6 Weird and Wacky Plants to Add Interest to Your Garden
For children, adding unusual, fun, or interesting plants to the garden can be a great way to inspire a lifelong interest in the amazing world of horticulture. From flowers that smell like chocolate to plants inhabited by bats, we look at six unusual plants to add to your yard to enthrall visitors of all ages.
1. Chocolate Cosmos
As strange as it may sound, cocoa plants do not smell like chocolate at all. Enter Cosmos atrosanguineus, the chocolate cosmos, which most certainly does.
A tuberous perennial grown as an annual in some regions, the cocoa-scented blooms of the chocolate cosmos add a blaze of maroon-crimson in late summer. Also known as the black dahlia or black cosmos, the chocolate cosmos has an enticing scent that will attract a wide range of different wildlife, including bees and butterflies, to your garden. Originating in Mexico, the plant is best grown in full sun and moist but well-drained soil.
2. Dwarf Powderpuff Plant
The dwarf powderpuff grows to around 6 feet tall without pruning. Its striking red buds appear like berries at first, then unfurl to reveal large, scarlet powderpuffs. This species attracts butterflies and hummingbirds from near and far.
In addition to their bright red puffball blooms, dwarf powderpuffs have interesting foliage. With branches growing outward in layers, and buds and flowers along each branch, the dwarf powderpuff flowers virtually all year round, adding color even in partly shaded beds. Fitting nicely into any yard in Hardiness Zones 9 to 11, the dwarf powderpuff requires regular irrigation with time to dry out in between. It should be fertilized in spring, summer, and fall.
3. Passionflower
With around 400 passionflower varieties in total, nine types grow in the United States, thriving in Zones 6 through 11. These exotic, almost alienlike flowers attract insects and butterflies. In addition, the plant’s evergreen foliage provides privacy year-round when grown on a trellis or fence.
In terms of flowering and fruiting, passionflowers can be quite picky. To produce the best flowers, they require partial shade or full sun. The blooms themselves come in a variety of different colors, including white, pink, purple, blue, and even red, as well as variegated cultivars. Measuring up to 3 inches in diameter, passionflower blooms have been associated with Christ’s crucifixion, also known as “the Passion,” since the 1500s.
Passionflowers make an ideal backdrop for a butterfly garden, as they provide food for around 70 different butterfly species. Female butterflies lay their eggs on the vines, and the young caterpillars feed happily on the foliage. However, if too many butterflies choose the same plant, the caterpillars can soon take their toll on the plant’s health. As a form of evolutionary protection, some passionflowers have developed features that resemble butterfly eggs, persuading female butterflies to find another spot to lay their eggs.
4. Bat Pitcher Plant
Unlike most pitcher plants, which attract, trap, and digest insects as a source of nutrients, the bat pitcher plant, or Nepenthes hemsleyana, has lost almost all of its ability to trap insects. Instead, it serves as a home for bats, which use the plant’s exotic-looking pitchers as a place to hide from predators and rest.
In the wild, the plant provides shelter for Hardwicke’s woolly bats. Research suggests that the bat pitcher plant evolved in shape to reflect the calls of echolocating bats. In exchange for providing a safe refuge for the bats, the plants benefit from nutrients released in the bat droppings, culminating in an arrangement that is beneficial to both flora and fauna.
Nepenthes hemsleyana can be incredibly pricy, with versions imported from Australia retailing for $249. This heat-loving species requires a minimum temperature of 80 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and 65 degrees Fahrenheit at night. It prefers lowland conditions and high humidity, though it can adapt to lower humidity. It does best in bright, indirect light.
5. Purple Lacy Fiddleneck Flowers
Not only is this species fascinating to look at, with its purple spiral blooms that slowly unfurl, but it also smells like grapes. Purple lacy fiddleneck flowers spread quickly over a huge surface area.
Also known as purple tansy or scorpion weed, this species is native to the Southwestern United States and Northwest Mexico. The hardy annual is a great asset in the garden, as it attracts pollinators as well as predators and parasites that attack insect pests. Creating a dense carpet of attractive ground cover, purple lacy fiddleneck shields the soil while allowing moisture to trickle through.
6. Carrion Flower
When we think of flowers, we tend to envision colorful, exquisitely scented blooms. However, not all flowers smell good. While carrion flowers are certainly attractive to the eye, the same cannot be said for the nose.
Carrion refers to the rotting flesh of dead animals, which is exactly what these foul-scented blooms smell like. Carrion flowers use their smell to lure carrion insects into their blossoms, not to use them for food, but for pollination.
Despite their dreadful aroma, they have a reputation among botanists as some of the most fascinating plant species to grow, though you may want to omit them from a bouquet or vase of cut flowers.
