Garden Club of Cape Coral | Buttery blooms
A few of my favorite sun-loving plants have cheerful butter yellow flowers, inviting both bees and butterflies. These plants appreciate our long, hot, subtropical days of summer!
Yellow alder (Turnera ulmifolia), which some call buttercup, flowers every day all summer. The five petals around the center make a perfect landing pad for larger butterflies. Flowers open for one day and close at night. New flowers open in the morning. It grows up to 3 feet tall; 2 feet wide. Native to the Caribbean and Mexico, it grows tall and full in plain sand as well as in richer soil. Full sun is best for dense growth, but yellow alder doesn’t seem to mind shade. Sometimes the stems barely branch, so pinching the tips will help it make more branches and help it fill out.
This plant is readily available in nurseries all year long, but is especially useful as your winter annuals are fading with the summer heat and humidity. Often, there are several plants in one pot, which you may separate and get two or three for the price of one. They readily self-seed which can gift you with more plants or burden you with plants to weed out.
Melampodium divaricatum or butter daisy is a golden yellow daisy in the aster family. Being from Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean, this annual flower is perfectly suited for our hot, humid summers. Its drought tolerance also helps it thrive in the spring. They are striking in a mass planting. Space 10-15 inches apart for good air circulation to ward off mildew. Each inch-wide flower lasts for several weeks. You do not need to remove the flowers for them to keep blooming constantly as they are “self-cleaning.” They branch freely, keeping themselves full without pinching.
These are annuals and bloom themselves out in about four months before they start to decline. Since they readily reseed themselves, you can have them growing year round with successive generations.
Melampodium comes in a variety of sizes. The common one attains a height of 2-3 feet. Dwarf varieties get just 10-12 inches. Choose the right size for your garden bed.
Coreopsis or Tickseed is another favorite summer bloomer. In 1991, Florida’s Legislature named it the State Wildflower due to the many roadside plantings and highway beautification programs. Although there are 14 species in Florida, the two that grow easily this far south are leavenworth and lanceleaf (lanceolata). However, leavenworth is better adapted to south Florida than lanceleaf.
Leavenworths are 18-36 inches tall when flowering. You will often see their yellow blooms in the swails around town, since they prefer moist locations. Lanceleaf is shorter, about 10-18 inches with the flower spike. They prefer average moisture.
Both can grow in pure sand or unimproved soil. Seeds should be planted in winter where you can keep them watered, but are also available in nurseries now. Both are annuals and self-seed if there is bare ground. Mature plants can also be divided at the basal rosette. After flowering, trim to 6 inches tall and they will rebloom. Tickseed is attractive to pollinators and bunnies, which enjoy munching the leaves. Mixed with other butterfly attracting plants, they make a beautiful meadow or butterfly garden.
This summer, why not try some of these buttery blooms in your garden!
Sherie Bleiler volunteers at the Cape Coral Library Butterfly Garden, Sands Park Butterfly Garden and is past president of the Garden Club of Cape Coral. Visit gardenclubofcapecoral.com and like on Facebook and Instagram.