Viewing comments posted by mellielong

Despite the name, this plant is not native to Florida. It is very common, though. It usually gets mowed down by my dad and the neighbors, but when in bloom it is quite attractive to butterflies, particularly the smaller butterflies. This species has light red flowers, but is often found growing along with Lilac Tassel Flower. The two are separate species, however. Although it is considered a weed, I never see it get too out of hand and often don't bother pulling it. As a butterfly gardener, I've learned that many weeds make the best nectar plants.

When getting rid of our palm trees, I wanted to plant something native. As a butterfly gardener, I felt that it also had to be a host plant. Therefore, I purchased a Black Cherry from the Florida Native Plant Society at one of the USF Botanical Garden sales. The tree was about five to six feet tall when I purchased it. Roughly seven years later, I would guess it at forty feet tall. So it's a pretty fast grower if you're looking for that. Mine has split into two main trunks, but it is growing very straight. Even though I live in central Florida, this tree does lose its leaves in the winter but quickly sprouts in the spring.

My dad is a woodturner and this is a very prized wood. His friends often like to look at my tree so they can identify others correctly when they encounter them. In this area it is probably easiest to confuse it with the Cherry Laurel, but that tree has far more serrated leaves than the Black Cherry.

The true test for me was when the Red-Spotted Purple butterfly laid its eggs on the leaves. I'm right on the border of their southern boundary and rarely see this butterfly. They prefer rotting fruit to flowers, so they will not nectar in my yard. The only way I see them is to find their host plants. When the tree was small, I gathered the caterpillars and raised them inside. Now, the tree is so tall that I only see the butterflies circling the top of it, particularly in the spring. Still, I feel it is a good plant if you want to attract and support wildlife. You may have to view it from afar, but it is effective.

Great plant for the Florida climate. As a butterfly gardener, I appreciate this not only as a fabulous nectar plant (especially for the Swallowtails), but also as a host for the Cassius Blue. It's a small butterfly, but if you've got this plant, you'll most likely have them nearly year-round flying around the plant. I've seen them flying on plumbagos lining a parking lot in downtown Tampa; that's how associated they are with this plant. They never stray too far from the plumbago, so be sure to plant some good nectar plants nearby, too. Oddly enough, I don't actually see them nectar on the plumbago. The Cassius Blues lay their eggs on the green stem just under the flower cluster, so keep that in mind when choosing to prune. And seriously, this plant draws in all types of Swallowtail butterflies as a nectar plant. They'll stay on it for minutes at a time, hitting each cluster of flowers, which gives me lots of photo opportunities!

Plumbago does get touched by frost occasionally in the Tampa area where I live, but I can't recall losing one in the many years we've had them. You do need to prune them once the chance of frost is past to pretty them up and kickstart the growing process. Periodic pruning is necessary to keep the shape of the plant, if so desired. I've found them to be drought tolerant, but also tolerant of the extremely wet summers we get. We also grow these in the butterfly garden at the Museum of Science and Industry where I volunteer in the butterfly garden.

Although it's not a native Florida plant, I would still recommend it because it's not invasive, it's hard to kill, and it does support wildlife. If you want to stay native, try Plumbago zeylanica, which has white flowers, instead.

I bought this plant late in summer when Select Seeds was having their big close-out sale. I wanted it because I had seen a Mexican Flame Vine at USF Botanical Gardens and it was a real butterfly magnet. I am a butterfly gardener and thought this would be perfect on a fence. I planted it late in the year but I made sure it got lots of water in the Florida heat so it could get established. But then, in the fall, I noticed it had disappeared. I figured I had killed it and I forgot about it. But late this winter, a mysterious vine started growing in the same place. It didn't look like any weed I recognized, so I thought maybe the Mexican Flame Vine had come back. Sure enough, it bloomed today and it has come back and is spreading rapidly up and down my fence! So a friendly heads-up that apparently this vine can go dormant for a while, but don't give up on it until you're sure it's not coming back.

