Hi Carol23, A bit of concern here. How do you clean the containers? I can see it now - someone reads your post and sees your very cool photos and collects up caterpillars, doesn't know squat about how to care for them, and they die. Would you please share a bit more about how this works or direct us to a site that explains in detail? Thanks!

Lactuca, wild lettuce, of some variety, I think.

I have found some too and thought, "How pretty and I bet it is nitrogen-fixing." Thanks to this post, I looked it up at Dave's and here is a picture of it's rampant growth. The caption was, "Give it an inch....."

Fellow Penta lover here too! Hi Carol! Right now i only have tall red ones that are my favorite. I hope to start a half dozen cuttings tomorrow after I get a bag of medium. How do you start yours? I had planned on using the rooting powder method since I haven’t had real good luck with just starting in water. Thats interesting you have volunteers. Never seen that before but it doesn’t surprise me! This month its 16 years I’ve been gardening at this home and I have to say I learn something new every week with regards to Florida gardening. My front beds/yard is in the process of a big re-do but I did have the short (18”) dark pink Pentas there that came back bigger and better each year. They’re a great plant for the bees and butterflies. Hummingbirds seem to ignore all except for the tall reds. The one plant I have a love/hate relationship with is purple porter weed. Now there’s one that throws volunteers everywhere! Great if you have the space for it. Easy to pull and transplant though.