They LOVE these mexican sunflowers!!

The butterflies in my yard love the Mexican Sunflowers (Torch) for nectar! The humming birds frequent them too, but I am never fast enough to get their picture! Here's a Gulf Fritillary.

Onalee

Here's a swallowtail . ..

And a monarch . . .

And a zebra longwing . ..

That's a nice variety of butterflies. Did you start the flowers from seeds?

Wow Onalee, I realy envy your gorgeous variety of butterflies! You're so lucky! :-)

-Julie

Thank you! I am lucky! I do start these from seeds - well, I did the first year, since then they have re-seeded themselves nicely in my butterfly garden. I also plant host plants like Passion vine, butterfly milkweed and datura's for the cats to eat.

I'm working on getting more host plants in the yard to try and get even more variety! I love butterflies - they simply amaze me!

Onalee

Very, very nice series of fotos, onalee! Been wanting to grow that plant. Now I know I must plant it this spring.

Well, I'll tell ya where you can get 500+ seeds for only $6.00, imway. Between you and me, we might corner the market on butterflies next summer and fall.
http://onaleeseeds.scifstore.com/module/store/

One of our own, too!

Now that is a must have plant for next year! Is it picky about where it will grow?

Okus - well - the only picky thing is that it wants pretty much full sun and sandy soil.

Mine have grown in a spot where I have a hard time getting anything else to grow and keep re-seeding themselves freely every year. I always have plenty come up to cover the area and even share with neighbors!

I love them almost as much as the butterflies and hummers!

Onalee

Excellent! How is the foliage on that plant? Does it stay pretty or at least acceptable? So many wildflowers get yucky foliage later in the season and I just want to tear them out, but I'm so conflicted if they are still flowering. Especially if critters like them.

Good question!

The foilage stays pretty nice - but some of the lower leaves will start turning brown later in the season -depending a lot on the weather. If it rains lots, the leaves stay pretty nice, if it is very dry they will start to die on the bottom. The leaves are large and if there aren't too many, I'll go thru and clip off the ones that have turned brown.

These plants get quite big - up to 5' high and 2' across , very bushy. They are lovely when covered top to bottom with blooms - but yes, they can start to look a bit ragged by the end of the year. If I have time, I'll start some new plants about 1/2 way thru the season so I don't feel so bad about pulling out any that are still blooming but look bad. I have replacements ready for the butterflies and hummers!

Be sure to shake all the seeds out where you want them to come back next year if you pull the plants out before they've all dropped.

Onalee

Thanks, now I'm pretty sure where they will be planted.

Good info--thanks.

jperilloux:
you are bad-bad-bad to put that link in here and ambush me!

I didn't get the one y'all are talking about. but five others! Bad-bad-bad!
~'spin!~

Onalee, you described my garden conditions perfectly - sand & full sun. That's what I got and what I'm gonna get is the hottie you pictured. Hope I get the butterflies too. Great shots. Love this forum, everybody takes such great pictures. ~ Blooms

This is one of my fav plants too! Yours are gorgeous onalee. She is totally right about them, they are easy to grow and bloom, bloom, bloom.

crystalspin wrote:
"jperilloux:
you are bad-bad-bad to put that link in here and ambush me!
I didn't get the one y'all are talking about. but five others! Bad-bad-bad!"

Good, crystalspin. I hope your Orange County yard is a riot of color next spring and attracts a thousand hummingbirds and butterflies.

;-)

Oh, these were my favorites this year!! I started them from seed indoors, but a little late. I put them in the back of my bed and they bloomed for months. They are in full Texas sun all day. My soil is not sandy either. They did get scraggly looking like sunflowers, but when other things started to grow taller they covered the bad parts. I was so sad when the entire plants died. It's been so hot here tho that there are some more that grew from seed, and they are about a foot high now. They won't have time to get very big tho. I'm going to try and protect them, except that I didn't cover them and tonight might do them in. :( I hope I have TONS come up from seeds next year.

konkreteblond -

YOU WILL!! Well, you'll have plenty - I love them for that, once you plant them once, they do all the rest of the work for you (pretty much!). I had enough this year to share with some neighbors, just transplant when they are about 1' or shorter, water well the first few days (they may look like they are dying at first, but none did!).

Good luck!!

Onalee

Wanted to say, my seeds arrived (some time ago), Onalee, and the Mex-sunnies for Blooms, and the bonus(es)! They look great -- it's so cool you put pics of the emerging leaves on the pkg!

They will all get where they belong by sprouting time!
~'spin!~

Onalee,
Where did you get the seeds for the Mexican sunflowers? The picture is stunning.
Thanks for sharing it with all of us.
Patti

Hi spin - I just got tired of the stuff you get in stores where they draw this picture of a 'seedling' and, maybe it's just me, but I can't tell anything from those pictures, so I decided I'd starting taking pictures so I'd know what they looked like and, when I started selling seeds, it was just natural to put it on there for everyone else!

Patti - I originally got them at walmart or kmart, but that was years ago - they come back from seed every year for me and I do sell the seeds on my store and ebay now, if you're interested.

www.onaleeseeds.com

Onalee

Thanks Onalee. I will check it out..
Patti

Beautiful photo!