Hello and welcome to Floral Friday. With only 43 days until the official arrival of Autumn (YAY!) the garden is starting to wind down. Most of the perennials are starting to get slightly beyond their best blooming days and the big star in the garden is one with a funny name, Hardy Plumbago (sometimes known as Leadwort). Years ago I began the process of removing all turf grass in the yard in favor of ground covers and perennials. With an oversized corner lot, constant water restrictions, I decided long ago that growing ‘hay’ (otherwise known as grass) was not the way I wanted to spend summer, watering, mowing, fertilizing…repeat. And for what, a plain old carpet of green. Umm, no thank you.
Recently, this ground cover began to blossom with its trademark blue flowers. Blooming over the next month or so, Hardy Plumbago is a long-lived groundcover that slowly weaves itself through the garden fabric, creating large drifts of fall color. The deep blue flowers are numerous and long-lasting. Plants are anywhere from 6-8″ tall and grow to about 18″ wide. It naturalizes easily and after planting the initial two flats of plants, it’s filled in nicely around the flagstone path. It can tolerate mild foot traffic so I don’t have to worry by the Knuckleheads stomping wandering through.
Once the flowers have bloomed, the leaves will turn a gorgeous shade of mahogany throughout the autumn. Plumbago is extremely adaptable,, drought tolerant, grows well in sun or shade, and thrives in all types of soil. While slow to leaf out in the spring, this group cover is worth the wait. 6-8″ tall x 18″ wide and will grow in Zones 5 through 9 easily. Plumbago is deer resistant and attracts butterflies. Last year’s abundant Painted Lady butterflies enjoyed noshing on their nectar.
Live, love, bark! 🐾
Oh, your ground cover is beautiful! My husband loves to tend our yard so our grass is always thick and pretty. I’d definitely let it go to ground cover! LOL!
Thank you! With lack of water being a real concern here in the high mountain desert, it makes far more sense to have better plant selection than water hog turf grass everywhere.
Such a deep blue!
And I cannot believe we are thisclose to autumn. Today didn’t feel like it. Tomorrow ain’t looking much better . . .
Oh do I hear that. Mid-90’s yesterday and probably the same today. Ugh.
Double ugh!
Love your blue flowers. Our grass is half brown and our flowers are very heat stressed. Cooler temps would be great
hugs
Hazel & Mabel
Those blue flowers are the only thing getting me through all the brown. *Sigh*
What a great idea to use ground cover instead of grass (which is WAY overrated!!).
I really notice the days getting shorter. I’m not ready yet, mostly because my vegetables are behind schedule….and I’m hoping to get more before growing season is over!
Shorter daylight hours are the one downside of cooler temps and autumn. Did you hear that Mother Nature, ‘cooler’ temps. It was 94 yesterday here and probably will be around that today. 😬
oh wow, I think everything is really beautiful yet.
Thanks! The blue helps me forget the sunburnt brown.
I like the sound of this Plumbago ( Plumbago Articulata) and will ask our local garden centre if they have it. Perhaps it will gown here. It would be nice to have flowers. Will also look for Borage.
They’d both be worth checking out.
It is not easy to find pretty blue flowers, but these hardy plumbago are so very lovely.
Woos – Lightning, Misty, and Timber
What a great perennial and it has a nice fall color too.
😊 We’re so looking forward to seeing more signs of autumn.
What an intense blue! It’s just gorgeous!
They are really striking and not the usual color you see in a garden. I just love them, especially when the leaves turn that deep red color.
have you tried growing Borage? It’s a real Bee magnet!
I think it was included in a water dept. ‘garden in a box’ collection I planted last year. I’ll have to check the tag since I honestly don’t remember. From what photos I’ve seen of borage, there could be one in that batch! 😊
Oh,those are FABulous! Are they tasty?? You knows I like to nibble on Ma’s plants! BOL! Seriously….yummy? I gots to know if I wants Ma to gets one for grazing…☺
Kisses,
Ruby ♥
Bees sure like ‘em.
All that is irrelevant compared to sunflower seeds, er, I mean dinner.
