Tropical Storm Erika

Important Links

Erika May Come Into Gulf Of Mexico

Tropical Storm Erika has sustained winds of 50mph and is moving west-northwest around 18mph.

Breaking Weather Map #1
Breaking Weather Map #2
Breaking Weather Map #3
Breaking Weather Map #4

Dayside Garden: Stinkweed

Updated: Friday, August 22 2014, 11:46 AM CDT
Dayside Garden: Stinkweed story image

Many gardeners are searching for bright splashes of color for their end of summer landscapes.

We are at Woerner's Turf and Landscape on Creighton Road in Pensacola, it is a beautiful place.  I could just browse and shop and daydream for forever here.

Beth Bolles from the Escambia County Extension Office joins us.  You are holding what we used to call as kids, "Stinkweed". 

"It is called "stinkweed", that's the common name for it, because of its odor.  But most people know it as lantana, it's the wild lantana.  It's not a native, and unfortunately it has some berries that it produces and the birds carry those around and they spread too easily, taking the place of natives.  So when you visit your nursery, like here at Woerner.  What you want to look for, instead of one with berries, get some of these sterile varieties.  There are lots of them, in many, many colors, they still attract butterflies and you can have a great plant without having to worry anything overtaking our native plants."

Kathryn Daniel;  "If we plant this in August, can we enjoy it throughout the fall I guess?"

Beth Bolles; "We can.  We can plant things right now,  these do freeze so by the time they're established, they should be ready to make it through a frost, given a fairly normal winter.  Still just a wonderful groundcover, shrub plant.  There are different sizes of these, and if you like colors; we have white, purple, yellow here and we have many, many others that are developed.  Just make sure you look for one without the berries.  And one thing to know, these are poisonous, so be careful if you have little ones around or animals that like to chew things, just be aware of that."

Kathryn Daniel;  "I picked up a beautiful one in a peach color."
Beth Bolles; "Oh, there are so many different ones, there are all of these universities and breeders that breed these and they want to make sure they breed that reproduction out of it, so it's a sterile one.  That's the good thing, but lots of variety in the landscape."

Kathryn Daniel; "Is full sun okay?"
Beth Bolles; "Full sun is great.  It still does like a little bit of water, even if it's a drought tolerant plant, it does do best and bloom best with a little bit of water."

Kathryn Daniel;  "Okay, lantana.  We'll be back here next week, what are we gonna talk about?"

Beth Bolles; "We're gonna talk about the nutrient phosphorus and how it affects blooming plants.  Because a lot of people want more and more blooms so we'll talk about the best way to get those."

Kathryn Daniel; "Okay, perfect.  Thank you Beth, as always, from the Escambia County Extension Office."

Dayside Garden: Stinkweed

Friday Night Rivals

Gulf Coast Fun

Health Watch

Health News

WEAR-TV ABC 3 :: HomeFront Heroes

Home Improvement

Hurricane Center

News Links

Pay It Forward




Washington Times