Container Gardening Plants: Guara

I love, love, love this plant! It’s unusual, stands up to the high prairie winds here in Minnesota, is heat and drought tolerant and is ever-blooming. And best yet, no need to dead head. What’s not to like about that?

The delicate tendrils keep shooting out flowers to ever higher heights giving the plant just that much more to wave in the wind. Deadheading this plant stunts flowering for a time. I don’t recommend it except at planting time if the plant is spindly. I tried it later in the season and regretted it.

Guara is a Texas native perennial that is grown as a specialty annual in colder climates. The plant is used to much harsher conditions than the summers in Minnesota. It has done very well the last few summers in the hot, dry weather. It may not fare as well in a cooler, wetter summer but as we haven’t had one in a while I can’t say for sure.

The growth habit is tall with delicate tendrils which continue to shoot outward as the season wears on. The plant runs the risk of looking spindly if not planted with good companion plants. Use spreading or mounding plants such as fiber optic grass, brachycome, trailing verbena, or petunias to give the planter a full look. These mounding plants also accentuate the delicate blooms of the guara as they appear to shoot out of the container like fireworks.

Guara comes in shades of pink ranging from bright fuchsia to almost white. Foliage colors range from bright green to dark variegated burgundy. In the variegated varieties the foliage is as gorgeous as the flowers and adds more sizzle to containers.

Plant a couple in of these ever blooming beauties in containers and watch your flowers dance all summer. I promise you won’t be disappointed.