Last week I attended a talk about Butterfly Gardening, so naturally I had to add to my collection of nectar plants for pollinators. I bought an Heirloom Penta (Pentas lanceolata), the deep red flower in the middle of the vase. This may be my new favorite flower, they are sometimes called Egyptian Star Flower and are perennials in my part of Florida. This one is supposed to grow to three or maybe, five feet tall! It is a rich, deep, red with dark green foliage, I really need a few more now that I have seen them in the garden. I also saw my first Monarch Butterfly today. Here it is in the garden:
I wish I had taken the picture before I cut the flowers. Oh, well. A close up of the vase:
The white flowers at the bottom of the arrangement are from the White Geiger Tree (Cordia boissieri); yellow and red are native Gallardia (Gallardia pulchella); orange flowers are from the Mexican Flame Vine (Psuedogynoxys chenopodiodes); white daisies are Spanish Needles (Bidens alba); grey, fuzzy leaves are from the Licorice plant (Helichryseum petiiolaris); backdrop foliage is Boston Fern (Nephrolepis exaltata); striped leaves and blue flowers are from Blue Flax Lilies (Dianella caerulea) and a few Tropical Red Salvia (Salvia coccinea).
The first mangoes of the year have formed on my Pickering Mango, this is a dwarf ‘condo’ Mango known for quality fruit and bearing early. We shall soon see.
The Shrub Queen 
Those pentas are great, but you do need the right place for them as they get really big. Butterflies and hummer do love them. Your mangos are looking really good.
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Thanks, I have them at the back of the border at the base of a 4 foot fence, waiting for birds and butterflies..
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May I please spend next winter with you Queen? This has been a tough one for me.
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Of course, I wish you were here. Going to a famous garden in West Palm for a butterfly lecture.
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Lucky you!
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Such beautiful flowers, attractive to humans as well as butterflies! Hope your mango exceeds your expectations!
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Thanks, Peter. I do, too.
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Such an rich exotic show this week….and mangoes!!!! Lucky you.
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Thanks, Noelle. I love the deep colors, and hope to eat a Mango – they fell off last year! Before getting ripe.
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that penta is s pretty – and when not in close up looks a bit like a red hydrangea. Your reds and oranges today really do conjuring up images of a different climate, assisted by all the talk of mangoes! Thanks for sharing
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It is a bit like a miniature red hydrangea. Probably more so if it gets five feet tall. I am reminded weekly of our climate difference!
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Always interesting to expand our knowledge of plants and places (and people)
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Absolutely
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I can’t wait to see those mangoes when they are big and ready to eat.
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Thanks you and me both! This is supposed to be the premier Condo Mango for South Florida. Small and bearing a lot of fruit early on – I have had it a year or two and it has 10 mangoes, we’ll see how many I end up with.
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Hope you get lots. 😀
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The Pentas look great, they’ll make quite a statement in the garden if they grow to 5 feet tall. Love the combinations of the bright flowers and the silvery foliage.
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Thank you, Christina..I decided to get one more – planted some Gallardia, Rudbeckia and reds and purples – should be a very colorful bed. The licorice plant is going mad in a container on the front porch..not sure how long it will last.
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…… oh and those mangoes, wow!
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Hopefully wow!?
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I wish Pentas did nearly as well here! Ours are short-lived and in fact just this morning I decided it’s time to replace my pink and white ‘Kaleidoscope Appleblossom’ variety. My Dianella seems prone to spreading but has yet to produce a single flower spike.
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the smaller Pentas are short lived here as well. This is a heirloom variety and I will wait and see what it does, a lot of bird and butterfly gardeners here love it.
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Ooh, to grow mangoes and papayas – how lucky you are! The pentas are such a vibrant red, I expect you’ll attract lots of butterflies (and hummingbirds, too).
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Well, to eat mangoes and papayas will be the thing here. Hummers are rare in my garden, so I am waiting.
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A gorgeous vase, Amy. I love the red pentas. And those mangos look promising, how wonderful to grow your own papayas and mangos.
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Thanks, Liz. I am hoping for fruit! Weird, tragic things tend to happen to them.
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A gardener’s lot is fraught with tragedy and disappointment. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you.
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Your vases have more of the unfamiliar flowers than any others. I can sort of recognize most of what the others use. These flowers from Florida are totally strange though.
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Hmm, I am from Atlanta and recognize most of this as summer annuals used further north with a couple of exceptions.
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Ooops. Sorry. Now I am wondering who is in Florida.
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I am in Florida what I meant is when I lived in Atlanta these were summer annuals
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Okay, that makes more sense.
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Pentas are sold as summer bedding plants here, like in Atlanta, so it is amazing to hear they grow so big! That red is a glorious colour in your lovely vase. 🙂 Good to hear you have Monarchs already. Our butterflies are also slowly reappearing and I wish I had more to offer them so early in the season!
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That Penta is new to me and I learned (via social media) that it is called Ruby Glow. I love the color.
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Love my Pentas! I have many a color in my yard because they are so easy to keep alive! Lol.
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