Catmint

(NEPETA FAASSENII) Zones 1-24, 30, 32-43
Likes full sun
Moderate watering

Catmint blooms from mid-late spring into summer,
when loose spikes of small, clustered flowers form a
lavender blue haze above the undulating mounds of soft
gray-green, 1-inch leaves. The delicate-looking plants
provide a nice contrast to larger, stiffer flowering
perennials and annuals; they're an excellent underplanting
for roses, too. And in cold-weather climates, they offer
an alternative to lavender (Lavandula). Catmint needs
only moderate watering, but will take more if soil is
well drained. If dead flower spikes look unsightly after
the first flush of bloom, cut them back with hedge shears;
this may encourage a second bloom in late summer. If the
whole plant looks untidy and floppy after bloom, shear it
back by two-thirds. Division is rarely required.

Chinese Lantern



You can start these with seeds in the house before spring.
Plants are harder to find, unless you have a friend with some to give away.

Plan well spot where you want them, cause this little 1 to 2 foot plant will spread like mad,
unless you do something about it.
You could plant them in a box or a pot.
If you don't, you will be pulling them like weeds for the rest of your life!

They like sun or light shade and will grow in almost any soil.
Between June and July, you'll see boring little white flowers.
They fade and drop off. Don't dead-head these.
Then it will swell up where the flower was, and that's
the place where the bright lantern will be come fall.
You can leave them right where they are for the winter.
Or, cut some stems, break off the leaves and place them in a vase without water to enjoy in the house.


Christmas Cactus

(schlumbergera bridgesi)
Sometimes sold as 'Zygocactus

Care:

Loves a north or east window, but I have a very happy one
in a west window for the winter months. It is in a cool room.
For the winter, (now mine is in Michigan; no promises for your region)
50 to 56 degrees and the rest of the year 55 to 70.
After all danger of frost, I have read, they like to be
outside in the shade. But says who, I want to know!
The plant that I have once belonged to my mother-in-law.
She passed away in 1979. For years, she put the plant out in her
chicken yard on a tree stump in full sun! The plant flourished.
After it came to live at my house, I put it outside in full sun
for the summer on my porch. The leaves turned an unhealty shade of
nearly red. But the plant produced flowers for Christmas on those
redish leaves that year.

My plant has bright red flowers. Other colors are available are
white, pink, salmon.

It's now been 2 years since I put it in direct
sun that way. This year, more of the plant is as green
as expected, and flowered on some red leaves and some green ones, too. That is one healty plant! (Actually, it is several diffent colored ones
in the same large plastic pot.) If you put the plant outside for summer,
watch out for snails and slugs.

It's rare for this plant to become infected with pests, but can sometimes
can attract certain types of fungus, aphids, spider mites
mealy bugs, scale or thrips.

Native to the Orgel Mountains of Brazil.
An easy way to distinguish between a Christmas Cactus and
an Easter cactus is the shape of the bumps on the edges of the stems. The bumps are called projections and those of an Easter cactus are
more scalloped than pointed. The Easter cactus blooms from March to May,
while the Christmas cactus blooms from December to January.

Purple Coneflower

(ECHINACEA PURPUREA)
Zones 1-24, 26-45
Full sun
Moderate watering

Striking flowers and a long summer bloom season
make this carefree plant a favorite. A North American
native, it forms 1 1/2-foot-wide clumps of hairy, rather
coarse, deep green leaves that reach about 8 inches
long. Borne on stiff, 1 1/2- to 3-foot stalks that never
need staking, the 4-inch, daisylike flowers have rosy
purple petals that droop slightly from a brownish orange,
dome-shaped center; they're popular with butterflies.
The bristly cones remain after the petals drop; some
gardeners leave them in place to provide food for small
birds. Purple coneflower needs no special treatment,
though it appreciates some shade in the hottest regions.
It does well in ordinary garden soil. It grows from a
rhizomatous taproot and is better left undivided; because
it grows slowly, individual plants can be left in place
for a long period. To increase your supply of plants,
take root cuttings in fall. The plant self-sows readily;
remove seedlings if you don't want them or if they do not
grow or bloom true to the parent. 1
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