It's all in the Details

Cat's Whiskers come from the botanical family Labiatae and are native to SouthEast Asia. I also have a purple one which is far more rowdy and difficult to control. With its dark leaves and striking white flowers , it brightens up most beds and once pruned into a compact bushy shape, it behaves itself. Everyone knows that gardens are expensive places to run. They require copious amounts of feeding, supplemental planting, and manuring just to get them up and running. That's one of the reasons I particularly love this little plant. It "catches" in the blink of an eye and once it enjoys enough sunshine, it will be perpetually covered in flowers. There are certain plants that are repeated ad nauseum in my garden and, you guessed it, they are the ones that I "catch" myself. Other faves are oxalis, crotons, begonias and mundo grass.

These two belong together. Yes they do. And no, they are not ferns. I do know that they are all feathery and frondy but are, apparently, members of the carrot family and this is the flower. Nature never fails to surprise.Lantana is one of those plants that does well in everyone else's garden and hates the sight of me. I am trying again. This time, I am prepared. I have fed, mulched and made sure that there is enough direct sun and dry soil to keep any self respecting Lantana happy. We shall see. I am persisting because when Lantana thrives, it is gorgeous. Beautiful in the detail and in the whole. In fact my Tropical Garden book describes it as a "sometimes invasive shrub". Hah.