What's in Bloom
Bloom Highlights
Achillea filipendulina ‘Parker’s Variety’
Parker’s Variety Fernleaf Yarrow
Achillia filipendulina is native to a range from central and southwest Asia to the Caucasus and Turkey, where it grows in the rocky soils of steppes, meadows, and open woodlands of hills and mountainsides. The plant has a mounding, clumping habit. The slightly pubescent stems are stiff and erect and bear leaves in an alternate arrangement on the lower third to half of the stem. The green, pubescent, fragrant leaves are linear to lanceolate and pinnately lobed, with serrate margins giving them the appearance of fern fronds. The stem continues to grow away from the foliage mound and terminates in large compound corymb inflorescences of small flower heads. The flower heads are comprised of many tiny golden yellow ray and disk florets. The flowers last long into autumn. This cultivar is noted for its upright growth habit and large compound corymbs. The genus name honors the mythical Greek hero Achilles who used an herb in the Achillea genus to bandage the wounds of his soldiers. The specific epithet is derived from the Latin words filum meaning “thread” and pendulus meaning “hanging,” in reference to the highly dissected leaves on the stems.
Deinanthe bifida
False Hydrangea
This plant is native to the deep to dappled shade of alpine forest canopies in Japan. It grows as a small herbaceous perennial with a mounded habit. The stems are bright green, smooth, and branched. The stems bear large, leathery leaves in opposite pairs. The deeply veined leaves are dark green with a rough texture and are broadly ovate to elliptic with a deep apical cleft and prominently serrate margins. The branches terminate in a corymb inflorescence with up to 20 large, pendulous, waxy, flowers. The nodes of the corymb are subtended by small, light green bracts. The flowers range in color from whitish green to light lilac. Each flower has four to five green sepals, four to six petals, numerous creamy-white stamens, and a prominent white pistil at the center. The genus name comes from the Greek word deinós meaning “terrible” or “fearsome.” However, it has also been translated as “wonderous” and “invoking awe.” This is combined with the Greek anthos meaning “flower.” The specific epithet is Latin meaning “split in two” from bi- meaning “two” and findere meaning “to split.”
Echinacea pallida
Pale Purple Coneflower
This plant is native to central North America from eastern Oklahoma and Kansas in the west to southern Michigan in the east, and from southern Wisconsin in the north to central Louisiana in the south. It grows in tall grass prairies, oak savannas, and limestone glades of open woodlands. This herbaceous perennial has an erect growing habit. The stems are pubescent, stout, and sparingly branching, bearing large, light green leaves in an alternate arrangement only on the lower third of the stem. The pubescent leaves have a rough texture and are lanceolate with smooth, entire margins. Stems terminate in a large capitulum inflorescence of ray and disk florets. The ray florets are pistillate, ligulate, pinkish-purple, and drupe away from the center of the inflorescence. The ray florets are bisexual, tubular, reddish-brown, and are subtended by a stiff pappus that persist after the flower fades. The genus name is derived from the Greek word ẻkhĩnos meaning “hedgehog” or “sea urchin” in reference to the central button of disk florets. The specific epithet means “pale” in Latin.
Elaeocarpus grandifloras
Lily of the Valley Tree
This plant is native to tropical southeast Asia from Myanmar to the Philippines to Sumatra, Java, and the Lesser Sunda Islands, where it grows in tropical evergreen forests. It grows as a woody tree or shrub with a dense conical to upright oval habit. The stems emerge green and fade to brown, producing a light grayish-brown bark. The stems bear glossy, sparsely pubescent leaves in an alternate to nearly whorled arrangement. The leaves emerge red before turning dark green with pale undersides and are elliptical to lanceolate with minutely serrate margins. Older leaves will turn scarlet and burgundy before falling off. Leaf axils produce reddish-brown raceme inflorescences subtended by bracts from long, pendulous stalks. The racemes bear large bell-shaped flowers that hang down like the flowers of Convallaria majalis (lily of the valley). Each flower has five red, narrowly pointed sepals; five deeply fringed, white petals; numerous white stamens; and two fused pistils. The genus name comes from the Greek words eliá meaning “olive” and karpós meaning “fruit” in reference to the passing resemblance of the fruits from the two unrelated taxa. The specific epithet is Latin for “large flowered.”
