Melinda's Garden Moment Radio Tips
Melinda Myers
Nationally known gardening expert, TV/Radio host, author & columnist with over 30 years of horticulture experience and tons of gardening information to share! www.melindamyers.comMelinda's Garden Moment videos will help you create that beautiful landscape you’ve always wanted. Each week throughout the growing season, a new gardening video will be added right here, so be sure to stop back. You can also watch Melinda’s Garden Moments on your local network TV station affiliate.
Add some fun and fragrance to the garden with a peanut butter shrub and popcorn plant.
Enjoy the fragrant flowers and foliage of Clerodendron, also known as peanut butter shrub. Hardy in zones 6 to 10, it often dies back to the ground in the colder portions of its hardiness zone. Those in colder regions need to move it indoors for winter. Grow Clerodendron in full sun and moist well-drained soil. You, the hummingbirds and butterflies will all enjoy the tubular white flowers and unique bright blue berry-like fruit.
Popcorn Cassia (Senna or Cassia didymobotrya) is also called peanut butter plant. The leaves smell like popcorn when crushed and the yellow flowers smell like peanut butter. Hardy in zones 9 and 10, it is grown as an annual elsewhere. Plant it in the garden or container and watch the birds, bees and butterflies to visit.
A bit more information: You can overwinter your peanut butter shrub in a cool bright location indoors. Water thoroughly when the top few inches of potting mix begin to dry. Wait until spring to begin fertilizing.