This early spring sky is filled with butterflies! I am seeing so many eastern tiger swallowtail butterflies (Papilio glaucus) feeding on colorful spring flowers that it has really brightened my days. Eastern tiger swallowtails are quite large - with a wingspan of 3 to 5.5 inches and with their bright yellow wings with blue spots, they put on quite a show. If you want to bring them to your garden, there are some early spring flowering plants … [Read more...]
Coral Honeysuckle – Native Vine for Hummingbirds
Have you ever plucked a honeysuckle flower, turned it around and gently sucked the nectar from the tube-shaped back of the flower? If you grew up in the southeastern U.S., I bet you did. That taste of super-sweet honey nectar always makes me think of summer nights spent chasing fireflies and summer days spent running wild and free. Imagine my surprise when taking a class on native plants and shrubs in college that I learned that the yellow … [Read more...]
The Delicate, But Aggressive, Cypress Vine
When my cypress vine (Ipomoea quamoclit) is blooming, it is covered in tiny, star-shaped, brilliantly red flowers. Although they are tiny, the flowers really stand out against the light green of the leaves and vine. My favorite part about the cypress vine is its dainty, feather-like leaves. The leaves look so fragile and fairy-like that, even when it isn’t blooming, this vine puts on a little show. But don’t be fooled by the delicate … [Read more...]
Add Structure, Style, & Color to Your Garden with a Trellis & Flowering Vine
This content includes affiliate links. I get a small percentage of the sale for purchases made through links in this post. However, I use each product I review and only recommend those that I like and have worked well. Read my disclosure for more information. When I decided that the raised bed in my front yard needed a little height to give it added structure and color, my first though was some sort of permanent structure, whether it be … [Read more...]
This Beautiful Purple Vine Can Be Deadly to a Tree
When there is a sweet floral scent in the air in early March, I know the wisteria is blooming. All I have to do is drive my car with the windows down to find a patch of this sweetly scented flowering vine. I’m led by my nose to look around for the soft purple of its blooms. In the South, this vine is omnipresent – in the forest, in neighborhoods, in rights-of-way, and even along highways. That is both the joy of and the pitfall of Chinese … [Read more...]
Top 10 Flowering Plants that Beat the Heat
The summer heat has arrived and it’s pretty miserable outside. We’ve been under a heat advisory for the last week and a half. That means the temperature outside FEELS like over a hundred degrees with the high humidity. I’m watering in the early morning and sometimes at night, just to keep up with it, but the plants are still suffering. However, some of my plants are thriving, in spite of the high temperatures and dry weather. So if you’re … [Read more...]
Cross Vine: Bignonia capreolata
As a native plant, cross vine has a big advantage - it's easy to grow, hardy, tolerates the heat, has a low water requirement, and can grow in both full sun and part shade. It's in the same family as trumpet creeper (Bignoniaceae) and the flowers are very similar - trumpet-shaped, 2" long tubular and bright orange-red/yellow. Cross vine is native to the Southeast from Florida to Texas and up to West Virginia: Zones 6-9. My first encounter with … [Read more...]
Purple Passionflower: Passiflora incarnata
Purple passionflower, also known as maypop, is a relatively quick-growing, perennial, herbaceous vine in the Passifloraceae family. You can find this vine growing throughout the Southeast from Texas to Kansas up to Pennsylvania and down to Florida. In Mississippi, I’ve often seen it in pastures or open fields. It’s a great addition to an arbor or trellis and provides necessary food for the larvae of several butterfly species. The flower is … [Read more...]