Gaura lindheimeri, native to parts of Texas and Louisiana prairies, is one of our summer bestsellers. There is a lot of breeding being done to create more compact and deeper pink varieties, but our favorite is the classic “Whirling Butterflies.”
The magic in gaura is the tall fluttery stems that add height and movement to your garden. In this author’s humble opinion, the shorter versions aren’t the same. There are better plants if you want something low-growing- echinacea, leucanthemum, or coreopsis come to mind.
Whirling Butterflies get around 3′ tall with white flowers and slightly pink stems. It looks best tucked into the back of a bed or mixed with other tall whispy plants like verbena bonariensis or lavender. They are also good for filling out butterfly gardens with a base of shrubs like buddleia.
In our experience, it also comes back a little better than some of the more dwarf varieties. Of course, that could have just been user error.
They like a lot of sun and well-draining soil, so amend that clay when you plant them. They are drought-tolerant and don’t need much fussing, except to give them a haircut mid-summer after the first set of blooms finish to encourage a repeat show all the way to frost.
Plant them with other drought-tolerant full sun lovers like lavender, buddleia, hydrangea paniculata, and the like.