20 July 2010

plants: Rock Rose...KAPOW!



The rock rose, Pavonia laiopetala, is blooming with wild abandon now. Hot pink blooms are open and beaming everywhere across our front garden.



Rock rose is a really great woody perennial, small shrub landscape plant in Central Texas. It requires very little water and little maintenance (unless you feel like pruning it back from time to time).



It reseeds itself very easily in my garden, and so far, I'm just letting it spread around. Many of the plants blooming across the front yard now are seedlings from last year. After the big front garden hardscape project, I just decided to let them fill in some space for a while until I can get more serious about planting design up there.



They are gorgeous and do great in the heat of summer. The species is originally from the Edward's Plateau and westward, but do just fine in my black gumbo soil.

And, there's a great blog you should check out named after this fabulous plant: Rock Rose.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fab! I had some of these in England - Cistus Albidus - and hadn't realized they would do so well in Texas! congrats!

RBell said...

Man, you got some beautiful Rock Roses. Mine only receive dappled sunlight and don't come close to comparing. Very nice.

Michael - Plano Prairie Garden said...

I like that color. I have only seen pink flowers before.