Gleditisa aquatica
Water Locust
This plant is primarily native to the southern Mississippi River Valley from St. Louis southward to the delta, with other populations in coastal eastern Texas and northern and central Florida, where it is found growing in wetlands like river swamps, forested floodplains, and sloughs. It grows as a medium-sized tree with a spreading, arching habit with thorny trunk and branches. The stems are green tinged with red and fade to dark brown with lenticels and produce dark gray-brown to dark coppery bark that is made up of smooth, narrow, flat plates that curl off with age. Stems alternately bear large feathery, pinnately to bipinnately compound leaves. The dark green leaflets are shiny and oval with smooth and entire margins. Leaf axils from the previous year’s growth produce long, pendulous racemes of small, fragrant, green flowers. Each flower has three to five green sepals, three to five green and/or white petals, and either numerous stamens or a singular pistil, since the plants in this genus tend to be dioecious. The flowers attract bees. The genus name honors German botanist Johann Gottlieb Gleditsch. The specific epithet is derived from the Latin word aqua meaning “water” in reference to its this plant’s preferred habitat.
Oenothera lindheimeri ‘Sparkle White’
Sparkle White White Gaura
Oenothera lindheimeri is native to southeastern Texas and southern Louisiana, where it grows in coastal open prairies and woodlands. It is an herbaceous perennial with an open, vase-shaped habit with many wiry, arching stems that are green tinged with brown. The stems bear leaves in a basal rosette before bolting, bearing the leaves in an alternate arrangement. The green leaves are lanceolate to spatulate with fine hairs and coarsely serrated margins. Leaf axils produce a raceme of fragrant, star-like, white flowers. The flowers have four white petals that point upward and laterally with eight long yellow stamens and four fused pistils that distend from the center of the flower. This plant will rebloom from late spring to mid-autumn. This cultivar is noted for its compact size, growing as a tighter mound than the open and sometimes floppy stems of the uncultivated species. The genus name is believed to be derived from the Greek words oînos meaning “wine” and therā meaning “seek” or “hunt,” as the roots were used to flavor wine. The specific epithet is in honor of German-born botanist Ferdinand Jacob Lindheimer, who collected and documented more than 1,000 species native to Texas.
Opuntia nemoralis
Ouachita Prickly Pear
This plant’s native range extends from eastern Texas through central Louisiana into the Arkansan Ouachita Mountains with a disparate, historic population in southwestern Missouri. It is found growing in open sandy prairies, pine-dominated woodland sandhills, and rocky outcrops. It grows as a prostrate, spreading, succulent perennial. The stems are segmented and swollen into flattened, elliptical pads called cladodes. The cladodes bear glochids—tufts of woolly bristles with backward-facing barbs. Straight, needle-like, white spines emerge from the center of the glochids. These spines are leaves that were greatly reduced to conserve water. Cladode termini produce from one to five large, solitary, cup-shaped flowers. Each flower has seven to 20 yellow tepals, numerous yellow stamens, and at least three fused pistils. The flower produces a red, pear-shaped, edible berry. The genus name comes from an ancient Greek town in the Locris region called Opus, where a similarly spiny but ultimately different plant grew near the town. The specific epithet is derived from the Latin word nemus meaning “forest.”
Dimorphotheca ecklonis ‘Serenity™ Pink Magic Balserpima’
African Daisy
African daisies are tolerant of spring’s cold temperatures. The color of ‘Pink Magic’ changes as the flowers fully open. These deer-resistant plants grow 10 to 14 inches tall. Use them in cool-season containers and garden beds.
Calibrachoa ‘Conga™ Purple Star Balcongplar’
Calibrachoa
An abundance of bright blooms covers these well-branched, trailing plants. Great for containers, hanging baskets, and window boxes. Plants grow 6 to 10 inches tall and spread to 10 inches wide. Tolerates cool weather all spring. Blooms into summer.
Viola cornuta ‘Sorbet® XP Yellow Pink Jump Up’
Horned Violet
Early-blooming, free-flowering plants that remain compact all season long; frost tolerant and low maintenance. Great color for early spring or autumn in garden beds, containers, and hanging baskets. Grows to 6 to 8 inches tall and wide.