I'll have to make Dad prune the Firespike. I'm so bad at pruning plants even though I know it's good for them. I'll wait until later when it slows its blooming, though.

Beautiful Brug trees, I wish mine would bloom, they have before but they are cuttings from my Dad's plants and they haven't started to get any flowers. I'm wondering if they get too much shade, because my Dad's are full of flowers right now? Mine look nice and healthy, but only get late afternoon sun.

I have red, dark purple and light purple firespike. The dark purple surprised me how tall it grows, but like Elaine I found cutting it down in spring makes it bushy. The purple seems to like shade more than the red does.








My Dad's brug, his blooms several times a year. Mine is from this plant


Dad's other brug, flowers are peach/pink colored

Beautiful, Sherri. Yes, brugs here bloom often but they do need some sun. Mine seem to be on a cycle of about every month, in warm weather. In winter it gets longer in between bloom flushes, but as long as it stays warm they bloom right through winter, too. Just keep on feeding and watering like crazy to keep them growing and happy.

I have the light mauve Firespike like your third picture. Sadly, my hummers and butterflies don't seem to like it at all. I'm happy that somebody seems to be eating the leaves on my P. Lady Margaret.

When we lived in Hobe Sound, we has red firespike & it got about 7' tall, it was also as thick as could be. A hummer magnet for sure. I have the red up here too but it does not get as tall -- only about 4.5' so far. Up here, it goes dormant in the winter so there is no need to cut it back to control the growth.

Melanie, I would not have been able to resist that hib either! Gorgeous bright yellow there & the throat is irresistible.

Love that Lady Margaret Elaine!

I have red firespike that do well, but certainly do not grow real tall. They freeze back every winter and start again from root stock. I picked up a purple firespike at the Butterfly Museum sale. It's still getting settled in. I'd love to see it get tall like my iron weed plants.

And speaking of the ironweed. These plants are native and I call them my giants. They grow to be about 6 feet tall or more. This year on returning in the spring, each of the three I have, now have at least 3-4 stalks at the base. They have been busy this winter during their dormancy. The butterflies love them.

I had 2 cuttings of a brug and one died this winter. I have no idea what color the blooms as it hasn't gotten big enough to do that. I fertilized a lot of plants this spring and that one left seems to be multiplying branches and I am encouraged. But I also have 3 cutting left of Charles Grimaldi that I started this winter. One I have in the ground but the other two are in pots. Still trying to figure out where to put them. Maybe I will decide tomorrow.

Pam, when I first moved here I fancied growing citrus. Some nice fruiting varieties all grafted on hardy rootstock. Not a one of them survived the first freezing winters (lows in the low single digits). However, the root stock have survived and are growing and feeding the giant swallowtails. I am keeping the otherwise worthless citrus for the butterflies alone.

Can't remember who posted about the leaves on the passion vine getting eaten, but that should be the gulf frittilary. That's who eats mine. That's my most common b-fly along with the yellow sulfur that hosts on the paw paw which grow wild here.

So I am really pleased when I see the black swallowtail or the giants and even lately the buckeye. Zebra longwings also come here a lot. So Pam, what happened to your butterflies to make them temporarily absent?

My blue birds aren't here this year. Don't know why, but I sure miss them. I usually have 6-7 mated pairs living here by now.

Will be back out tomorrow pulling wild blackberry brambles from my beds, that and golden rod. Can't ever get a handle on those two hogs.

We could sure use some more rain.

I think a freeze took them out. Im just so pleased to see some back. My two big ligustrium trees burst into bloom today, I was amazed at how many flying 'things' were all over those flowers. From butterflies, moths, bees, littler flying things . Fun to watch so many things getting a treat.

for the welllll needed rain we got last night.

We got a downpour of an inch this afternoon around 5. I emptied the rain gauge as the sun was back out & radar clear. don't you just know it, about an hour later it began raining again. haven't been out to check the rain gauge to see how much we got that time.
My wildflower meadows are coming along quite nicely. I am over the moon with what I'm seeing this year and it isn't even quite May just yet. Maybe I'll be able to get some photos tomorrow.

Yay for you keeping the citrus for the butterflies Molly!

Zebra Longwing butterfly cats also host on passion vine.

Gee Molly, I know a few people who would be thrilled to get some of those paw paw seeds if you could collect any. The paw paw is the ONLY host plant for the Zebra Swallowtail butterflies. I haven't seen a single paw paw on this property.

