throw yourself into the mudpreviously mina lobata
Spain flag, firecracker vine, exotic love vine.
8 to 10 feet
full sun
Although I had admired it in the catalogues, I stopped growing the Spanish flag for years, because I assumed that something so exquisite must be almost impossible to grow. Then I saw him in person at Edgefield McMenamins in Troutdale, Oregon. It was glorious!
The following year, I grew a couple of plants in my backyard. They were magnificent. They quickly intertwined my bamboo tipi and dressed themselves in lush green foliage. In mid-summer, they began to shed red, orange, yellow and white tubular flowers, which hummingbirds adored. (Can you see the hummer in this photo?)
The Spanish flag is a bell native to Mexico and Brazil. He loves the warm weather to start with. However, in autumn it is much more tolerant of cold temperatures and can flower until frost. I started my seeds indoors, under lights, and placed them in the garden after the soil warmed up. You can also plant them directly in the ground or in a large pot.
Don’t fertilize too much or you will get more leaves than flowers.
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Cardiospermum halicacabum
Balloon vine, love in a puff
8 to 10 feet
Full sun, partial shade
You might think balloon vine is on my list of fun annuals because of its puffy, papery pods that really look like balloons. You wouldn’t be wrong.
But there is more. When you open those pods in the fall, you’ll find three hard, perfectly round black seeds, each stamped with a white heart. Hence the names cardiosperm (“heart seed”) and love in a puff. Adorba!
The globe vine has a wide native distribution extending to tropical and subtropical areas of Australia, Africa and North America. It has become problematic in hot, humid parts of the U.S. Do not grow it in Alabama, Arkansas, Texas, or South Carolina, where it has been considered invasive, and plant it only with extreme caution in other parts of the Southeast.
Where it is safe to grow, globe vine is a cheerful plant that climbs by tendrils. It grows quickly, but doesn’t get bulky, and you can let it climb a bush without worrying about it smothering or weighing you down.
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Tithonia rotundifolia
mexican sunflower
4 to 6 feet
full sun
The Mexican sunflower is as subtle as a punch in the face. This is a large, fleshy plant with large, fleshy leaves and thick flowers the color of hunting vests. I grew it in my Kentucky garden with equally bold companions, the cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum) and purple-leaved castor bean (common tick ‘Carmencita’). Highly strung Verbena bonariensis It made a nice texture contrast and cooled things down with its lilac flowers.
The Mexican sunflower is a stellar butterfly attractor. It is especially attractive to monarchs.
Give Tithonia all the sun you can and regular water.
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zea mays ‘Crystal Gem’
Ornamental corn with glass gem
8 feet
full sun
Blue roses, purple pampas grass, rainbow-colored tomatoes. There are many gardening scams on the Internet, and in 2012, Glass Gem corn seemed to be another one. “The most beautiful corn in the world!” “A seemingly endless spectrum of jewel-toned colors!” Yes of course. How gullible do you think I am?
Well, last year I grew Glass Gem and it was the most beautiful corn in the world. Last fall, a journalist named Melissa Sevigny wrote an article about crystal gem for NPR. In it, he quotes the instructor of a seed-planting class who remembers how he led his students to harvest their first crop of corn. “People were crying in our class,” she says, “they were literally crying, it was so beautiful.” Yes. When I peeled the shells in October, it was more or less like this.
Now, I will say that the ears were smaller than I expected. And the colors faded a little a week or two after I picked them. (Did I choose them too soon?) But still, amazing. And when you get tired of looking at the pimples, you can pop them. My friend Tamara did it a few years ago.
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Lagurus ovatus
rabbit tail grass
18 in.
full sun
As they say in Minnesota: “Oh, how cute!” One year I got rabbittail grass seeds at a seed swap, and it was everything the catalogs promised: dozens of fluffy white rabbit feathers that you just want to pet. Even the foliage is silky.
Do not confuse this plant with ‘Little Bunny’ weed. That’s a penisetum and a perennial. This rabbit weed is related to the beautiful but very invasive Cylindrical ordersbest known in its red-leaved form, ‘Red Baron’.
Lagurus ovatus It has proven to be invasive in Australia, but as far as I know, it is not a problem in the US.
