What's in Bloom
Bloom Highlights
Hydrophyllum virginianum
Virginia Waterleaf
This plant is native to eastern North America from the eastern Great Plains throughout the Great Lakes region and into the mid-Atlantic states, New England, and Quebec where it is found in mesic hardwood forests, moist thickets, and floodplains. It grows as a spreading herbaceous perennial with erect floral stalks. The stems are green with stained with red and copper pigmentation and grow upright before trailing. Stems alternately bear pinnately compound, green leaves. The leaflets are elliptical to triangular with deeply set veins and serrate margins. Each stem terminates in one or two floral stalks, each with a cyme inflorescence of eight to twenty bell-shaped white, lavender, or pink flowers. Each flower has five sepals and five petals with five exerted stamens fused to the petals surrounding two fused pistils that produce a fruit that self-seeds the colony. The genus name comes from the Greek words hydor meaning “water” and phyllon meaning “leaf” in reference to the appearance of the young leaves’ mottled patterns as if they were water stained.
Rosa rubiginosa
Sweetbriar Rose
This plant is native throughout Europe, Mediterranean northern Africa, and temperate regions of the Middle East and western Asia where it is found in open woodlands, grasslands, along stream and riverbanks, and on rocky slopes. It grows as a large, multi-stemmed, deciduous shrub with many arching, branching, prickle clad canes. The shoots are bright green and alternately bear many pinnately compound glossy, green to dark green leaves. The leaflets are elliptical with serrated margins. The shoot termini and leaf axils produce solitary or small clusters of large, saucer-shaped, sweetly fragrant flowers of soft pink and white. Each flower has five sepals, five large petals, many stamens, and many pistils that produce a large showy, red hip fruit in the autumn. The genus name is the Latin name for these plants, but it is derived from the Greek word rhódon which is derived from an even older Old Persian word for these plants. The specific epithet means “rust, rust-colored” in Latin.
Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Royalty’
Royalty Ninebark
Physocarpus opulifolius is native to eastern North America, from the Great Plains, including eastern Colorado and Canada, through the Great Lakes to Appalachia, New England, and into Nova Scotia where it is found in open woodlands, stream and riverbanks, and on rocky slopes. It grows as a multi-stemmed deciduous shrub with a dense growth habit with arching canes. The shoots emerge brown and produce dark brown bark in maturity that exfoliates in strips, revealing reddish-brown inner bark. Branches alternately bear large, green ovate leaves with three to five lobes and crenate margins. Leaves turn golden yellow in autumn. Leaf axils produce corymb inflorescences of pinkish white, Spiraea-like flowers. Each flower has five sepals fused into a cup, five round petals, numerous stamens, and three to five pistils ringed by nectar gland. This cultivar is noted for its dark purple and burgundy foliage with tight clusters of pale pink flowers. The genus name comes from the Greek words physa meaning “bladder” and karpos meaning “fruit” in reference to the inflated dry fruits. The specific epithet is derived from the Latin opulus a reference to Viburnum opulus and folius meaning “leaves” since the leaves of this Physocarpus look like the leaves of the unrelated Viburnum opulus.
Thalictrum aquilegiifolium
Columbine Meadowrue
This plant has two distinct native ranges that of mainland Europe from Spain to Türkiye and western Russia and Kazakhstan and of eastern Asia from Mongolia eastward though northern China, Japan, Korea, and eastern Russia. It is found in moist woodlands, thickets, and meadows. It grows as an herbaceous perennial with a mounding foliar habit and erect open-form flower stalks. Erect green stems branch and oppositely bear pinnately and bipinnately compound bluish-green leaves. The leaflets are round to obovate with palmately lobed margins. Stem termini produce tall flower stalks that terminate in a panicle of white, pink, or lavender, puff-like, apetalous flowers. Male and female flowers are born from different plants. Female flowers have four to five sepals and a profusion of white or pinkish white pistils. Male flowers have four to five sepals and a profusion of purple stamens. The genus name is derived from the Ancient Greek word tháliktron, a word used to describe any plant with deeply divided or dissected leaves. The specific epithet is Latin for “with leaves like Aquilegia”.
Verbascum bombyciferum ‘Arctic Summer’
Arctic Summer Mullein
Verbascum bombyciferum is native to northwestern Türkiye where it is found on dry, stony hill and mountainsides. It grows as a deciduous biennial. In the first year, a stout, silvery green, pubescent stem produces a large rosette of spatulate to lanceolate, dark green leaves with minutely serrate to smooth margins and covered in a dense layer of silvery hairs. In the second year, the stem produces a rosette just as the year before, but then bolts, elongated the rosette as a branched floral spike develops from the stem’s terminus. The spike is covered in a thick layer of silvery hair and produces lemon-yellow, funnel-shaped flowers. Each flower has five fused sepals, five fused petals with five fringed stamens fused to the petals all around two fused pistils. This cultivar is noted for its large rosette of silvery green leaves and its branching floral spikes. The genus name is likely a corruption or mistranslation of the Latin word barbascum meaning “bearded” in reference to the appearance of the stamens in some species. The specific epithet is derived from the Greek word bómbyx meaning “silk” or “silkworm” and the Latin word ferre meaning “carry” or “bear” in reference to the silky hairs on the whole plant.
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.