The zebra longwings and Gulf frits love my Lady Margaret passi. I saw a GF yesterday on the plants, they are way up in my Podocarpus trees now so I can't see the eggs. A few years ago my garden was chock full of Gulf Frits and Zebra longwings, last year I didn't see as many and we had a mild winter. I've seen a few Zebras this year, and the Gulf Frits are just starting to come around, so hopefully I'll have more this year.

Molly, I'm happy to see my twin flowers you gave me coming back up and I think the Obedient plant is coming up too. The white ginger is sprouting some new shoots, but may be in too shady of a spot. Also the Crinum Lilies are growing very well, I had to move them a couple times to find a happy place.

Lots of Gulf Frits and Zebra Longwings here these days, too. It's windy today so I'm not even attempting to get pictures.

But (so thrilled) I did see a nice Tiger Swallowtail flash by the window this morning.

Ann, I am surprised you don't have any Paw Paws. They are wild here and come up everywhere. I would certainly be happy to share some with you, either plants or seeds. Although I am not sure when they will seed out. Never watched for it.

Sherri, glad to hear the twin flowers are showing for you and given time you will have many more. Mine also are starting to bloom and will go on all summer. The obedients here are also up but too early to bloom. I have to be careful when I am pulling out goldenrod as their growth structure is very similar to obedients. The obedients have a more scalloped leaf than the goldenrod. I pull the goldenrod as they are hogs. A few years ago I let them have their space as any color was better than no color. But they took advantage of my generosity and moved into all the gardens without remorse.

As for the ginger....which one did I bring for you? In any event, even filtered sunlight would be fine. The only ginger I have that wanted more light was the butterfly ginger and I think that one was complaining because the azaleas were hogging everything...light, water and space. So I moved the ginger this spring. Hopefully I will get some blooms this year on that one.

Ann!!! you had rain yesterday? I and my gardens are so envious. My dirt roads are still a large dust bowl.

Oh my, I just looked at the Zebra Swallowtail picture. I have been calling them a longwing all this time and thanks to yall, I know different and that the pawpaw is the host plant. See, you can teach an old dog new tricks. LOL

Molly, the tag just said "White Ginger". It gets morning sun and late afternoon sun, like after 5PM, but shaded the rest of the day. Most my garden is that way, I have some sunny spots but they are sandy and dry.

Rain has been sporadic down here, we had a good downpour two Fridays ago and some spit since and my rain barrel is getting low. We always go on vacation to the Keys for two weeks in May and I just hate leaving my garden for that long. I'm actually paying my cat sitter to put water in my birdbath for the birds and squirrels, and water my orchids and hoyas. I had to laugh when we were camping last year, I saw a woman getting her tomato plants out of her camper and setting them around her camp site, my husband looks at me and said, "No way are we bringing your plants camping". That said, our little shower stall usually has a plant or two or three coming home with us...there are nurseries everywhere .

Had a couple Monarchs in the garden yesterday.

Sherri/Molly, is this the ginger you have? If so, it is 'White Butterfly' Ginger, Hedychium coronarium.

Mine hasn't flowered yet, but I sure hope so, Molly will know.

We finally got a nice shower last night late, my rain barrel is full again.

Molly you can't dig up paw paws. Not unless you want to dig to China. Those things have unbelievably DEEP, DEEP, DEEP tap roots!!!! Even the little baby ones.
I have hopes that they will yet appear on the property here though. I noticed just yesterday when I was walking around that since we moved in & have not been mowing the fields until fall; the native plants are returning. There are now native passion vines popping up along with native guara. I haven't noticed any paw paw yet but if the others are coming then there's a good chance the paw paw will too.

Two years ago I planted a large container with Jacobinia and last year added some caladiums.
This year, the planter exceeded my expectations.

You've created quite a show, Elfrieda. Good work and nice results.

That is beautiful, Elfrieda! I've never grown jacobinia, is it a perennial for you? Does it bloom all summer?

It's beautiful!

Just realized that I had posted the same topic twice; sorry about that. Took the text out but don't know how to remove the rest.
But, yes I grow the Jacobinia (also known, I believe as Brazilian Cloak) as a perennial. I tried growing it in the ground once some years ago but it only survived two years. The container plant is definitely healthier than what I'd had in the ground and hope to get a few more years out of it.