Anyone have any idea what this plant is? Bought it as big box, was labelled "Armeria Dusseldorf Pride" "Sea Pink" Can't complain too much, paid only a buck for it. I know it's a high-water requiring plant as it does NOT like to dry out at all. Seems to be about 8-10 inches tall and constantly in bloom if I keep it moist. I doubt it'll survive for me at all as I don't do well with high-water requiring plants.

Pentas......

Great. I don't really care for annuals. Oh well. Live and learn.

Thanks Paul!

Hummingbirds like these plants. If there are any around, they may visit it.

Tiffany - I have tons of agastaches, beebalm, penstemons, & other plants that the hummers fight over. This plant is too small & hidden for the hummers to even bother.

Star Flower (Pentas lanceolata) are Hummingbird and Butterfly magnets! I grow both the standard size and dwarf types which are perennial's here in Florida if we don't get consecutive freezes, but they'd definitely be annuals in your zone ... still well worth using as filler plants in the summer garden!

Toni, I love your garage! Awesome pics and flowers too! What is the plant with the pendulous red flowers on the left? That looks like a great one!!

Lin, love these shots too!

I have a Pentas with red flowers that I see being visited, each little flower, by hummers also, just one of many blooming plants in and around the front porch. I spend several hours a day sitting on the porch watching them. The more plants one collects that they appreciate, the more they will be around. Doesn't have to be one mass of a single type of bloom. Just wish I knew what they were saying when they hover in midair, looking right at me, making the squeakie-toy noises.

Oh Toni, please forgive me ... I know I commented on your post yesterday evening, I must have clicked somewhere else and didn't hit finished! I had some minor laser surgery on my right eye yesterday afternoon and was suffering with extremely blurry vision last night so I was having trouble with typing and computering!

I love those photo's with the hummers and I bet they were going after the plants that Tiffany mentioned and not the roses! I'm curious too as to what that gorgeous plant may be; a Penstemon maybe?

I love the color of your garage door, really a pretty color backdrop for the roses etc. Really pretty!

Tiffany - My house is incredibly gaudy. I live in a non-HOA controlled area, so I could paint my house any color I wanted.. and I went bright. Bright bright bright. My one neighbor isn't too keen on it, but he knows he can't say anything.. mainly because he's the one who painted it (he's a professional painter by trade). Look at this post for more pix of the house. The bright red plant is Bridges Penstemon. A wonderfully xeric plant that's tolerant of shade, dry, cold, crappy soil.. everything!

http://cubits.org/bluegardens/... http://cubits.org/pics/2013-07...

Lin - There's nothing to forgive! Please take good care of your eye.. you're a much braver person than I am!! My ophthalmologist suggested Lasik, but I'm 1) too poor & 2) too chicken! I'll just stick with glasses.

Bridge's Penstemon:
Bridge Penstemon (Penstemon rostriflorus)


I love penstemons... those & agastaches. Two of my absolute favorite plants. Don't know how well they'd do in your humidity, though.. they're more of a desert plant.

Thanks Toni ... my surgery wasn't Lasik but rather a procedure to enlarge some fluid canal to keep from having pressure buildup and acute angle glaucoma or something like that. I've had three eye doc's tell me that the canal's in my eyes are very narrow and that I needed surgery to prevent future trouble. It was real quick, no pain (thank goodness) and no side effects. I have drops that I must use 4 times a day for the next 4 days but other than that, all's okay. I go back in a few weeks for the other eye.

I'm 65 years old and wore glasses and then contact lenses for distance vision since my mid 20's but a couple of years ago the opthalmologist told me I didn't need correction anymore. Apparently as we age our eyesight changes and it made me very happy that I no longer needed correction lenses for distance and driving; I still have to wear the over the counter cheater glasses for reading and computer work. I do have the beginnings of cataracts too but hopefully they will be very slow in growing and I won't need that eye surgery for awhile. I have no clue what this current eye surgery will cost but we have pretty decent insurance through my husbands job so hopefully my co-pay won't be too bad (she'd closed out already yesterday afternoon and said they'd bill it so I'm sure I will get a statement in the mail soon for the amount of the co-pay or maybe I will pay it when I go in for the next eye procedure in a few weeks. A friend of mine knows someone who had that Lasik procedure and she said her eyes were fine at first but then she had all kinds of issues and her vision was not much improved; she had to go back to glasses! I know it's an expensive surgery and no guarantees so I'd stick to glasses or contacts if it were me!

