Truffala Pink scores big across the country and in the Garden Guy's heart for hardiness, color

Norman Winter
·4 min read
Mass planting Truffula Pink 12-inches apart creates a 2-foot tall, tough resistant habitat in the face of wind and rain.
Mass planting Truffula Pink 12-inches apart creates a 2-foot tall, tough resistant habitat in the face of wind and rain.

A Perfect Score award in a university plant trial is quite an honor and makes a real statement about performance ― even more so when that same plant wins Perfect Score in a dozen states, spread across the country. Oklahoma State, University of Minnesota, Mississippi State, University of Tennessee and Iowa State just as a sampling. Add on FlameProof Plant Award for the Dallas Arboretum, and you realize we are talking about a tough plant. I don’t know how many plants can tout such a record, but Truffula Pink gomphrena has withstood the tests.

Even with a trophy case representative of a summer prizefighter, you wonder how Truffula Pink handled a summer as torrid as 2023. The Garden Guy started off the calendar year telling you Truffula Pink gomphrena was Proven Winners National Plant of the Year. At the time, it had won more than 50 awards. That number is up to 81.

It has been the pollinator champion at my house for at least four years. The summer of 2023, however, will go down as a benchmark year. This year made me know without any equivocations, it is the toughest flower you will ever grow and if you do it up right, it will be the prettiest, too.

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Truffula Pink gomphrena is recognized as a butterfly champion Here two Gulf Fritillary butterflies have selected their blossoms for feeding.
Truffula Pink gomphrena is recognized as a butterfly champion Here two Gulf Fritillary butterflies have selected their blossoms for feeding.

By the time you read this, commercial plots I have been watching will be roaring past 150 days of what I would call full bloom. I say commercial plots but what I am referring to are large,  high-traffic beds at the entrance to a shopping mall or residential community.

Because 2023 has been hotter and dryer than most of us have experienced, the Garden Guy had turned into a real whiner. But the Truffula Pink Gomphrena has outperformed any other commercial plantings in town, and is lifting my spirits.

The design of the beds also confirmed what we knew along, but haven’t talked about enough: If I get a complaint about Truffula Pink, it is lodging. That means it falls over. Almost always this is associated with being a single plant that will be the tallest one in the bed or in the container. In other words, over time it becomes a wind sail.

Truffula Pink gomphrena is the quintessential cottage or habitat flower, it is partnered here with Rockin’ Playin’ the Blues salvia, Pyromania Blaze torch lily, Meant to Bee Royal Raspberry salvia and Color Coded One in a Melon echinacea.
Truffula Pink gomphrena is the quintessential cottage or habitat flower, it is partnered here with Rockin’ Playin’ the Blues salvia, Pyromania Blaze torch lily, Meant to Bee Royal Raspberry salvia and Color Coded One in a Melon echinacea.

In all of these beds they were mass planted together and encircled by yellow gold/lantanas. The Truffula Pink plants gave structural support to each other in addition to the extra strength provided by the lantanas. Another real shocker was the show.

Truffula Pink blooms are borne on a see-through plant, of somewhat airy stems, and though the bloom color is an iridescent hot pink, one or two plants simply can’t dazzle enough for the car passengers to take notice in a competitive traffic situation. A couple of dozen plants in a full bloom display however, and on one of those searing triple digit temperature days, makes you look in astonishment and wish for something similar at your home.

Since Truffula Pink is such a butterfly magnet the Garden Guy will always want to incorporate it into habitat and cottage type garden designs. I will use taller plants like Rockin’ Playin’ the Blues salvia, and Meant to Bee agastaches not only as colorful partners but support for each other in the face of storms with rain and wind.

Truffula Pink gomphrena needs full sun and fertile well drained soil to really perform to its capability. Letting these plants sit in wet soggy soil will be a crime. Plan on spacing your plants about 12 inches and add a layer of mulch. You can expect them to get two-feet tall and bloom until frost. I have never had the need to deadhead.

Truffula Pink gomphrena is recognized as one of the toughest most beautiful flowers we can grow, winning 81 awards. This bed along a busy Georgia highway has been blooming non-stop for over 150 days.
Truffula Pink gomphrena is recognized as one of the toughest most beautiful flowers we can grow, winning 81 awards. This bed along a busy Georgia highway has been blooming non-stop for over 150 days.

Truffula Pink is considered an annual and one worth ever penny. I garden in zone 8 and most years I will see a spring return on at least half of the plants. They are considered perennial in zone 9 and warmer. Those of you who like to cut flowers for the vase will find Truffula Pink a perfect and long-lasting addition.

Follow Norman Winter on Facebook @NormanWinterTheGardenGuy for more photos and garden inspiration. See more columns by Norman at SavannahNow.com/lifestyle/home-garden/.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Want to attract butterflies? Plant masses of award-winning Truffala Pink