Each summer for over a dozen years, I have grown one or more seldom-seen annuals in my central Missouri farm garden.
These adventures with seeds have been little work and real fun for my family and me.
Mirabilis Uniflora
Last summer, the double four o’clock, referred to in the trade as Mirabilis uniflora, was a novelty here at Brook-Side.
Though the big black seeds did not germinate so freely as those of the single four o’clock, we were well repaid by the drought-resistant plants with their shiny leaves.
The many fragrant blossoms were a brilliant Tyrian rose and formed somewhat like a nicotiana growing out of a petunia.
Last fall, I dug the few tough, enlarged roots or tubers, storing them in the sand in a dry cellar for 1950 bloom.
I also saved some seeds but am dubious of their worth, as I am told that the flowers come single the second year.
Cuphea Platycentra
I had often seen Cuphea platycentra, the firefly, cigar flower, or firecracker plant, in our local greenhouse, but last year I had my first experience with growing it from seed.
The color of this free-blooming little plant is furnished by bright scarlet calyx tubes tipped with touches of blue-black and white.
Although it is an American plant of the loosestrife family, the cigar flower presents a most exotic appearance in the garden.
Verbesina Encelioides
Even though Verbesina encelioides, the golden crownbeard or butter daisy, is said to be a weed in some localities, I really liked the tall, bushy plants with their clean, notched, gray-green leaves and hundreds of clusters of big, soft yellow daisies.
The blossoms with cushiony centers full of pollen made lovely, long-lasting cut flowers, but I must admit this pollen did shed on shiny table tops!
I thought them pleasantly scented, but everyone did not agree. Butter daisies were quick and easy from the big, flat, papery seeds.
They grew to 3 feet tall, bloomed over a long season, were drought-resistant, and made a very attractive background behind blue- and orange-flowered plants.
Trachymene Coerulea
The sky-blue lace flower, Trachymene coerulea (formerly Didiscus coerulea), has soft filmy, lavender-blue parasols of bloom, which are lovely with butter daisies in the border or bouquets.
This wildling from Australia bloomed from July until frost in my hot, dry garden. It has a carrot-like seed.
As it is a close relative of our lovely Queen Anne’s lace and our garden carrot, it overgrew from early May sowing, reaching 2 ½’ feet.
Gilia Capitata
The small round heads of the sky-blue thimble flower, Gilia capitata, or globe gilia, were very pretty grown with the coral flower.
These grew about 2’ feet tall from seeds sown thinly in the spring right where they were to bloom.
A 6”-inch edging plant that I found nice with these other annuals was Golden Fleece or Dahlberg daisy and Thymophylla tenuiloba.
I sowed this directly in the garden very early in spring. It made pretty little mounds of sweet-scented, fernlike foliage covered with tiny, golden daisies that bloomed all summer.
44659 by Fern Christian Miller