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Sunny Beauty

Tribune photo by PENNY CARNATHAN

Mexican sunflower grows up to about 20 feet tall in the sun and roots easily. It's cold-sensitive, but usually comes back.

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 14, 2008

When Susan Gillespie and her sister Cindi became housemates six years ago, there was nothing in their big, sunny backyard but a jungle gym.

All that empty space.

Cindi, eyeing the trowel twitching in her sister's hand, quickly offered Susan the whole thing. And Susan went to work.

She planted a eucalyptus and a golden rain tree in hopes of some future shade, and lots of flowering vines and shrubs. Come November, when some gardens are looking ready for a long winter's nap, Susan's is singing "Joy to the World."

"I look for flowers," she says. "But I'm trying to get a little smarter about it. I've endured a lot of freezes, and I've been through five butterfly gardens out front."

Susan's Riverview yard has sandy soil. She mixes in cow manure or peat humus when she plants, and she fertilizes everything but roses and citrus trees with Osmocote. A drip irrigation system provides the water.

She's a big believer in wielding the clippers.

"I have no trouble pruning," she says. "I'm a hairdresser. Plants need haircuts, too."

Penny Carnathan

MEXICAN SUNFLOWER

Tithonia diversifolia

Meet The Monster. It was just a bare little stick when Susan got it four or five years ago at the Riverview Garden Club yard sale, but it quickly grew taller than her house. After January's killer freeze, she had to chop it to the ground, but almost nothing kills The Monster. It's easily 15 to 20 feet tall now.

Her gentle giant likes full sun and blooms in the spring and fall. It's beloved by bees and butterflies. Be careful if you don't want it to spread - "If it touches the ground, it will root," Susan says.

RED PASSION FLOWER

Passiflora jamesonii "Coral Seas"

The genus Passiflora includes about 500 flowering plants, mostly vines, some of which produce edible fruit. Susan got her Coral Seas as a small plant about three years ago, and today it has spread across about 20 feet of her fence. It blooms sporadically throughout the year, she says. Hers is in the sun, but it also can thrive in partial shade.

This particular variety is a favorite larval food of the Gulf Fritillary and Zebra Longwing butterflies, whose caterpillars may strip its leaves. If the plant is well-established, it should recover fairly quickly.

PHILIPPINE VIOLET

Barleria cristata

Hairdressing is a great job for gardeners - Susan's customers bring her all kinds of plants. That's how she got her first Philippine violet, and she quickly discovered it's a gift that keeps on giving. It grows to about 5 feet tall with vertical branches, and blooms in October and November. (Some varieties have pink or violet blooms.) It tends to pop up in odd places, Susan says, so if you prefer telling your plants where they'll grow, you may get annoyed with this one.

DEVIL'S TRUMPET

Datura inoxia

A tropical shrub that grows to about 4 feet tall, Datura has beautiful blooms - some varieties are pale yellow or white. Susan spotted her first Datura at a plant festival, where it had a $35 price tag. She passed it by and found this for a much better price last spring. "It's been blooming ever since," she says.

The plant grows prickly, golf-ball-sized pods that contain seeds (it's also known as sacred thorn apple).

It's in the same family as the poisonous angel trumpet tree and, like that plant, can produce hallucinations when ingested. With both plants, overdoses can kill.

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