This native plant blooms for months, attracting both birds and butterflies, and is practically bullet-proof once established. - University of Florida
The most common discussion in North Florida in August is typically regarding how HOT it is. Our temperatures climb to the maximum and the sun demonstrates its power at midday. Fragile flowers such as gardenia will not tolerate the extreme heat and vegetable gardens are taking a break until fall. The agave (century plants) are blooming with their towering stalks of flowers, but one of our favorite summer plants is busy attracting birds and butterflies: the fiery firebush (also known as scarlet bush or hummingbird bush).
Firebush, Hamelia patens, is our ideal choice for August's Flower of the Month with its drought and heat tolerance, Florida friendly character, and ability to integrate beautifully into almost any landscape design for North Florida. The flower shown in the photo is the dwarf variety of firebush, which is not native and is slightly lighter in color than the regular variety. Native firebush grows very large in full sun and has shown tolerance to salt spray in beach landscaping designs.
The time to plant firebush is NOW so contact your North Florida landscaper to incorporate it into your landscape design. It thrives in almost any type of soil and is mostly disease and pest resistant. It will begin its red orange blooms in spring then continue all the way until the first cold freeze. Firebush is considered a perennial or semi-woody shrub and the best thing about it is the wildlife it attracts: hummingbirds and butterflies such as the gulf fritillary and the magical zebra longwing. Its berries will attract other birds as well.
🦚Article by Connie Helena, author of The Green Orchid 🦚
No comments:
Post a Comment