Glorious Gaura - Great Addition for Summer Planters
We love this marvelous plant. You can use it as a perennial in your garden or add it to your annual planters and treat it as an annual.
Also called the Wand Flower, this plant is long blooming and attracts butterflies and hummingbirds.
Two favorite varieties of ours are Siskiyou Pink (says you!) and Whirling Butterflies. Siskiyou Pink has dark green glossy foliage with deep rose pink flowers. Grows 3-4’ tall in the ground and about 2.5’ to 3’ in our planters. Whirling Butterflies has spikes of white flowers and has a bit stockier habit. Grows 3’ in the ground and a little shorter in pots.
Either one is a true winner. The light and airy spikes are just the thing to add interest to your planters. When everything else is blooming midheight to trailing, you get these gorgeous dancing spikes of color to catch the sunlight.
If you want to treat this perennial as the true one that it is, follow a regular watering schedule during the first growing season to establish a deep extensive root system. Cut back hard and feed with a general purpose fertilizer before new growth begins in spring. Prune old flowers to encourage reblooming.
If you’re already hooked on this great plant, hurray for you! If not, add it to your “I gotta have it” list for next year.
