Outdoor Wednesday--Cypress Vine

• Who can find a virtuous woman? her price is far above rubies
• ...with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard

One of the things I like about being at home is having the time and the space for plants and flowers. It's been so hot since I've been here that I haven't gotten anything started for myself--it's bit late for summer hardy plants, and still too hot for fall varieties--but I can still enjoy the pretty things growing wild and and in other people's yards!



This beautiful overgrown muddle is on the beds in my parent's back yard. There's a cement bird-bath hiding somewhere in the middle, but we haven't been able to see it for weeks. Technically cypress vine is an annual, but it reseeds and comes back up, whether you want it to or not! This flower bed has been cleaned out down to bare dirt twice this year, but it's grows back in spite of their best efforts to keep it somewhat at bay.

It's so pretty up close, though, with it's pretty red star-shaped flowers and it's feathery fern-like leaves. The flowers open in the mornings, and close against the afternoon heat. It's hardy in the heat, even with temperatures in and near the triple digits, and will stay until really cold weather hits (if it ever does!).

And it not only attracts several kinds of butterflies, but hummingbirds as well, although it was the wrong time of day to catch them at it.

I can't wait to have some growing in my yard!

This post is linked to:

Outdoor Wednesday at A Southern Daydreamer

Until next time...