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You know how the same plant will catch your eye at the nursery time after time, but for some reason you never buy it?
It’s just not in the plan for that day’s shopping, or the season isn’t right, or you love it but you don’t have anywhere to put it.
For me, that plant is Scaevola aemula, also known as Purple Fan or Fairy Fanflower.
I should say it was that plant, because I finally picked up three at Lowe’s the other day and brought them home. And I can’t wait to see how they do on my deck.
Scaevola aemula is a pretty little trailing annual (although I think it might work as a perennial here), with lavender flowers. The center of the flower is yellow, so I put it in terracotta pots with Turnera ulmifolia, yellow Buttercup.
I’ve had a lot of luck with Buttercup in a pot, but I’m nervous about this new, untried plant. I got burned by another recent impulse purchase, a plant called Scutellaria blue sea, or Blue Sea Skull Cap. They had gorgeous purple blooms when I got them at Lowe’s, but they petered out within days and never bloomed again. They also got a bit sparse in spots.
This is what they should look like:
This is what they look like:
Told ya. Not pretty. So I plucked the Scutellaria from the high-profile pots on my desk and replaced them with these new ones.
In an unusual move, I put the three pathetic Scutellaria plants in the ground near the pergola, and I’m going to give them a shot there. Usually, I move plants that aren’t thriving in the ground to pots, so I can control the soil and moisture a bit better. If I move a plant from pot to ground, it’s because it outgrew the pot.
If the three plants don’t make it where they are now, they’re out. Meanwhile, I’m happy with the new combo. If anybody has information about caring for Scaevola aemula, let me know!
Posted by Janna, on 10/18 at 06:59 PM
I do have Cuban buttercup, but thought it was also known as as yellow buttercup - turnera ulmifolia???
Janice, my lantana was “plain green” all summer -I almost pulled it out. It only recently started producing yellow and purple flowers…
Posted by Iluvpumpkins, on 10/18 at 03:28 PM
Kim, Good luck with your new purchase. During the summer I count on yellow lantana for ground cover, now that Fall is here I am looking for a replacement. Keep us updated on your new plants. Janice
Posted by Penny L. Carnathan, on 10/18 at 08:12 AM
I’ll bet you have Cuban buttercups, Janna. Those go nuts here. I wonder if that’s what Kim has.
Posted by Janna, on 10/18 at 07:45 AM
I’ve never had the purple fan flowers, but they look nice with the yellow buttercups. At some point in the past, I bought a couple of buttercups and now they are all over my yard - they randomly sprout everywhere and some are 3 1/2 to 4 feet tall! The bright yellow blooms really stand out. Hmmm, maybe I should add some fan flowers…
Posted by Penny L. Carnathan, on 10/17 at 10:19 AM
Kim, those fan flowers are one of the plants I wrote about last Sunday for Dig This. I saw them in the display garden in Vermont. They’re gorgeous, drought-tolerant, and they’ve won all kinds of awards for performance. I want ‘em!
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Posted by Kim Franke-Folstad, on 10/21 at 02:11 PM
I love lantana. I have yellow and purple in my garden. My only nit is that you never know when it’s going to stop blooming or even turn brown and leggy. Then all of a sudden it’s back and beautiful again. (I just had that happen with a large patch of purple lantana.)
Right now, it’s blooming all over the place. (Of course, everything looks pretty spectacular right now. Except that darn skull cap!)