I LOVE that Penstemon, it is gorgeous! We do have three native Penstemon's here in Florida (one considered rare) but I don't have even one in my garden! I need to visit the native plant nursery to see if perhaps they have any available!

Skiekitty said:My house is incredibly gaudy. I live in a non-HOA controlled area, so I could paint my house any color I wanted.. and I went bright. Bright bright bright.
http://cubits.org/bluegardens/... http://cubits.org/pics/2013-07...

That house... Is loud!



Nice yard too!



do you have any left-over paint?

Stone - Yup, have a little of the blue left (about 1-1.5gal, hopefully enough to paint at least 1 of my sheds), need to combine the pink cans together to see how much I have there (painter opened like every damned can and used some of each, no idea why), and about 3/4 gal of the purple. VERY loud. When I have someone coming to the house, I tell them to look for the bright blue house, can't miss it.

Lin - Ooh, that sounds even worse than I thought! But at least they're taking good care of you! I've heard from a lot of people that Lasik isn't worth it. I get new glasses every 2-3 years, so $300 every 2-3 years isn't bad. I get glasses because I want new glasses, not because my prescription has changed. I need them for distance reading (street signs, etc). I can see perfectly well cars coming, the lines in the road, etc. But reading a street sign from more than 20ft away is hard.. everything's a blur. With my glasses, I have 15/20 vision. Without, 40/20. I don't need glasses to see up close, though. I use my iBooks on my phone regularly & people always ask "Can you actually read that tiny print?" Yes, quite easily.

I didn't know that there was penstemons in Florida! I figured it'd be too wet / low in altitude for them!

Toni: Wow, your house and gardens are absolutely BEAUTIFUL!! Love, Love, Love all the color! I'd say it's a very happy house and must be the prettiest in the neighborhood! You have a great eye for color combinations! What I dislike about where we live now ... it's a deed restricted community with so many rules/regulations and all the houses in our little subdivision look exactly alike!

I've learned there are 3 Penstemon's that are native to Florida:

P. multiflora, with white blooms - apparently very popular
P. australis, with light pink blooms
P. laevigatus, said to be rare

My problem will be the fact that all three require dry, sandy soil. We have a problem with drainage here and even one day of rain leaves the yard at this house flooded! At our other house I'd have a perfect spot for them but alas, our tenants aren't into gardening so I don't think I want to plant anything over there just yet. We are talking about selling that house in a couple of years and there will be lots of work to get the yard in shape before selling; I'll probably go with native plants when we get ready to put it on the market.

This site has Penstemon laevigatus for sale.. and says needs moisture. http://www.growingwildnursery....

I love that Multiflora... too bad it's a zone 8 plant. But you know, I should try to keep some zone 8 plants. After all, I keep zone 7 roses going...

Oh, thanks for that link ... very interesting that it likes to stay moist!

I think it's beautiful, your house! It looks beachy, which is perfect and fun irony for CO. Whatever makes you happy helps make life more fun. I'll take an interesting, personalized house or thing over cookie-cutter any day. Stepford neighborhoods creep me out, I lived in them for almost 40 years. Where I live now is 'anything goes' like you said. The houses and inhabitants are much more interesting to me as a whole, not that there's anything inherently wrong with anyone who lives in another kind of place, or the other kinds of places. I've enjoyed my variety, and support everyone out there doing what they can with what they have.

The couple pieces I've snapped off of this plant to experiment with propagating look like they're taking off. Next time I'll stick them in a pot that's coming inside to sit by a sunny window. Might be possible to 'save' over winter although this is not one I would worry about not being able to find next year, at least in red. Love the pink color of yours! And didn't know they came in white. Need more for next year! This has been blooming in its' pot since April.

Pentas come in Pink, White, Dark Red and a Lavender shade. I've grown them all over the years but now stick to the red & white ... the red seems to be most attractive to butterflies, bees and hummingbirds.