summer before it's too late!

Lantana (click to enlarge)

Jethro Tull Coreopsis (click to enlarge)

Zexmania (click to enlarge)

Bougainvillea (click to enlarge)

Mexican Sunflower (click to enlarge)

Miss Huff Lantana (click to enlarge)