S & J Nursery’s Guide to Growing
Pentas Old Fashion Heirloom ‘Ruby’ / Ruby Red / Ruby Glow
/ Egyptian Star Flower
in the St. Augustine / Jacksonville Florida area Landscape
( Pentas Lanceolata)
Pentas Old Fashion Heirloom ‘Ruby Red Glow’ Origins:
Pentas are without a doubt one of my all time favorite garden plants and this Ruby Red one is the king of them all. While Pentas are native to the tropical regions of Africa they are a Florida friendly landscape plant and an excellent addition to any landscape. I could talk to you for hours and just never say enough about this plant. It attracts more butterflies than all of the others put together. One of my absolute favorite things to do is chasing butterflies around the garden getting phots and videos and these Ruby Red Heirloom pentas make it SO EASY! Every time I walk out to them there are loads of butterflies fluttering about!
Why? Well its simple, this old fashion flower has loads of pollen, and I mean loads of pollen, apparently delicious pollen to boot! On a visit to The Butterfly House in the Gainesville Florida, I took a tour of the facility ( its closed now but when I first started in the nursery industry nearly three decades a go it was an awesome place to visit) anyway… they were using a single 3 gallon Pentas plant for each butterfly cage that they changed out daily to supply all the nectar that the butterflies needed each day in the little greenhouse tent areas where they had butterflies separated by species. When I asked them why they relied on this one nectar source instead of well, mixing it up a bit which to me seemed the logical thing to do…I was told that they had found the amount of nectar provided in the old fashion Pentas as the best source to feed their large butterfly populations. Apparently they only had to switch these out once a day with fresh ones from the greenhouse. I was sold! I have been a huge fan of them ever since and have grown them in the garden for nearly 30 years now. (SHHH, don’t tell people… I’m 46 I SWARE, PINKY PROMISE, I may also be 47, 48 and… well who is counting anyway?)
If you didn’t love these Heirloom Pentas already, let me tell you one more of the best things about them…these plants will last multiple seasons, reliably coming back after winter season with just a trim and a helping handful of compost or fertilizer. For that reason, combined with the high nectar source, I have differentiated the old fashioned Pentas from their newer Hybrid counterparts for the purpose of this website instead of clumping them together. These taller nectar loaded Pentas do come in a few colors and I will link the pages to those at the bottom of this page.
Pentas Old Fashion Heirloom ‘Ruby Red Glow’ Preferred Exposure:
– Pentas Old Fashion Heirloom will prefer a full sun or partial shade partial sun location but will flower well in areas that only receive a few hours of light a day( I have Pentas planted in my mothers landcapes that receive only filtered light through tall thick Oaks and they still bloom freely) in the
North Florida | Jacksonville | St. Augustine area gardens landscape.
Pentas Old Fashion Heirloom Ruby Red Foliage:
Dark green herbaceous leaves will go dormant for the winter season after fall flowering is complete if we have a cooler winter where the temperatures drop to under 32 degrees for more than just an hour or two in the early morning. If we have a mild winter these plants may just keep on going right through Christmas and into new years remaining evergreen until spring like they do in Central and South Florida landscapes. Normally areas of Jacksonville like the North side, West side etc. will get enough cold to get them some frost damage during the winter months. Don’t toss them out, leave the burnt looking foliage on till spring as they will regrow quickly when the temperatures rise. Just trim off the damaged stems and leaves after all danger of frost has passed and give them some additional nutrition like a shovelfull of comppst or some slow release fertilizer like osmocote mixrd with Milorganite or chicken manure. ( A little mulch or straw over the base of the plant in the winter season will protect those lower stems and roots from frost damage and have this plant looking great FAST the following spring!)
Pentas Old Fashion Heirloom Ruby Red / Red Glow Soil Preference / Salt tolerance:
– Ruby Pentas is not particular about the components of the soil it is planted in providing they are planted in a well draining location. Like all heavily flowering plants it takes a lot of nutrition to do all that work so these plants will definately appreciate some amended soil when planting with some nice compost.
– Salt tolerance for Pentas Old Fashion Heirloom is unknown.
Pentas Old Fashion Heirloom Ruby Glow/Ruby Red Size Variance and Growth Habit :
– Pentas Old Fashion Heirloom is a tall grower reaching 3-6 ft and a little
higher in the shadier areas of the landscape and a little more compact in direct sun. These heirloom pentas plants tend to be a bit taller than wide but may still reach 2-3 ft in width easily.
Pentas Old Fashion Heirloom Growth Rate:
– Fast growing Pentas Old Fashion Heirloom can be expected to reach almost to its full height late in the first season when planted early in the year in our Northeast Florida | Jacksonville | St. Augustine area landscapes.
Pentas Old Fashion Heirloom Water Requirements:
– Pentas Old Fashion Heirloom will require supplemental irrigation for best
results water twice a week once established into the landscape.
Butterfly or Bird Attracting:
– Pentas Old Fashion Heirloom will attract loads of butterflies to your gardens landscape. Hummingbirds will be attracted in particular to the Red selection.
Best Uses For Pentas Old Fashion Heirloom in the North Florida | Jacksonville | St.
Augustine area garden:
– They are a great low maintenance back of the border plant selection with loads of booms with what I consider to be almost no maintenance after planting, although they will benefit from a once a year trim in the middle of summer hurricane season.
– An absolute must for any butterfly garden. Hummingbird attracting!
– Pentas Old Fashion Heirloom makes a great companion plant for other
perennials in the garden and adds an instant cottage garden feel when planted in any landscape.
– Used as a cut flower the blooms will last up to 2 weeks!
Care of Pentas Old Fashion Heirloom in the North Florida | Jacksonville | St.
Augustine area landscape:
– Water every day during the establishment period after planting in the garden from a nursery container, once plants have established themselves into the landscape taper water back to just a weekly application if local rainfall levels are low.
– Dont trim off winter damaged foliage until all danger of frost has passed in the spring. Leave foliage and roots in place for next years growth.
– Fertilize each spring and a gain in mid summer and fall with a handful of
garden compost or a mixture of Milorganite and a slow release poly coated plant food such as Osmocote or Stay Green general purpose plant food
or 10-10-10.
Old Fashion Heirloom Pentas Starburst
Pentas Old Fashion Heirloom ‘Jessica’
Love the Idea of Pentas in your home garden but want something shorter, maybe knee high?
Try the Butterfly Series Pentas
or try ‘Orchid Illusion’ Pentas
Want something shorter than that? Maybe shin high? ok but keep in mind these may be more like annuals in the landscape, in all that dwarf breeding they lost a bit of hardiness, but they still come back on warmer winter years and are still a great plant!
Try the Grafitti Series Pentas
or how about just boot high and not quite the range of colors that the Graffiti series boasts but my favorite for containers…
try the BeeBright Series Pentas