Landscape maintenance and plants pro tips: Gaura or Whirling Butterflies by Earthwise Scott
Gaura lindheimeri or Whirling Butterflies is a tough, low maintenance, pollinator friendly plant for your landscape. This beautiful plant will attract many unique pollinators. The prolific flowering habit will add something truly unique to your landscape. This plant grows up to the 2-3’ range so this could be used as a mid-level accent. Pink or white flowers. Zones 7-9.
Conditions: Prefers full sun. Prefers well drained soil. Tolerates slightly acidic to slightly alkaline soil type.
Care: New plants require daily water for 2-3 weeks. So, if you’ve added this to an existing landscape you can simply wet the soil at the base of the plant with a garden hose for about 5 seconds for each new plant. You don’t have to hand water on days the irrigation system runs. After a couple weeks, make sure the plant gets water about every other day for another 2-3 weeks. After that, it should be fine with water 2X per week.
*Try not to wet the foliage in the evenings which will help avoid any leaf fungus issues.
Otherwise, you won’t need to do much, but some stems (as you can see by the one blocking my face in the video) can get up and above the canopy. Feel free to trim them off or let it go! This plant will be perfectly happy the less you do to it.
Sprinkle a little fertilizer in the plant hole when you install it. Not too much! Maybe a teaspoon. Then you can fertilize every 3-6 months for optimal flowering. Be sure to use a controlled release granular complete with micro nurtrients. Lesko makes a good one.
Overwinter: Gaura doesn’t always last for years like typical landscape shrubs. When the weather gets cold (low 30’s or below), this plant will act like a perennial. This means the cold weather will burn off the canopy. How much depends on how cold for how long. After the last freeze, trim off any dead foliage and allow it to regrow from the base. Occasionally, you might lose one, but they are easy to find and replace. I see them at the big box store’s garden centers all the time. Aside from that, this landscape plant is low maintenance.
University of Florida IFAS write up: https://sfyl.ifas.ufl.edu/media/sfylifasufledu/baker/docs/pdf/horticulture/demonstration-gardens/Whirling-Butterflies_Gaura.pdf
Gardening article: https://www.tallahassee.com/story/life/home-garden/2021/04/22/gaura-whirling-butterfly-plant-attracts-pollinators-neighbors/7327249002/
Landscape design and installation service area includes Seminole and East Orange counties (Lake Mary, Sanford, Heathrow, Winter Park, Winter Springs, Altamonte Springs, Orlando, Longwood, Casselberry areas and nearby).
