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The Garden Doctor
If you lack a green thumb, hardy subtropical perennials can be the answer to garden problems.
By John A. Starnes Jr.
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 19, 2003
If you're looking for ways to transform your garden from bleak to beautiful, give subtropical perennials a try.
Forget namby-pamby pansies and jaundiced geraniums and treat yourself to some truly long-lasting perennials. (What a concept: buying a plant because it truly is a perennial.)
Ruellias and barlerias once were known only to us botanical types. In the 1970s, I got my first "Widow's Tears" from a Cuban woman. She said it got its name from the "puddle" of lavender blossoms that dropped to the ground every afternoon. We can now find it in garden shops as Ruellia carolinensis or the similar Ruellia brittonia, which can be white or pink.
But those are just the tip of a colorful iceberg. These relatives of the petunia bear funnel-shape blooms, but unlike their wimpy annual relatives, they thrive year after year in the muggy summers and dry springs. They also bounce back from hard freezes because of their vigorous underground rhizomes, which endure weather extremes. I always plant my perennials 4 inches deeper than they were grown in pots to get the roots below the rigors of drought and cold.
Think that ruellias and barlerias are too good to be true?
They have two flaws: They don't have a fragrance, and they make poor cut flowers because they shed blossoms quickly. In the garden, however, blooms appear daily from what seems like a conveyor belt of color.
Most barlerias and ruellias average about 3 feet tall and are bushy, space-filling plants that make it easy for gardeners to get a lush tropical look. They spread by underground runners and by seed. In a few seasons, a couple of plants will make a bed look colorful and full. They do best in full sun but can take up to 50 percent shade and still give your landscape pizazz:
Ruellia macrantha: hot pink with a yellow throat (mail order);
Ruellia elegans: bright red, sold as Thai Ruellia;
Barleria micans: vivid lemon yellow in fall and winter (mail order);
Ruellia carolinensis: lavender, pink, white, sold as Mexican Petunia;
Ruellia brittonia: lavender, white, sold as Philippine Violet;
Ruellia squarrosa: lavender shade-loving ground cover;
Barleria albostellata: snow white;
Ruellia makoyana: magenta.
If you think of yourself as inept in your garden, you owe it to yourself to give ruellias and barlerias a try. They are available all year, with exotic ones sold in summer and through mail order.
Give them fertile mulched soil that is neither acid nor alkaline and they provide great drifts of bug- and disease-proof color almost year-round. Vigorously cut them back in March, cover their stubs with a 6-inch-deep mulch (hay or bark) and give them a heavy sprinkling of an organic soil food such as menhaden fish meal or "Calf Manna" from a feed store. Soon the new growth will push right through the mulch.
A deep watering twice a month during the spring drought will allow them an explosive spring growth that will startle you with a whole year of splendor. And don't be surprised if the butterflies find them equally attractive.
-- John A. Starnes Jr., born in Key West, is an avid organic gardener and rosarian who studies, collects, cultivates and hybridizes roses for the diverse regions of Florida. He can be reached at JohnAStarnes@aol.com.
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