These plants provide more than blooms
I recently provided a list of blooming plants to use in containers for apartments or condos with limited sun or shade. In addition to the light requirement for the various plants, I described the size of the container and the dates of the year the plants would work best. The list included primula, cyclamen, zinnias, snapdragons, pansies, begonias and pentas.
This week, I have some additional suggestions for plants that receive full sun and play a role beyond blooms. The plants include “weird” porter weed, colorful leaf lettuce, the best-tasting tomatoes and emergency milkweed for the monarchs.
Porter weed
Porter weed is a tropical plant that has many unusual characteristics that merit its description of “weird.”
The dwarf red flowered version begins blooming shortly after it’s taken home from the nursery in April. The plant grows to about 2 feet tall and wide with a circular weeping shape with the tiny, but bright, red blooms moving up the weeping stems.
The blooms are showy and potent in terms of nectar, so in addition to being attractive, they attract numerous pollinators. In fact, it is weird but likely to have a hummingbird, butterflies and bees on the plant seeking nectar from the tiny blooms at the same time, even on a patio.
Obtain porter weed from your favorite nursery as soon as they show up and transplant it to a 3-gallon or larger container fertilized with Osmocote.
Several versions of the plant will be available, but the dwarf red version is the steadiest bloomer and most attractive. The plants are cold-sensitive, so move them to shelter around Thanksgiving
when temperatures fall below 40 degrees.
Best tomatoes, lettuce
If you have a spot in full sun on your patio, you can grow the best-tasting tomatoes for the region, BHN 968 and Ruby Crush.
BHN 968 is a round cherry tomato with a firm surface and pleasing tart taste. Ruby Crush is a pear-shaped small tomato with a softer surface and sweeter taste. Both are delicious and consistently productive as determinate varieties that grow quickly to full-size plants and then concentrate on producing fruit.
Plant a transplant in a 15gallon container now and expect it to produce fruit until July, when a new plant can be planted.
For a colorful set of plants in a container from which you can harvest a nutritious bounty of vegetables, grow three to five colors of leaf lettuce plants in a 5 gallon or larger container, then
snip off some of the leaves every week for a salad or sandwich.
It works best to grow the leafy vegetables in full or morning sun. Use a soluble fertilizer like Miracle Gro every two weeks. Your favorite nursery will have the lettuce varieties. In addition
to lettuce, beets, turnips and Swiss chard work well.
Tropical milkweed
Are you looking for your container planting to fulfill an environmental cause? If you have a place in full sun, place a tropical milkweed in a 5-gallon or larger container to provide an emergency site for a monarch butterfly to lay eggs during its April migratory visit to San Antonio.
The species numbers continue to drop as there is a lack of native milkweeds and because of population challenges, such as the death of breeding adults after producing a new generation.
It would be better to have native milkweed plants in containers and gardens, but until we learn how to grow the native species more successfully, tropical milkweed helps fill the gap. They are attractive and easy to grow in full sun.