Update: This vine got really aggressive for me, so I pulled it out in April 2016. I have gone back twice now and dug up more pieces where it has come back from roots, and some that might have layered or self-seeded. If you plant this, make sure you have plenty of room for it to grow. Preferably not near anything else as it was smothering some of my other plants.

Some people grow passion vines for the butterflies, while some prefer the blooms. I am of the butterfly camp. This is a great host plant for the Gulf Fritillary butterfly. They are definitely attracted to it but at the same time, the plant tends to grow quickly enough that I've never felt that it was overwhelmed by them. Zebra Longwings, however, tend to prefer the native passion vines (P. lutea, P. suberosa) and I have never had the Zebra caterpillars on this particular passion vine. Be careful and plan ahead when you plant it because it will grow and spread over anything in its path. I'm in zone 9b and have never protected this plant through the winter and never had the first problem with it.

If you are a butterfly fan but still hoping for blooms, you may have to give the plant a couple of years. The first two years or so I hardly saw a bloom, but now that the plant is big enough, I get a pretty good flush of blooms early in the spring and late in the fall when the butterflies aren't nearly as prevalent. But even in the peak of caterpillar munching, I'll still get a bloom here and there to enjoy.

I wanted this plant for two reasons: as a butterfly host plant, and as a Florida native plant. The flowers are very small and not showy, so it is not a good passion vine if that's what you're looking for. I also find that this is the slowest growing of all my passifloras. It definitely attracts both Gulf Fritillaries and Zebra Longwings. In fact, in my experience the Zebra Longwings tend to prefer the native species of passiflora, such as this one. But as I said, it doesn't grow very fast and can be quickly chewed up by caterpillars. So if you want it as a host plant, please make sure you have other passifloras available to transfer caterpillars to, as necessary.

I bought this plant from the Florida Native Plant Society several years ago. One plant has now spread and become several. Occasionally, I pull up a seedling that strays too far into another plant's territory, but this plant really isn't too bad about popping up where you don't want it, despite the numerous seeds it produces. Mine is planted in the shade under an oak tree but gets plenty of morning sun. The site also tends to be dry because our sprinklers don't quite hit that area so it does well surviving on its own, once established.

I planted this because I raise butterflies and this is a host for several Sulphur caterpillars. An interesting note, the Cloudless Sulphur caterpillar is usually predominantly green. However, when the sennas (or cassias, they eat both) are in bloom, they eat the flowers almost exclusively, and as a result, they turn yellow! They blend in with the flower to such a degree that it's nearly impossible to see them unless you have a really trained eye or they happen to move.

There are several cassias that are considered invasive in Florida; this native plant is an excellent alternative that I believe you should pursue instead. It has proven to be a regular draw for the Sulphur butterflies. Also, once I got it established, it bloomed far longer than other cassias I've seen. It's biggest flush is in the fall, but I've had it go right through winter with blooms still on it. The only bad thing I can say about it is that sometimes the seed pods get so heavy that the plant droops a bit, but you can always solve that by cutting off the seed pods. All in all, I would highly recommend this plant to anyone who is interested in butterfly gardening or who wants to introduce more native plants to their landscape.

I had the strange experience this year of having Long-Tailed Skippers lay eggs on this plant. It is NOT a host plant for them, but apparently it must seem similar enough to fool them. If you're growing for butterflies, be aware this can happen. If you don't want the Long-Tailed Skippers to die, you might consider planting one of their real host plants nearby, such as butterfly pea.

That being said, I'm growing this plant in raised beds in a shady side of the yard. I have two and both were easy to establish even in the Florida summer and they have taken to growing up the trellis with ease. I have hosted Polydamas Swallowtail caterpillars on the plant; they can eat it a lot faster than it grows, so be careful! Both got pretty chewed up but rebounded quickly once the caterpillars were gone. I think this is a very worthwhile addition to any butterfly garden, particularly since it can host both the Pipevine and Polydamas Swallowtails.