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After the drought of Summer/early Fall 2023, the decision was made to work to restore the existing perennial herbaceous plants and shrubs. We added more pine straw to the area to assist with water retention, but we decided not to install cool season annual color. Hopefully, the plants are able to rebound from the drought, but we won’t know until weeks and months from now.
It didn’t take long, but we opted to relocate the Frostproof Gardenias and Conversation Piece Azaleas to other demonstration beds on the property, as neither were thriving in their current location. In their place, we installed four Cinnamon Girl Distylium. To continue adding to the structure of the Louisiana Super Plants bed, we added two more Purple Muhly Grass to the back row of the bed, bringing the total to five plants. We also added three Popcorn Drift Roses to the right side of the bed. Fertilizer was applied to the existing plants in this area. After watering in the fertilizer, the warm season annuals were installed. Pre-plant fertilizer was added to the planting hole before each plant was placed. Warm season annuals installed in 2023 include Senorita Rosalita Cleome, Deep Pink Butterfly Pentas, Lavender Lucky Star, and Fire Red Compact SunPatiens. In terms of perennial plants, nine Louisiana Iris were added to a lower area of the LSP bed. We planted two different varieties of Louisiana Iris – Jeri and Purple. We also planted White Flame and Mystic Spires Salvia, as part of the Summer of Salvias addition to the LSP list. Apart from the LSP bed, two ‘Blue My Mind’ Evolvulus were planted in containers closer to the buildings’ entrance.
