Life gets busy, but it should never be so busy that you can’t stop for five minutes to make something look pretty. It just feels good. Today after work, I combined my two loves-gardening and crafts-to make our front door a little more appealing. 
The grapevine wreath was in the closet completely bare, and the porterweed had once again tripled in size. That girl needed a haircut. Porterweed plants bloom in spikes. Tiny purple flowers open in a cluster along tall textured stems. The rope-like stems are easy to weave in and out of the grapevine, and the only other step is to hang it. Even as the flowers dry, the wreath still looks nice. But even if it only lasts until morning, who cares? It only took five minutes to put together. 
Tag Archives: porterweed
5-minute Craft Project: Porterweed Wreath
Porterweed: The Drama Queen of the Garden
When we planted our butterfly garden, part of the installation was one pretty little blue Porterweed plant.
Less than a year later, and the once petite plant is now a Medusa taking over the patio.
I think it ate the Button sage that was to its right, and the Cassia tree looked to be next. The flowery snakes were starting to slither up through the tree’s branches.
It was tolerable because the blue spikes were so striking. But then the rain came, and its as if the big, blue diva had a tantrum. Almost every flower was dropped to the bricks overnight.
So even though it scratched my skin like a dry loofah to do it, it had to be done – the Porterweed was lopped into manageability. Porterweed is in the Nettle family, aka stinging nettle. The leaves are covered in stubble – fine, itchy, little hairs.
I love anything that’s flowered and anything that’s blue (ask my sister and she’ll gladly tell you about my affinity for Smurfs – can’t wait to take D to see the new movie) but the Porterweed is about to be banished to the only place suited for a Medusa – the corner.
It’s not all bad; this will actually solve three problems at once: One, the Porterweed will have plenty of room to spread out. Two, I’ll never have to touch it again because, Three, it needs to grow tall enough to hide that darn fence board that keeps coming undone.
Attracting Gulf Fritillaries to Your Butterfly Garden
The drunken butterfly I surprised on Wednesday must have told all his friends about my garden. I’ve seen one every day since. It’s great because there hasn’t been a Gulf Fritillary around the garden in quite some time. And since every time I see one, he or she is wing-deep in white flowers, it seems the influx is thanks to the Button sage.
There are two white Button sage plants in my butterfly garden. Unlike the Porterweed and Pentas, the Button sage has stayed strong and green through every cold snap.
The sticks in front are the Porterweed, and the droopy brown leaves in the background are the Pentas. Injured but not out, they both have visible regrowth. I’m waiting until March to cut everything back – better safe than sorry. The lush green in front of the Button sage is Lantana. It’s not blooming right now, but the cold had no effect on it. Both Button sage and Lantana are in the verbena family.
Another possible reason for so many Gulf Fritillaries lately is one of the other newbie plants in the garden – the Passionflower vine. Although Button sage provides nectar to the butterflies, Passionflower feeds and protects the larva. The passion flowers are toxic. The toxins stay in the larva and are poisonous to predators. My vine hasn’t produced and blooms yet, but its corky-stems have shown me some love.
When the garden used to see Gulf Fritillaries regularly, I had a lot of Mexican sunflowers and Zinnias planted. Both are nectar sources.
Buddy Walk Butterfly Garden
Congratulations to Ubermommy; she’s now uber-executive-director too. In her first three months on the job she led her team to a successful Buddy Walk, raising over $65,000 for Manasota BUDS (Bringing Up Down Syndrome). And congratulations to me on winning the silent auction for a butterfly garden from Mariposa. John was still feeling guilty over the grapefruit tree, so he literally stood by the list for the last 15-20 minutes of bidding, adding my name the minute anyone else bid. No one was going home with that butterfly garden other than me. We mutually agreed afterwards that we felt bad about bullying Ubermommy with our eyes when she made an attempt to outbid me. To make up for it, she got a potted mini butterfly garden of yellow lantana, white button sage and milkweed.
The package was incredible, and the garden is already delivering butterflies. John’s diligence and devotion won me a cassia tree, passionflower vine, porterweed, two pentas, two milkweeds, three button sages, and three lantanas! Plus one other unidentified plant that also went to Ubermommy. There were 14 plants in total, and the cassia tree even came with a caterpillar!
I think it will turn into a sulphur butterfly, but then again it could be a moth. I couldn’t find confirmation in any of my field guides, and I really don’t care either way because the cassia is already attracting so many sulphurs. They’re an elusive group of butterflies, always flying through the garden but never landing. With all the different flowers planted over the years, there have been monarchs, fritillaries and swallowtails hanging around but never sulphurs. Now I have my missing piece – a cassia tree. It seems like every time I look out at it there’s a sulphur flitting around its flowers. The big win has greatly improved the view from our kitchen and Florida room windows. It was as if HGTV came in and gave us a mini-makeover. Here’s the before:
When we first planted the area, it was beautiful – two pink Perfume Delight roses surrounded by a bed of pink mums. It held up well for never changing out the mums and very rarely fertilizing the roses, but the weeds and grass took over and it was ready for an overhaul. Here’s the after:
The only thing it needs now is a little sign that says, “Ella’s Garden” because she’s the reason I walk every year. Go BUDS! Go Ella!
Pirate Ella ~ 2010 Buddy Walk
