Try black-eyed Susan vine for a resilient ground cover

Most folks have poinsettias and entertaining on the agenda during the holidays, but for this week’s column, I want to highlight a plant that has been an outstanding performer for me all year.

It took this past weekend’s hard freeze to finally shut down my blackeyed Susan vine (I’m going to use the abbreviation BES for this flower), known botanically as Thunbergia alata. For many gardeners, in their experience this is traditionally a basket plant that deserves to be grown more often.

These plants are not related to our garden-variety BES, but they have similar looking flowers with dark centers surrounded by colorful petals. This annual vining plant starts out small but grows fast, and it readily scampers up any fence.

Its flower petal colors range from yellow to orange and white. An interesting selection that I like is African Sunset. This variety starts out a rusty orange, and, as it ages, the color will change, reflecting the various warm colors of sunset.

I got the idea of planting the BES from seeing it being grown in the Mississippi State Trial Gardens on the main campus in Starkville. Those plants were being trained to grow up a set of supports, but what caught my eye was how the plants created a fine and dense ground cover.

I have a grouping of subirrigated EarthBoxes that I used last year to create a small garden with plants to attract pollinators and butterflies to my home landscape. I choose a mix from the tropical Asclepias variety with red and yellow flowers, along with the variegated Monarch Promise and the yellow-flowered and the rusty-orange African Sunset.

Both grew great in the EarthBoxes.