June 2024 Backyard Garden Tour | Full Sun |

The heat is on and summer is in full swing in Zone 9 along the Texas Gulf Coast south of Houston. Gardens are usually peaking now or have already peaked. Join me for my backyard pollinator garden tour looking at the full sun areas of the garden.

[@HoustonKeith72]

The pollinators always look so happy in your garden!

[@ButterfliesNBirds]

lol - I know they are always "busy" in the garden. It is fun to be out there with them. 😊

[@jennifergreene8891]

Good morning neighbor 😊 Lake Jackson here! Beautiful 😍 I just love it when you share your garden, and great info on each plant! I added the Aster and Purple Porter Weed to my wish list 😊 Thank you and we'll see you tomorrow for part 2, Shade.

[@ButterfliesNBirds]

Good morning neighbor! 😊 You can't go wrong with either of those two plants down here. The Stoke's aster is a native for us. Pollinators will love those two additions in your garden!

[@GrandmaSandy]

Hi my dear friend thank you so much for another great garden tour. Your yard is looking beautiful and you’ve done a great job taking care of it. Thanks so much for sharing. Hugs and kisses from grandma, Sandy, and Debbie.

[@ButterfliesNBirds]

Thank you so much for watching and your lovely comment! 🥰

[@elizabethumanzor]

hi, just want to say I look forward to when you update your garden!! I appreciate how you mention the species of the plants as well, so I can plant the same flowers!

[@ButterfliesNBirds]

Hello Houston neighbor! 😊 Our humidity (and heat) can be such a challenge in the garden for us ... not to mention the heavy clay soil we deal with too. Thanks so much for your comment! 🥰

[@lindylou3519]

I planted a passion flower vine 2 years ago in one of my flower beds not knowing just how much it could take over. (I bought it because I loved the unusual flowers.)It was going crazy taking over everything & then to see shoots coming off of runners throughout my flower bed, I dug it up & removed as much of the roots as I could. I bet I pull 3-5 shoots out of that bed every week. lol So unfortunately they are not for me. Looks like you’ve gotten lots of rain. Here in middle GA we haven’t had any for a month & it’s getting pretty scary. I water everyday trying to save everything. Thanks for sharing your garden❤

[@ButterfliesNBirds]

Some passion vine does spread by rhizomes (one of mine does - the hybrid Incense, the other native passion vine I have does not spread). I totally understand you not wanting it to take over your garden bed! I hope you get some rain soon. Last summer was brutal for us as we had a drought and extremely high temperatures (over 100 degrees) for extended periods of time. I had to continually water too. I unfortunately lost a handful of perennials due to those extreme conditions for us. I hope you don't have anything like that this summer. We have gotten some rain this year which has helped so much.

[@StillTheJackyBear]

TY...

[@ButterfliesNBirds]

You bet! Thanks for the comment. 😊

[@donnasmalley3713]

My surprise today was a porter weed I grew from seed blooming! I don't think it will be hardy in my zone 6b in NW Arkansas

[@nicholasryan5401]

Beautiful natural looking garden, its a pollinators dream. We garden in rural Ireland and we haven't seen many butterflies so far this year, but we do have lots of bees in the garden. We have a lot of pollinator plants in our garden but salvia nemorosa caradonna are there favourite plants. We have American plants in our garden like asters, coneflowers, gauras, black eyed susans, bee balm, yarrow and coreopsis. Other plants we have in our garden are alpines, alstromerias, agapanthus, salvias, astrantias, African daises, crocosmias, centaureas, knapweeds, cosmos, orvala, acanthus bears breechs, brook thistles, clematises, peonies, astilbe, hostas, sempervivmums, kniphofias, daylilies, lilies, calla lilies, trollius chinensis, delosperma, hebes, fuchsias and parahebes.

[@ButterfliesNBirds]

Hello from Texas to Ireland! 🥰 Oh wow ... I love the list of plants you have in your garden!!! 😍 Peonies are a flower I cannot grow here, but it is one of my favorite flowers. Do you have a favorite flower in your garden at the moment?

[@nicholasryan5401]

@@ButterfliesNBirds That's a hard question to answer because I like all the flowers and shrubs in our garden.

[@ButterfliesNBirds]

Fair enough! 👍😊

[@HoustonKeith72]

Does the Mexican sunflower come back if you cut it back? I know that would mean losing blooms though.

[@ButterfliesNBirds]

I don't think it comes back from the main stalk, but I could be wrong. It might branch if I don't cut it close to the ground - I think I would have to cut it above healthy and growing leaves.

[@goldengirl65]

Could I please have the Latin name of the clumping Lantana? I can't find clumping here and the others are classified as weeds. I'm pretty sure I've seen a smaller plant at the local hardware but not for a few years and I just can't find them online.

[@ButterfliesNBirds]

Hello! Unfortunately, the Latin name is just the standard Lantana Camara. 😕 The Bloomify series is the first sterile lantana and it is patented/trademarked. Here are a couple of websites with info on this series in the U.S.: www.ballseed.com/webtrackplantinfo.aspx?phid=036908083004054 www.almostedenplants.com/shopping/products/11411-bloomify-red-lantana/

[@goldengirl65]

​@@ButterfliesNBirdsthanks for the links. I will ask the hardware/nursery if they know if it's been released here. I was sure I had seen a pink lantana at some stage in there but maybe it was an old style one.