The Mystery Plant And A Garden Update

I finally figured out what this plant is. I found a place to park the car near the nearby traffic rotary where it lives, walked over, and got some good pics. I was surprised to see that the plant also comes in white and a pale pink.

It’s a Dwarf Ruellia, or Mexican Petunia, which is not a petunia. The parent plant grows 3 feet tall and is very invasive. But the dwarf will spread, but is more easily controlled. And it is so darn cute. It is a perennial.

This dwarf plant will do sun or shade, and it can manage some cold winters. They will die back in cold weather, like a lot of perennials, and emerge in the spring.

Katie’s Dwarf Ruellia

I ordered 20 plants in the violet color, and they are now on the way here. I’m going to put them in the front bed, where they will make a nice border line and will be backed by the taller azaleas (white) that bloom in the early spring. I have the sand, compost, and fertilizer all ready for them.

Look at this fancy Cone Flower! I’ve never seen anything like it and couldn’t resist bringing it home when I started planting this bed. It’s thriving, and I hope it will come back next year. Sometimes fancy cone flowers are more fragile in terms of winter.

The Limelight hydrangea is covered with blooms. This plant will get much bigger and will fill the space around it. The blooms will turn rust red in the fall. And the viburnum to the left has flower heads and has doubled in size with new growth.

Lantana thrives here–and I found one I really like. There are perennial and annual forms of Lantana. This one is perennial. I cut it back regularly as it can get very rangy–and I do like to bring the cut pieces inside. The flowers last quite a while in a vase.

The Russian sage is happy. Time will tell about the daisy and the clay soil. But it has had two bloom flushes this year. I just deadheaded it again yesterday.

The vitex is also happy. This one can get big too, so I’ll trim it carefully to encourage sideways growth. I don’t want it to be a tree, but will let it be a tall shrub.

The dwarf Butterfly Bush is happy. I didn’t realize it was a dwarf when I bought it. If it doesn’t survive the winter, I’ll replace it with a standard size. The blooms are so pretty, but these blooms don’t last long in the house anyway. So I suppose it does not matter about the dwarf size that has no long stems involved.

I have three of the azalea/rhododendron hybrids that will bloom all summer and into the fall: this white one and two red/orange ones (different colors) scattered among other plants in this long bed. And they are all starting to bloom now. My back door neighbor has a long row of these plants down the size of her house, and they are starting to bloom too. Hers are a kind of deep rosy pink. What a find!

Here’s a long view of part of this bed–which is filled with blooming plants to encourage and support pollinators in this new neighborhood. And, yes, the roses continue to thrive and bring joy. I cut back the spikes they were sending up, and now they are branching out to the sides and are about to bloom in earnest again.

The grass is also thriving now and all the care and amendments are working. Whew! It is now covering remaining bare spots and is sending up seed stems every week. This grass is a real water hog though, so I keep an eye on the dryness. We’ve gotten good rain recently so I have not had to water. It is sitting on clay soil which turns to cement without water.

Walking on it is like walking on a deep, thick rug. And the apple green color is so pretty.