Canna, a wet yard’s best friend!

Canna is a native to Florida that has been made into many cultivars by the landscape trade. The true native is 6-7’ tall with smaller yellow flowers and used in restoring habitat. The plant leaves look tropical and lush. There are shorter 2-3’ sizes. The blooms come in yellows, reds, oranges, salmons and lots of splattered color variations of those main colors. Some plants have brightly colored striped leaves. The plants can grow directly in shallow water and adapt well to normal garden soil. They take full to part sun. Hummingbirds love them and all pollinators will try to get at the nectar. The flowers and rhizomes are edible. The large petals are great to much in the garden and taste sweet. I’ve seen birds crack at the seeds. Mine bloom almost year round.

Dune Sunflower - Sunny & Dry

Plant Dune Sunflower (Helianthus debilis) as a ground cover anywhere you want flowers and don’t have much water or shade. Shape it with a weed eater. It will ramble over nearby shrubs if you don’t tame it with a hard “whack”! It reacts well to firm boundaries like curbs & sidewalks. Although it acts like a perennial, it’s truly an annual. Cut the flowers and enjoy them inside. The petals, like all sunflowers are edible.

Milkweed for Monarchs

This native Milkweed (Asclepius tuberosa) is a terrific host plant for Monarch butterflies to lay their eggs on. They hatch into tiny caterpillars and grow quickly as they devour the milkweed leaves and even the flowers. Then the caterpillar finds a dry spot to hang - like a twig and turns into a hard chrysalis. After a couple weeks a beautiful Monarch butterfly emerges to flit around your garden with other pollinators drinking nectar from many flowers.

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