Free plant list for May 6

Open Greenhouse & Plant Swap, Saturday, May 6, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., 602 Ronele Drive, Brandon, FL 33511

Along with our normal plants, we also have a rain barrel and a limited number of wooden pallets, plust bamboo that can be cut to stake plants.

Some of the potted plants we’ll have available on Saturday:

• Firebush is my all-around favorite native plant because it’s always alive with bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.
• We also potted up some non-native rain lilies which aren’t as spectacular as the firebush every day, but when they bloom, they’re show-stoppers.
• Potted aloe plants that came from the last swap

Also on the free plant list for April:

• Native elderberries are covered in berries but they also spread by runners so we have lots to share
• Bleeding heart and pagoda plants, both of which do need to be contained because they spread underground.
• Lady palms, a slow-growing hedge that’s tough as can be once it’s started
• Crinium lilies are beginning to snap into bloom now, and we have plenty of babies to share.

Cuttings

• My amazing sister will be bringing more plumeria cuttings. She asked her husband to label them for colors this month.
• Ever-bearing mulberries with fruit that is just now starting to ripen, to the delight of children and birds. They’re super-easy to root and set fruit nearly year-round.
• Coral Porterweed gets butterflies all year long and hummingbirds when they’re here in the winter. It’s also very attractive and very easy to root.
• Dark blue salvia and lavender or red firespike. There’s one big red firespike you can take as a you-dig.
• Jacob’s ladder is one of the few things we grow that doesn’t benefit wildlife, but it’s an attractive plant that works beautifully in a pot or as an inside house plant that doesn’t need much light or love.

Seeds

• Blanket flower
• Native spiderwort, another favorite native that thrives almost anywhere it gets enough sun
• The cosmos growing here are a new favorite, they attract lots of bees and butterflies even though they bounce when a critter lands.
• Candlestick senna is a show-stopper plant when it blooms but it’s also the larval food for sulfur butterflies, which are gorgeous on their own and here for most of the year.
• Bachelor buttons are super-cute plants that attract all kinds of bees and butterflies.