What's in Bloom
Bloom Highlights
Asimina triloba
Pawpaw
This plant is native to much of eastern North America, primarily in the greater Mississippi River valley and in the Great Lakes region including southern Ontario. It is found in forests and thickets—particularly those on floodplains, in ravines, and along streambanks. It grows as a small tree or shrub with a pyramidal habit. Shoots are coppery-brown with conspicuous lenticels and mature to produce smooth, blotchy light brown to light gray bark that becomes scaly as it ages. Branches alternately bare bright green, oblong to obovate leaves that hang from the stems. Prior to leafing out, leaf axils produce pendulous, bell-shaped flowers that are purplish-brown and malodorous as flies and beetles pollinate them. Each flower has six leathery petals. Even though they have both male and female parts, they are self-incompatible. This means they need another tree nearby to produce fruit. If pollinated, flowers develop fleshy, berry-like fruits in autumn with glaucous yellow-green skin and custardy pulp that is sweet. The genus name is derived from a Native American word. The specific epithet means “with three lobes” in reference to the shape of the leaves.
Brunnera macrophylla ‘Queen of Hearts’
Queen of Hearts Siberian Bugloss
Brunnera macrophylla is native to Turkey, the Caucasus Mountain region, and Siberia, where it is found on shady mountain slopes and in moist forests and woodlands. It grows as a clumping and mounding herbaceous perennial that forms colonies via rhizomatous growth. The green stems alternately bear large, rough, cordate leaves that are showy and long-lasting. The shoot termini and the leave axils produce large raceme or panicle sprays of small blue flowers that resemble the genus Myosotis (forget-me-nots), which are a close relative. The narrow, trumpet-shaped flowers have five fused, coroniform petals that are basally white before changing to blue as the petals splay outward. This cultivar is noted for its heart-shaped leaves that have a silvery overlay broken by dark green veins. The genus name honors Samuel Brunner, a Swiss botanist. The specific epithet is Latin for “large-leaved.”
Galium odoratum
Sweet Woodruff
This plant is native to almost all of Europe, northern Algeria, the Caucasus Mountain region, the northern Middle East, into Russia as far as eastern Siberia, northern and central China, Korea, and Japan. It is commonly found in dappled to fully shaded areas of forests, woodlands, and thickets. It grows as a mounding, mat-forming, herbaceous ground cover. Its wiry green stems are highly branched, fragrant when crushed, and ridged. The stems trail along the ground bearing whorls of six to nine bright green, elliptical leaves that are fragrant when crushed. Shoots terminate in cyme inflorescences of small, cruciform, fragrant flowers. The flowers have four lanceolate petals and give way to small schizocarp fruits that are covered in hooked bristles that may get caught on clothing. The genus name is derived from the Greek word gala meaning “milk” as Galium vernus was used to curdle milk for cheese making. The specific epithet is Latin for “fragrant.”
Heuchera ‘Grape Timeless’
Grape Timeless Heuchera
This plant is a proprietary hybrid. The genus Heuchera spans much of North America from southern Alaska in the west throughout Canada to New York in the east, southward to northern Mexico. Plants of this genus are commonly found in partial to dappled shade in woodlands and on cliffs and rocky slopes. Plants of this genus grow as clumping/mounding herbaceous perennials. Leafing stems are stout, green or burgundy, and pubescent, alternately bearing leaves with long petioles that create a mound of foliage. The leaves are cordate to orbicular with palmately lobed and undulate margins. Flowering stems are slender and upright, terminating in a panicle of small, bell-shaped flowers. This cultivar is noted for its dark purple leaves with shiny silver overlay and charcoal veins and bright pink flowers on dark purple stems. Carl Linnaeus named this genus in honor of Johann Heinrich von Heucher, a German botanist and physician who helped found the Wittenberg Botanical Garden.
Ranunculus asiaticus ‘Maché Yellow’
MACHÉ™ Yellow Ranunculus
Ranunculus asiaticus is native to Greece, Turkey, the northern Middle East, northern Egypt, and northeastern Libya, where it is found on sunny but cool, dry, rocky slopes. It grows as an erect, bulbous herbaceous perennial. The stout stems are green, branched, and slightly fleshy and pubescent, bearing slightly pubescent leaves in an alternate orientation. The leaves are pinnately to bipinnately compound with leaflets that are deeply dissected and sharply lobed. Leaf axils and shoot termini produce large, showy, solitary, cup-shaped flowers that range in color from white, yellow, red to burgundy, orange, yellow, and purple to lavender. Flowers have three to five petaloid sepals, five to more than 20 petals, and numerous dark stamens and pistils. This trademarked cultivar is noted for its compact, vigorous growth featuring large bright, butter-yellow blooms that are fully double. The genus name comes from the Latin word rana meaning “frog” and the suffix -unculus meaning “little,” as these plants often grow in damp areas like where frogs live. The specific epithet means “from Asia.”
Wisteria frutescens ‘Amethyst Falls’
Amethyst Falls American Wisteria
Wisteria frutescens is mainly native to the southeastern United States from eastern Texas north through Louisiana and Arkansas, northward though southern Missouri, Illinois, and Kentucky to New Jersey in the north, southward though the Carolinas to Florida in the south. It is found growing in swamps, forests, and along streambanks, ponds, and river floodplains. It is a woody, deciduous vine. Young shoots are bright green and quickly turn reddish-coppery brown. The shoots are smooth as they either trail along the ground or twine around anything that will offer them support to climb. Shoots mature to produce smooth, light brownish-gray bark. Shoots bear leaves in alternate and opposite arrangements. The large leaves are pinnately compound with nine to 15 leaflets. The leaflets are deep green, shiny, and lanceolate. Leaf axils of young growth produce long, pendulous racemes of white, purple, or even blue, fragrant, pea-shaped flowers. Each flower has a banner petal, two wing petals that clasp over the two fused keel petals, each with a nectary that is concealed by the cup-like fused sepals. This cultivar is noted for its long racemes of lavender-purple flowers, smaller leaves, and relatively compact growth, reaching about 15 feet. The genus was named in honor of Caspar Wistar the Younger, an American physician and anatomist. The specific epithet is Latin for “shrubby; woody.”