Rabbit tail grass is native to the Mediterranean. I imagine that makes him like our dry summers here in Oregon. In a rainier climate, it may not hold up as well. Have you grown it where the summers are humid?
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Thelesperma burridgeanumpreviously Cosmidium burridgeanum
Burridge Green Thread
12 to 18 inches.
full sun
Burridge’s green thread isn’t exactly a household name, but this Texas wildflower is a plant worth growing in your garden anyway.
I have grown the variety called ‘Philippine’ and this is what it does. This is a wispy thing that grows at lightning speed from a seed. The leaves are thin like Coreopsis verticillataand the flowers are also coreopsis-like, golden with a broad mahogany eye. However, the best thing is that the flowers smell like CHOCOLATE.
The disadvantage is that Burridge’s green thread does not bloom for long. You can sow several batches if you want it to bloom all summer, but I usually don’t bother. I simply pull them out (I save some for seeds) and let neighboring plants fill them in. The delicate plants barely take up any space, so it doesn’t take long for spaces to disappear.
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Clarkia unguiculatapreviously Clarkia elegans
elegant clarkia
30 to 36 inches.
Full sun, partial shade
I have grown a few different clarkias and my favorite so far has been the elegant clarkia. This California native produces a bushy plant adorned with plenty of flowers in shades of peachy pink, pink, mauve or white. Bumblebees love them. When I grew this, I would just sit in the grass and watch the bumblebees come in and out of the flowers. A natural beta blocker.
In California, the elegant clarkia germinates with fall rains, blooms in late spring and early summer, and sets seed when the harsh summer heat and drought arrive. In cold winter climates, you will want to sow seeds in spring rather than fall. Sow them directly into the soil and thin them afterwards.
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Moroccan Linaria
toad flax
12 to 18 inches.
Full sun, partial shade
When it comes to toad, the catalogs lie. Seed sellers often show close-ups of flowers in tight clusters, as they would appear in a bouquet. In reality, the plants grow wispy and the flowers are small, but that’s okay. Toadflax is adorable! Perennials, such as miniature snapdragons (a close relative), add a fun touch to the garden. The tiny flowers shine in shades of pink, purple, yellow and white (they also come in bicolor and tricolor). I think the variety I grew a few years ago was called “Fairy Lights.”
Moroccan LinariaAs you can guess from the name, he hails from Morocco. Like many wildflowers from Mediterranean climates, it blooms in cold climates and wants to bloom before the extreme heat of summer and drought arrives. Sow the seeds directly in the garden (or in a pot on the patio) in late winter or early spring. . Have something ready to fill the empty spaces when the flowers run out at the end of July (or sooner if you live where the summers are especially hot).
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Nicotiana langsdorffii
langsdorff tobacco
3 to 4 feet
Full sun, partial shade
I’ve been binge-watching fitness videos lately. In many of them, my favorite Youtuber, Jeff Cavaliere, says over and over again that nothing worth having is easy. It isn’t true! Nothing could be easier than Langsdorff tobacco and it is very, very satisfying. This elegant Brazilian/Chilean native produces a large number of chartreuse snowdrops over an incredibly long season. True story: in mid-January of this year I saw it still flowering at Edgefield McMenamins. Of course, we’ve had a winter in California so far, but sometimes it’s gotten below freezing.
It is difficult to overstate the value of chartreuse in the garden. It complements literally every other color. Plant it with blue flowers and you’ll be more likely to notice the rich blue anthers peeking out from inside the bells – a sweet touch.
Langsdorff tobacco is crossed with another Nicotiana I like to grow a maroon flowered form called ‘Chocolate’. Seedlings from this union often have muddy colors, so grow one or the other if you want to keep your seed pure.
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Zinnia haageana
mexican zinnia
16 to 24 inches.
full sun
You’ve probably grown large-flowered zinnias at some point in your life, but have you ever tried Zinnia haageana? This compact, small-flowered cutie is one of my favorite annuals. It is undemanding, adaptable (I have grown it in both the East and the West) and very charismatic. The variety I grow is ‘Persian Carpet’, a mix of pale yellow, gold, orange, red, crimson and white flowers in solid and bi-colour colors. There are endless variations in the details, but all the colors match perfectly, like an authentic Persian rug.
Sow them directly into the garden or into a large pot after the last frost. Thin them to about eight inches apart once they are up and growing.