To you perhaps, not necessarily to butterflies and bees, who are drawn to them. 😉
Beautiful! Love that you decided to get rid of the turf and have beautiful flowers instead. My husband would have loved you! He hated to mow the lawn. 😉
I never minded but thought it made no sense in this high mountain desert. 🌵🐪
Gorgeous! As beautiful as I find flowers, I just don’t have the patience for a garden.
Plumbago sounds like one of those combined fruits, like a limon or a plucot.
Haha. Never thought that before, but you’re right, it sure does. A nice juicy plucot sounds pretty good right now.
I was trying to figure out what the “bago” part would be – all I can think of is a Winnebago. But no one wants to eat one of those.
Probably not. My tastes are more like ‘Wineabago.’ 🍷
Beautiful blue flowers!! We are still getting the “lay of the yard” with the new place, but everything seems to be growing fine…Next year we’ll pay a bit more attention to the hostas tho.
Happy Weekend!
Right there with you…our Hostas have really suffered this summer. No doubt your yard will be most spectacular once you’re fully settled.
Autumn already?? Wow! Time flies. Your garden is beautiful.
Thanks, autumn hasn’t arrived yet. It’s still in the 90’s but it’s coming. Good thing too, a person could evaporate still. 😆
Not long until autumn now! Enjoy your weekend 🙂
And you as well!
Primrose, bee balm & sunflowers are moving in on all the purples & blues.
The dry summer was truly harsh everyone.
HuMom could care for just about any creature but as a gardener she has lots to learn😉
💜nose nudges💜
No doubt she’s got a gardener inside her soul. Mother Nature hasn’t made it easy on any of us this summer.
🐬🐬
Love Plumbago! We have a lot of it in San Diego. The back of our house has a hillside area planted with succulents/ice plants, but I fantasize about replacing it all with Plumbago for all that color!
Their flowers are one of the prettiest shades of blue in any garden. Bet your hillside is lovely with the ice plants. 💖
It would look even better if it ever rained…they sprout all these alien looking flowers when they actually get water.
What is this rain thing of which you write? Is that Mother Nature’s liquid fertilizer? We could sure use some, too.
I think I remember it being kind of wet…
Oh THAT stuff. Yeah, it’s been a while. 😳
Lady Monika yur a furabuluss gardener!! An mee ADOORSS Purpull…mee ISS thee Purpull Purrince 😉
Happy gardenin!
***nose kissesss*** Purrince Siddhartha xXXx
Why thank you, Siddhartha. You’re too kind. Mother Nature really is the gardener around the Ranch. We stopped fighting with her a long time ago. She’s happy about it and so am I. 😉
I have dwarf plumbago, love the color. It is one tough plant, holds it’s own against Bermuda grass. We plant our drought tolerant perennials in the fall here, so they can get established before the dog days of summer.
Plumbago isn’t too picky-they’ll easily do well with spring or autumn planting.
Love your “grass free”garden! We made the same decision 3 years ago for much the same reasons, plus we had an ongoing white grub problem. We love the end result and, contrary to what many people think, it is not “high maintenance”! 🙂
Thank you. It’s far easier to maintain than turf, so much better for the environment and always garners people to comment on it. Plus it’s the opposite of boring. 😄 Happy weekend.
Yes, we also get lots of very positive comments. You too have a great weekend Monika. 🙂
😊
gorgeous blue flowers! Lord how I miss planting stuff …. Happy Friday, hon!
Happy Friday and happier weekend to you as well!
Beautiful! When is the best time to plant Hardy Plumbago?
Thanks, Michael. They can be planted either in early spring or autumn.
What garden? We don’t have one. Oh well, I can always enjoy yours, Jan K’s, and others’ virtually. No weekend plans as yet. We do have to get a tree service in, though, to remove a tree limb that woke me up when it fell this morning.
Aw, thanks. Oh no…that can be a rude awakening. Hope it didn’t cause too much damage. Have a great weekend!
It rattled the porch roof enough to knock the ceiling fan/light off its block. Have an electrician coming Tuesday to re-install it. (Right now it’s hanging by its cord, which I’m hoping is strong enough to hold it until Tuesday.)
Yikes! Fingers and paws crossed it’ll be fine till Tuesday.