Sunstar Red performs like a champ
Pentas fit any style of garden, from cottage to retreat
In Georgiawe had a year thatwas prettymuch miraculous for butterflies. As youmight guess, The Garden Guy had an abundance of plants making sure pollinators of all sorts feltwelcome in the garden. InMay Iwrote a column telling you about a new Sunstar pentas series of making their debut.
I had already grown Sunstar Pink that seriously had the largest florets of any pentas series I had ever grown. Itwas a favorite of the Gulf Fritillaries inmy 2019 testing. This growing season I put the Sunstar Red to the big test and I am delighted to tell you this has championwritten all over it.
At The Garden Guy’s house the flower beds are full of a lot of “racehorses,” so to speak.
What Imean is that I have everything a butterfly or a hummingbird could want and they growat full throttle for the entire long hot summer. If you aren’t tough and fairly vigorous, you get swallowed up by those that are.
SunstarRedwas a champ growing right alongside thenewLuscious Golden Gate lantana and Blue Boa hummingbirdmint. Not only did they compete and hold their space at 2 feet tall and wide, but they bloomed until OldMan Winter (no relation) took them outNov. 30.
Theywere visited by swallowtails and hummingbirds throughout the summer. Gulf Fritillaries liked them like the Sunstar Pink and therewere frequent stops by American Ladies and CommonBuckeyes. But it was the variety of swallow
tails that keptmemesmerized.
There are four colors in the series coming from ProvenWinners: pink, red, a stunning lavender that
I combinedwithTruffula PinkGomphrena and arose. Theyhaveallwon awards fromnorth to south. In fact, therewere 78 awards before the 2020 set
of university trials.
As I told you inMay, these aren’t just any awards but Best of the Best, Perfect Score orTop Performer all season, or any awards for
hanging baskets. The one that caughtmy eyewas Top Performer Pollinators Award in the Ohio State University trials. After another year at TheGarden
Guy’s house, I concur.
Youwill relish the fact that maintenance is low and there is no need to deadhead. Last summerin thenewhouse, it seemed Iwas always frantic about something, and I kept saying tomyself I needed to deadhead. Every time I ventured out to do the task, the plant had increased its branches and blooms to the point I finally put away the shears.
Bloomswill be produced in abundance all summer long if beds are prepared correctly. Choose a site in full sun for best flower production. If I have aweak spot inmy garden, it is that I ama little sun challenged. The Sunstar pentas did their part however, blooming until frost.
If you are plagued by tight clay, prepare the bed by incorporating 3 to 4 inches of organicmatter. A little slowrelease fertilizer incorporated at planting time and a side dress in midsummerwill keep you in blooms until fall.
Sunstar pentas fit any style of garden, fromgrandma’s cottage to your tropical paradise retreat. But by all means don’t forget the role they can play in the backyard pollinator habitat. Again, I used Sunstar Redwith thenewLuscious Golden Gate lantana in what is referred to as an analogous color scheme of colors next to each other on the color wheel.
Youmay bewondering why isThe GardenGuy tellingme about Sunstar pentas now? Well, mine just froze and this is a good time for evaluation while it is fresh onmymind.
But therewill be a lotof pentas in the market in the spring and Iwant you to be able to get these award winners. Start sourcing now; tell your favorite garden center youwant them to get the Sunstar series. ProvenWinners can help you source too!