Skip to main content

What's Blooming in August: The Prairie Garden

 

Liatris pycnostachya (purple bloom), Pycnanthemum muticum (upper right foliage),
Symphyotrichum laterflorus (dark purple foliage in foreground)

What’s Blooming in August:  The Prairie Garden

by Bryan Fischer, Horticulturist, The Gardens on Spring Creek

 

While the “dog days” of summer represent a quiet time in many gardens in our region, emblemized by plants that brown-out or resort to a scorched, stupor-like state of semi-dormancy, these hot days usher in the fashionably-late arrival for the bloom of many prairie natives. Thriving off warm nights, which take longer to arrive here on the Front Range than in much of the Midwest due to our elevation, the residents of our Prairie Garden have finally made their gaudy entrance onto the scene. 


Guara lindheimer and Artemisia frigida

Perhaps the first arrival this year from the late season bloomers in the Prairie Garden, Oenothera (Gaura) lindheimer (commonly called just gaura or bee blossom) has been dazzling for weeks, creating an almost celestial haze of hundreds of small, white, four-petaled flowers along the length of three-foot stems.  These seem to float in front of the sleek, silver Artimesia frigida (fringed sage) and fine-textured prairie grasses in the central part of the Prairie.


Oenothera guara (Guara biennis) and Salvia azurea 'NeKan'
         

Two other Oenothera species have been contributing to the show – the first being O. rhombipetala, a Nebraskan Sand Hills native with electric yellow blooms that reaches almost four feet tall and nearly as wide, which is paired with cobalt blue Lobelia siphilitica (great blue lobelia). The second Oenothera to watch for would be the massive but ephemeral, Oenothera gaura (Gaura biennis), a heavy blooming, white-pink flowered gaura that stands nearly seven feet tall in the center of the garden’s tall grass spine.  Both of these plants are best seen at opening, as their delicate petals are designed to be pollinated at dawn or dusk and wilt by midday. These wilted petals will be replaced by a fresh crop daily. 


Eryngium yuccifolium and Liatris ligulistylus

Arguably the belle of the ball, Liatris ligulistylus (a tongue twister of a name, I know) has begun to flower in earnest.  Found in two main stands in our Prairie, this “Rocky Mountain blazing star” produces buttons of fuzzy looking, pink-mauve flowers along four-inch stems. This is, by far, the plant that pulls the most butterflies to my garden, and usually at least one monarch can be seen swirling around the plants at any given moment by midday. 


While its common name, rattlesnake master, would suggest otherwise, a substantial stand of Eryngium yuccifolium makes a delightful companion to the main stand of Liatris.  Waxy, blue-tinged and slender foliage below dozens of white orbs help to compliment the very different color and shape of the blazing star plants.  Bees and pollinating wasps prefer the rattlesnake master which is, thankfully, not adjacent to the path. 


Vernonia fasiculata and Rudbeckia triloba 'Prairie Glow'


One of my favorite combinations in the garden at present is a very Halloween-y orange-purple duo: the biennial, airy orange Rudbeckia triloba 'Prairie Glow' with a hearty mix of two purples. The first of these was one of only two ironweeds native to the Front Range, known as Vernonia fasiculata that provides umbrella-shaped, fuzzy purple compound flowers on tall, swaying stems, and the previously mentioned, spike-shaped Liatris ligulistylus.  I selected these two species to sustain the color combination for the duration of the Rudbeckia’s bloom – with Veronia’s exciting royal purple blooms earlier in the season and the lighter purple Liatris providing a longer season of bloom and keeping the vignette interesting for weeks.

 

This garden will soon have a handful of other vignettes peaking. Keep an eye out for aptly named Salvia azurea (azure sage) mixed in with spreading yellow Solidago rigida ‘Fireworks’ (goldenrod), as well as a second hearty display of yellow and purple from an annual selection of Rudbeckia (black-eyed Susan) with the Texas native Salvia farinacea (mealy-cup sage). Asters, notably the refined, purple Symphyotrichum oblongifolium is just beginning to break bud, along with the dark and moody Symphyotrichum lateriflorum ‘Lady in Black’ . These busy perennials will be among the last flowers in this space, with some blooming through September and into October in a good year. 

 

Only after hard frosts force these plants to stop blooming will the Prairie Garden call it a night.  In the meantime, don’t hesitate to stop by the gardens and make the trek out to enjoy the spectacle!  It won’t disappoint. 

 

Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Monarchs and Marigolds in Día de Muertos Celebrations

By Angie Fuentes The Gardens on Spring Creek Community Engagement Assistant  Monarchs Each year, right around Día de Muertos, millions of monarch butterflies arrive like clockwork to the misty mountains of central Mexico. Their appearance during this sacred time holds deep meaning for the communities of Michoacán and the State of Mexico, where the butterflies are seen as the returning souls of ancestors visiting the living. For generations, the Purépecha and Mazahua peoples, two Indigenous groups native to this region, have watched the skies fill with these migrating monarchs, their wings shimmering like a flowing river of orange and gold across the Sierra Madre hills. The butterflies’ arrival has been carefully observed since pre-Hispanic times, marking a spiritual moment when nature and the human spirit move in harmony. According to oral traditions, the spirits of the departed return on the butterflies’ delicate wings, joining their loved ones during Día de Muertos to celebra...
Read more

Blooming Blurb: Winter Interest, Native Plants Turning Red

  By Kate Watson, Gardener  As temperatures drop and summer blooms wilt, there are still many beautiful plants that can add winter interest to your garden. I am partial to the native species that bring warm red tones to a landscape. Here we’ll look at four plant species, native to Colorado, that turn red during winter and are found in The Gardens on Spring Creek.  Creeping Oregon Grape Holly ( Berberis repens ) Creeping Oregon grape holly, Berberis repens (formerly Mahonia repens ), also known as creeping mahonia or barberry, is a low-growing evergreen shrub native to western and central North America. Often 1-3 feet tall and at least as wide, it has broad leathery leaves bordered by small spiny teeth, similar to holly leaves. While not a true holly, which refers to the Ilex genus, Berberis repens also forms berries. The berries are dark blue, resembling grapes, hence the common name “grape holly.” In winter the foliage turns red to dark purple when exposed to ...
Read more

Blooming Blurbs: Fall Edition

  Blooming … Berries? By Ben Stickland, Seasonal Gardener By this time of year, many of us gardeners are already mourning the peak of summer when it felt like everything was vibrant and lush. Now, the warm colors of fall are taking over and most of our showiest bloomers are getting ready for winter. But if you peruse the garden on an October day, you will still see pops of color from a quintessential part of fall: fruits! This week, we are going to highlight some fruits that are taking over for the flowers and keeping the garden interesting and beautiful for autumn.   Callicarpa dichotoma  (beautyberry) The plant that inspired this article with just how beautiful its berries are (turns out they aren’t true berries), was the beautyberry. Callicarpa is a genus of plants native to many parts of the world, but this particular species comes from China, Korea and Japan. It is a compact shrub, typically growing 3-5 feet in height and spread, that has a slight weeping habit. It d...
Read more