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Eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly on orange tithonia bloom

Filed Under: Garden Tagged With: master gardener, pollinators

Grow Tithonia in Your Summer Garden

October 6, 2023 By Lucy Mercer Leave a Comment

Make butterflies, bees, hummingbirds and your neighbors happy when you grow tithonia in your garden. This stunning sunflower towers over everything in my late summer garden ~ it’s at least 8 feet tall.

Tithonia flower growing next to trees
Tithonia, also called Mexican sunflower, grows to heights up to 6 feet tall. I swear mine is taller. Photo by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Tithonia is also called Mexican sunflower. This year, I planted a variety called ‘Torch’ from Botanical Interests in three places: next to the zinnias by the raised garden beds, in my front garden bed surrounded by ginger lilies and beautyberry, and lastly, by my mailbox garden with black and blue salvia, mandevillas and cardinal climbing vine.

It’s the last location that gets the attention of the neighbors. “What is that plant?” I hear when I step outside to check the mail. I sowed tithonia seeds in late June and by late August the plants grew to about 6 feet with multiple branches bearing searingly orange-red blooms. (Color experts and word nerds call the color vermillion.)

I didn’t get great germination with the blooms, maybe 50 percent. I think that’s due to the seed being packed for 2022 sale. I somehow forgot to plant half the packet last year and returned the packet to my seed box. I discovered the remaining seeds early in summer and planted them in sunshiney pockets that could use a towering pollinator beacon in late summer.

Eastern tiger swallowtail on tithonia
Eastern tiger swallowtail on tithonia bloom in September. Photo by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Things to Know About Tithonia

  • Plant in full sun and well-draining soil.
  • Once established, tithonia tolerates infertile soil, drought and neglect (per Botanical Interests)
  • The buds and blooms are edible.

Give tithonia a chance in your next summer garden. I plan to find many more pockets of full sun goodness around my yard for this stunner.

Orange tithonia blooms in a garden
‘Torch’ tithonia offers up long-last blooms on tall, multi-branched stems in late summer. Plant tithonia and watch the pollinator party. Photo by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Read More Gardening Stories on A Cook and Her Books

My gardening year begins when my Soil3 arrives. This cubic yard of humus compost is the best start for plants.

I plant containers each year and love to try out new designs. Here’s an update on my summer flower pots.

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