Ruellia - Mexican Petunia - Fall Flowers!
Ruellia, Tall purple Mexican Petunia One of the flowers blooming now is Mexican Petunia. While the two-to-three foot tall variety with lavender-purple blooms is the one we commonly see, there are several others in the Ruellia family that are native to the US. Ruellia seeds are easy to start, and, a few years after they are successfully started they will form small colonies of plants, adding cheerful color to fall flower beds and feeding migrating butterflies and skippers. Ruellias are free of insect and disease problems The seed-grown plants in our garden came from AZ where seedlings come up even when it is 115-degrees F. If you are building a butterfly habitat, Ruellias are important not only as reliable fall nectar for adult butterflies but also as caterpillar food for several butterflies and moths. One of them, the Common Buckeye, is a beautiful and unique sight with several large false eyes on the wings. The caterpillars are black, white and orange with soft black ...