The cheerful lavender pink of the Senorita Rosalita cleome combines well with other flowers and greenery in any type of garden. It also is shorter and doesn't have thorns or set seeds like many other typical cleomes.

Your garden can have an exciting festivallike atmosphere all summer long, if you choose the right flowers. If you're looking for the life of the garden party, you need to include the award-winning Senorita Rosalita.

This is an outstanding new cleome that creates interest and excitement in the garden by offering an intricate spidery flower structure.

Many gardeners are concerned about growing cleomes because they have thorns that can be quite painful. They also don't like the fact that cleomes reseed a lot. Well, if those two issues keep you from growing cleome, then by all means try Senorita Rosalita cleome.

Senorita Rosalita is shorter than typical cleomes. It is sterile, which means it sets no seeds. It also does not have thorns, and it blooms all season long. With attributes like that, you would guess it's an award winner. Right you are! It has a list of awards that humbles most other plants, and it has proven adaptability across the entire country.

In addition to being the 2009 Mississippi Medallion Award winner, a few of the other notable prizes it has received are the Prairie Star Award (Kansas State), Top Performer (Ohio State), Best of Trials (University of Florida), and Best Overall (Cornell University).

Cleomes are usually planted from young transplants in warm spring soil, which means we are entering the prime planting season. Select a site that is well drained and receives plenty of sunlight. Morning sun and afternoon shade also will work well. If the bed is poorly drained, add 2 to 3 inches of organic matter. Be sure and apply a good layer of mulch after planting. This really helps to prevent moisture loss to evaporation and deter weed growth, which competes for both water and nutrients. Cleomes are drought tolerant once established. In midsummer, give them a little fertilizer, like a 5-10-5 and you'll help push them into the fall season

Senorita Rosalita is available in a cheerful lavender-pink color. It can be used in any style of garden and in a wide variety of plant combinations. In the landscape, place Senorita Rosalita to the rear of the border in a bold informal drift. Space them 20 to 24 inches apart. They combine wonderfully with other flowers like petunias, phlox, salvias and vincas. I've seen great combinations using them with yellow daylilies.

I like them also in tropical gardens with bananas after all, they do come from South America. To be honest, they fit in cottage gardens and would be exceptional in public areas like golf courses and parks. They reach close to 4 feet in height, attracting hummingbirds and butterflies, offering both heat and drought tolerance.

By all means, if you are looking for the unusual flower as the thriller plant in mixed containers then you could hardy pick a better choice. Your choices for spiller and filler plants are limitless. Some of my favorites would be Diamond Frost euphorbia or Flambe chrysocephalum as fillers and Goldilocks lysimachia or Silver Falls dichondra as spillers.

Using flowers with differing textures creates interest and excitement in the garden, and a bold drift or clump of Senorita Rosalita cleomes will certainly do their part. Plant some this weekend.

Norman Winter is a garden lecturer and author of "Mississippi Gardener's Guide," "Paradise Found: Growing Tropicals In Your Own Backyard" and the highly acclaimed "Tough-as-Nails Flowers for the South." Watch for Norman's new book "Captivating Combinations Color and Style in the Garden" in early 2009.