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What's Blooming: Flashy August Fillers

 


Flashy August Fillers
by Bryan Fischer, Curator and Horticulturist, Gardens on Spring Creek

I keep a personal Instagram page. Largely, it features whatever flashy plant or plant community has recently caught my eye. Recently, I posted about Oenothera rhombipetala, or Sand Hills evening primrose, a Great Plains native that is widely underused and a great filler plant where an explosive pop of color is needed. Growing as a rosette in its first year, the plant erupts in July of its second season, sending a luminescent candelabra of four-petaled flowers skyward on tentacle-like stems. Despite the flashy photos and juiced verbiage, however, folks saw something else in my post that they seemed to care about a whole lot more: Penstemon richardsonii (Richardson’s penstemon).

It’s always a penstemon!  I get it – any plant that will literally bloom itself to death is bound to catch one’s eye.  While the Oenothera does this as well, there is something special about Richardson’s penstemon. It seems to have the best of both worlds: blooming like it’s about to move on to the “great compost pile in the sky,” yet is routinely one of the longest-lived species we grow in the Penstemon genus.  With attractive, toothed leaf edges and purple winter color, Richardson’s also looks dashing out of bloom.  When flowering, two forms can be found: a hot pink bloom that–at least according to my Instagram followers–pairs well with electric yellow evening primroses, and a lovely periwinkle form that is considerably more blue and still intensely saturated.  Both forms grow well in full sun to part shade (yes, I just said there’s a penstemon that will perform in part shade) and adapts to succeed in a variety of soils and moisture regimes. That being said, please don’t torture this plant in wet clay.

If you have wet clay, this article isn’t for you. That’s because another plant that I’m about to feature absolutely hates the stuff. A sand specialist (looking at you gardeners east of I-25), Mentzelia nuda  translates from Latin as naked blazing star, which is a pretty horrid name. Don’t worry, as the plant retains plenty of intrigue with starry, creamy-white, multi-petaled flowers that open in the evening. But drive by in the morning, and you can miss the plant entirely on roadsides before its blooms open. Look for it under the name “bractless blazing star,” and you may be able find the prairie native as seed online or in regional nurseries. More tolerant of competition than other showy mentzelia, these plants are biennials or short-lived perennials that will stick around in low-density grasses, if they're grown in sandy soils. Bearing the Velcro-like hooked hairs characteristic of the leaves of this genus and family (the Loasaceae), they will also stick to your shirt. This makes for a pretty lame party trick, unless it’s a botany party, in which case it’s marginally better.

Late summer is a season when many larger perennials, both in gardens and the wild, hit their strides. Keep your eyes peeled to catch some spectacular blooms as they ramp up, especially in light of this year’s exceptionally consistent monsoon. Should you strike out in the wild, check out the Prairie Garden at the Gardens on Spring Creek,  which is on track to “have its moment” in the next few weeks.

Photo courtesy of Bryan Fischer.

 

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