Texas has a delightful little wildflower, Ruella, which is also known as "Mexican Petunia." It comes up here, there, everywhere, and seems to be impervious to heat and drought. We have several clumps in our yard and are thinking of digging and transplanting into flower beds.
I've never heard of this wildflower before and am wondering if it would survive here in the UK. It would be a huge advantage in these flower beds, especially as, it seems, time to rethink just what we will and will not be able to grow successfully with the climate changing as it seems to. It is so pretty.
Just checked https://www.bethchatto.co.uk/conditions/plants-for-dry-conditions/ruellia-humilis.htm It seems it is available here! I will have to get this one started - great! Thank you Jane
Tetters, I hope you have luck with the ruellia. Beware, it spreads easily. When you get one plant, next year three or four, and then they take off like crazy! As Lilium said, it does make a great ground cover, but it grows 6" to 8" tall, which may be a bit tall for a ground cover.
Thanks for the replies MG and Mart. The only problem I can see with this plant is that it is only deemed to be half hardy here, and it's a worry when we often have quite extreme frosts here as well as the recent heat waves... I suppose though it would help to use a bit of extra mulch to keep the roots warm
Tetters, don't worry about extreme heat. The picture posted was taken on a day that hit 102 here. The ruellia has been through even hotter days with no ill effects. Extra mulch never hurts, though. We rarely have extreme cold weather, although these plants went through the big freeze and snow of 2021 and were fine the next summer.
It wasn't heat that worried me, but where we are it can drop to 4C or 39.2 F in the winter. I've lost a few plants by frost - thus the thought of mulch Thinking about temperatures and changing the subject slightly, we have not been seeing our rabbits in the past few weeks, and we did have a LOT of them. The amount of birds is also dwindling - NO long tailed tits, and far fewer generally. The woodpeckers seem to be coping though.
Tetters, about a month ago we saw our first rabbit in years! We used to have rabbits eating our peanut plants, hopping through the yard, and making burrows in the asparagus bed. But, since the cats moved in (took over) we haven't had rabbits. Wonder why? We have had fewer bird species, but more of the ones who have shown up. This morning I am sure I heard an owl about 4:30 a.m. We rarely get owls (can't blame that on the cats) but I did hear one this morning. I hope it is a harbinger of things to come!
The thing is, we had so many rabbits, maybe because there were less people, but now they have just disappeared. There has been no sign of illness among them, like myxomatosis, as is quite often the case, and no signs of bodies. It is as if they were just wiped off the face of the earth in one quick go. Zigs said he has only spotted one since this apparent exodus, and that's the biggest fattest buck you ever saw. I did wonder if he had eaten all the others
Cayuga, our cats have trouble catching a cold, much less something that can fly! We had a cardinal fly into the patio door and knock itself silly. Buddy came up, picked it up and carried it to the grass. The cardinal fluttered, shook itself a bit, and flew off. Both cats are on "catch and release".
