If You Think You have a Black Thumb Start with Felicia amelloides

If happiness were made into a plant it would look like Felicia amelloides. It just looks like it is smiling all of the time, and not one of those little lip smiles either, but big fat irrepressible toothy grins all day long. "Felicia" means "happy" in Latin so they thought it was a happy plant too.

Felicia amelloides                                                                                                                                       S. Reeve

If you say you have a black thumb and kill every plant you own, try this one. It really is a "no-brainer." It has a wonderful growing habit. It is a neat and tidy little mound of foliage and flowers without pruning or training. The flowers are either blooming or unnoticeable when they are finished and fade away. This plant blooms all of the time! It is so funny sometimes, I go outside and nothing else is really blooming, but there is Felicia with her riot of cheerful flowers, blooming her head off! 

    Felicia amelloides                                                                                                                                       S. Reeve

My plant is 27 inches across and 16 inches high. The flowers are about 4-6 inches above the foliage which is about 10 inches tall. The plant is gradually increasing in diameter. This plant requires no staking. Flowers are held aloft on strong stems that stay upright. Flower petals or ray flowers are an intense shade of blue-lavender, a rare and welcome color in the garden. There is no gradation in the color of the petals, they are a solid matte blue color, and about the size of a 50 cent piece. Bees love blue flowers, and this is no exception. As a member of the Asteraceae, the compound flower head or capitulum provide an easy-landing platform of ray flowers with yellow disk flowers in the center. This plant is the "7-Eleven" of flowers with fast and easy access to nectar and pollen. Felicia, like many members of the Asteraceae are pollinated by bees also called melittophily. Individual flowers in the flower head are small and their nectar is easily obtained by short-tongued bees and small flying insects, so this is a popular plant! The flowers close at night and on overcast days. Like similar members of the Asteraceae, this plant employs a pollination strategy designed to prevent self-pollination called "plunger pollination." The pollen matures earlier while the stigma is unreceptive to encourage cross-pollination with other plants. It is called plunger pollination because the unreceptive stigma/style pushes the pollen from the fused anthers up through the tube formed by the anthers, so visiting insects can take it to other plants.

   Felicia amelloides with honey bee                                                                                                 S. Reeve

There are 79 species of Felicia in South Africa with 84 species in total. Felicia amelloides is a common coastal plant in South Africa. For a plant that flowers almost constantly it is remarkably long-lived. I have read reports of 15-year-old plants, but five years seems more typical. It is a tough plant too, and one of the few able to live under native oaks. 

 Felicia amelloides                                                                                                                                       S. Reeve

Stems and leaves are covered in short stiff hairs and have a sandpapery feel. Leaves are opposite, variable in form, from elliptical to spatulate, and have entire margins. After pollination, the flowers shrink back into the plant and form seeds. This means the dried flowers are not readily visible while the beautiful flowers are held high. Below is a ripening seed head with feathery pappus waiting to carry the mature seeds on the wind. This plant starts easily from spring cuttings.  

   Felicia amelloides                                                                                                                                     S. Reeve

If the summer is hot the flowering can slow. At any time the plant gets too big or has an abundance of dried flowering stems, it can be cut back to encourage more flowers and a better growth pattern. I just grab a handful and trim it. This is very easy to do. Highly fertilized plants do not bloom as well. Also, this plant does not do well in humid hot summer weather but prefers semi-arid locations with sandy, well-drained soil. It is hardy down to 20-25 degrees F. So if you are frustrated in your attempts to successfully grow plants, give this one a try.

Little Salvia that Packs a Punch!

Salvia chamaedryoides                                                                                                                            S. Reeve

I love this little perennial! This is Salvia chamaedryoides a drought-tolerant perennial from Mexico. It is clothed in soft fuzzy aromatic silvery-gray foliage that mixes well with other arid land plants. After a time in full sun it comes in thick and low, about one foot tall, and chokes out weeds. Hummingbirds love it! It takes a couple of years to get growth like this in a bed. It will tolerate a little shade as it seems to be used to skirting taller plants. As perennials go it is unobtrusive and very attractive even when not in bloom, although, it seems to be in bloom all of the time. It is a good solid workhorse that does its job without shouting. The main blooming period is in the spring/summer for several months and it continues into the fall/winter, with another burst of blooms after the heat of the summer. The only time when blooms are less numerous is in the winter, but it still blooms. In the fall it can look a little rough when it is covered in old bloom stalks, but a quick haircut neatens it up in no time. Just grab a handful of what is sticking up into the air and cut it off. It is as simple as that. 

Bed of Salvia chamaedryoides with Furcraea foetida 'Mediopicta' and Romneya coulteri                       S. Reeve

 This plant does root unfrequently at the nodes, but this is a good thing if you want it to spread. It is not a thug by any means, and as gardeners, we know a thug when we see one! If the plant goes where it is not desired you can quickly grab a hunk and trim it off. If you find an occasional rooted portion, yank it out of the ground and replant elsewhere if you desire. Salvia chamaedryoides roots shallowly and is effortless to pull out. It also roots easily if transplanted. For me, this is as close to a "no-brainer" plant as I can imagine.  Also if you have a handful of unrooted trimmings some will root if you just cover the lower nodes with soil, and give them a little water. I have a bed of this plant in full sun and it is around 6 feet by 6 feet in several years. Maintenance is as I described, trimming off spent bloom spikes and pruning back straggler edges. The spent bloom spikes are barely visible until there are many of them because they are a fine spike with no flowers. They become visible because they age to a straw color. The bloom spike is low and short and it blooms from the bottom up so there is an extended bloom period for each spike. Here is a photo.

Flower spikes of Salvia chamaedryoides

At one time I had one of the selections of Salvia chamaedryoides, but I think this is the straight species. The flowers are medium/dark true blue with two tiny nectar guides on the lower and upper parts of the corolla. It would be interesting to see this under ultraviolet lights to see what the pollinators see.

Salvia chamaedryoides in bloom with Aloe striata                                      S. Reeve

This plant is hardy to 20 degrees F. It combines well with pretty much everything. The orange edge of Aloe striata leaves and the orange of the Aloe bloom are a nice color complement to the deep blue blooms. I also like combinging is with clear yellow Argyranthemum frutescens 'Beauty Yellow', Acaulis tetraneuris, Agastache 'Arizona Sun' and Euryops pectinatus. Add in Salvia 'Fire Dancer' for some primary color action. Grasses like Festuca glauca would be nice too. There is a selection called 'Marine Blue' that is supposed to be superior, although, I wonder how it could be? It remains unknown but Salvia chamaedryoides 'Marine Blue' is suspected to the product of Salvia chamaedryoides and, possibly, another species. The flowers are a darker blue and the foliage looks greener to me. It comes in thicker and a little taller too. It is more frost tolerant to 10-15 degrees F. 

While generally easy-care this plant must have excellent drainage. It can certainly get by on very little water but looks much better with periodic water. I probably water around every 10 days. Even though it is technically hardy to freezes if it gets wet during the winter and the soil does not drain well this will take it out. Winter wet and cold are a lethal combination. I found no less than five "common names" for this plant so I will stick with Salvia chamaedryoides. Takes a few seconds to master the pronunciation, but at least we know what we are talking about. Because of the distinctive aromatic furry foliage, this plant is deer and rabbit proof. Look for this plant if you are tired of weeding and want a plant that combines well with everything. The hummingbirds will thank you!