The long days of summer (and their flowers)

By the time you read this article, the longest day of the year will have passed on June 21.

Our days are now getting shorter, although we will have three more months of hot weather. Many plants respond to the length of the day. Right now, the Hill Country is dotted with the long day plants that can take Texas’s 100-degree days: the Pride of Barbados, Crepe Myrtle, Mexican Oregano, Sunflowers and Lantana.

The Turk’s Cap (Malvaviscus arboreus) started blooming in June with its bright red unique flowers. One of the reasons people like to use it in their landscape is because it will continue to produce flowers into the fall. Being a native plant, once established, it is drought-tolerant, needs no additional nutrients (although it might like a little – especially organic nutrients such as spent coffee grounds) and has few bothersome pests.

Turk’s Cap is a native plant that likes shade but will tolerate some sun. It attracts many pollinators, including hummingbirds. After it blooms and is pollinated, it produces a red berry which birds like to eat. It is said that the fruit tastes like an apple, and that is why a common Spanish name for this plant is “Manzanita.”

Recently, a friend asked me if the deer ate it. Mine is growing where my neighborhood deer cannot reach it. I tried planting it in a deer accessible area, and they munched on it. Still, there are many Turk’s Cap on the Cypress Creek trail in downtown Wimberley and that area has deer.

If I tried planting Turk’s Cap again in the deer accessible area (and I just might), I would put a cage around it and water it regularly the first year or two after I planted it. I have found that sometimes when a plant gets established, the deer lose interest in it. I put a cage around a Pride of Barbados in my front yard for a couple of years. Now, the deer leave it alone.