Three garden beauties for the heat and humidity
Pleasant May mornings have inspired last-minute weeding, planting, mulching and pruning before summer smothers us with its clammy heat.
My hit-and-miss goal has been to restore at least relative order in the garden by Memorial Day. I’m not a fan of high temps and sticky humidity. So over the years, I have searched for perfect companions that can color the summer garden without clinging to me for support.
Here are three mostly go-italone mainstays in our garden I’d recommend to anyone looking for low-care beauty:
Angelonia
Angelonia, aka summer snapdragon, is a South American native easily grown as a Texas annual for sunny, well-draining soil gardens. The various series are available in blue, lavender, purple, pink, shades of rose, white and a mix. Heights also vary, but generally are 12-18 inches tall, depending on the cultivar.
Angelonia is easy in a sunny bed and drought tolerant once established. It’s beautiful in sweeps of massed color or mixed with other sun lovers in beds or containers.
My favorite, Archangel ‘Raspberry’ is a multibranched plant, 12-14 inches tall and packed with spikes of larger, pealike blooms that continue from spring to frost.
I bet you’ll find your favorite as well.
Penta
Pentas gets an A+ in our warm-season garden. The clusters of tiny star-shaped blooms of this annual/tender perennial show up month after month in sun or even bright shade with little care.
I’ve planted it in varying amounts of light so all visiting butterflies and hummingbirds will find nectar: white in shadier spots, dwarf lavender in a partially sunny bed with dwarf purple butterfly bush (buddleia) and rosy magenta in sun and part sun. Heights vary among the cultivars from 12-36 inches.
As with many annuals, there are various series of pentas. The popular Graffiti series comes in white, red, pink, rose, roses magenta and dwarf lavender.
My favorite pairing is Graffiti ‘Violet’ penta and ‘Raspberry’ angelonia in nearly full sun. These two easy-going summer bloomers give me more time to relax in a rocker beneath the fan on the screened porch.
Summer phlox
Summer phlox has been a butterfly-attracting staple in our garden for years. I love the fragrance and the colors of these low-maintenance perennials. The old-fashioned 3-foot-tall magenta is a hall of famer in my opinion, but most phlox are worthy in my eye. Look for mildew-resistant types.
In February — yes, way back when — I scooped up four pots of a new-to-me cultivar offered at a local nursery. The plants were in full bloom, and the violet-pink color of ‘Fashionably Early Princess’ were irresistible, and the foliage was glossy dark green. Once planted around a birdbath, the flowers continued, and when the blooms were spent, I snipped them off to encourage more. They’ve not let me down and are now blooming as my long-planted ‘John Fanick’ phlox, a Texas Superstar, opens its first flowers.
Phlox lovers may want to check out availability of the ‘Fashionably Early’ phlox series. It’s supposedly more of a spreader than a clumper as other Phlox
paniculata cultivars.