Plant Life
Spring/Summer 2019
Above is Tithonia Rotundifolia, also known as the "Mexican Sunflower". 2019 was the first year I attempted to grow Tithonia and I am very happy about how it turned out.
I planted about a dozen Tithonia seeds in the middle of a 4ft x 8ft raised planting bed in late April 2019. At thinning time, I spared the 3 largest plants that were spaced appropriately (~15in). All three Tithonias grew to over 6ft tall with one plant easily breaching 8ft. All three Tithonias also grew to about 6ft wide.
Our Tithonia's beautiful reddish orange flowers attracted a large array of pollinators including hummingbirds, butterflies, honey bees and various native bees. In order to keep these beautiful plants blooming (instead of seeding), I dead-headed the Tithonias multiple times per month. I did, however, let a few of the blooms go to seed so I can plant Tithonia again next year for free.
As for care, all I did for the Tithonia this year was dead head and water. Tithonia seems to be largely pest resistant--my three plants showed no signs of infestation by fungus nor insect throughout the growing season. There was only one real "pest" problem I experienced with our Tithonias--Starlings thought our Tithonia seedlings were fantastic nesting material. To counteract the Starlings constant assault, I simply put netting over my flowerbeds until the Tithonia were large enough to survive the attacks.
The Tithonias died promptly on the morning of the first frost of the season.
Tithonia will definately have a spot in my garden in the years to come as it is a beautiful plant and extremely pollinator friendly.
Spring/Summer 2020
The beatiful vertical spires are from a Agastache or Hummingbird Mint. I purchased this particular plant in 2017 so 2020 marked its third year in my care. In previous years, the Agastache had been happily co-staring with its container-mates but in 2020, it really took off and became the star of the show.
This particular Agastache blooms in a beautiful orange/pink from early May until the killing frost in November. The Agastche is always the most popular plant in the garden amongst the pollenators and is humming with activity 24 hours per day. The Agastach is visited by all types of bees, moths (at night) and flies (blech).
Moreover, the Agastache is a hummingbird favorite. We love to watch the bejeweled hummingbirds skit around the plant while they lap up the delicious and abundant nectar from the beautiful, swaying flowers. I was curious so I tasted the nectar myself and was suprised to find it is very sweet with a pleasantly light minty, citrusy taste. I found that our Agastache flowers and leaves are a wonderful muddle for refreshing rum-based cocktails as well!
My Agastache does not produce seeds. I'm sure it is because the vendor does not want folks propagating the plant and to buy more from them instead. As we all know, nature does not take kindly to greed and life will always find a way. As such, I was delighted to find that the Agastache readily propagates via cuttings any time of the year and from practically any part of the plant.