Turks cap

Malvaviscus arboreus

This is a great native shubby plant to attract butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds. Best yet, this is one that takes some shade. It grows in filtered sun, too, like underneath trees. It can also take more hours of sun, though it’s an understory that doesn’t prefer complete sun.

This perennial dies to the ground in winter but emerges soon in early spring. It flowers from late spring to first frost.

It’s another great native plant for us, which is seen all around our area and woody areas and natural growth. It does die to the ground in winter and come back from the roots. It really likes full sun but it also does great and will flower for you in shade. It flowers late in the spring and also early summer after many of our other wildflowers have gone to seed and are no longer flowering. It has gorgeous red flowers so it’s perfect for a little burst of color after much of your garden may have stopped flowering. It can get as tall as 6 feet so you may need to prune it to keep it in bounds. It’s listed as low water use so you only need to water it occasionally especially once you’ve established it. Depending on how much spring rainfall we’ve had. It may get frozen back by extremely cold temperatures such as we’ve seen this winter but if that happens, the plant will come back from seed links.

It’s time this week to fertilize any vegetable transplants that you might have put out. Your peppers, your tomatoes. If you planted those at least a few weeks ago, go ahead and give them a little burst of fertilizer because you don’t need to fertilize them in their planting time which will maybe burn those plants when they’re so young. They’ve established some roots now and just give them a light dose of fertilizer.