Rabbitbrush

Bees and butterflies love the bright flowers.

Rubber Rabbitbrush, Chamisa
Chrysothamnus nauseosus

Appearance
With intense sulfur-yellow flowers covering its gray-green foliage, blooming Rabbitbrush demands to be noticed. Flowers last from August through October, with the seed heads providing interest all winter. Branches rising from a woody base form bushes up to 5 feet tall and wide. When not in bloom, the rounded crown and muted foliage impart a subtle, natural appearance to the garden.

 

Cupid’s Dart

(Catananche caerulea)

Description
Cupid’s Dart comes to Colorado from Europe, where its historical role as an ingredient in love potions gave rise to its common name. Clumps of slender gray-green leaves grow about a foot tall and wide. Wiry stalks extend past the foliage, supporting a myriad of striking periwinkle-blue flower heads, each set off by papery bracts behind the petals. If left to mature, the two inch blooms turn into attractive seed heads that last all winter.

Cultivation
Thriving on benign neglect, Cupid’s Dart requires full sun and excellent drainage. Provide supplemental water during prolonged dry spells. Although this is a short-lived perennial lasting about three years, it is easy to propagate. Plants may be divided in early spring, or started from seed. Seedlings started indoors in March will bloom their first summer. Place seeds in the freezer for several weeks prior to sowing. Removing faded flowers will prolong bloom.

Landscape Use
Its xeric qualities make Cupid’s Dart an ideal plant for low-water gardens. The lavender-blue flowers combine especially well with orange-yellow butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberose) or torch-lily (Kniphofia).  Use it as a temporary filler among slower-growing shrubs, where its short lifespan is an asset. The flowers can be used in dried arrangements.

Article and photos by Leslie Holzmann, Certified Colorado Gardener.

 

Wall Germander

(Teucrium chamaedrys)

Appearance
Bees, hummingbirds, butterflies, and gardeners all appreciate the lovely purple-pink flowers of Wall Germander. Imported from the mountains of southwest Asia and Europe, this woody herb resembles a diminutive, flowering boxwood, growing about one to two feet high and wide. Germander has small, oval shaped leaves of glossy green. The short flower spikes appear in mid-summer and continue until fall. Their minty scent perfumes the air (and may attract the neighborhood cat).

 

Horned Poppies

Red Horned Poppy – Glaucium grandiflorum (syn: G. corniculatum)

Appearance
Huge, eye-popping flowers, with silky petals in shades of yellow to red, are a great reason to grow these unusual poppy relatives. The cup-shaped blossoms are supported by short stems rising from a basal clump of silver-green leaves about a foot wide and high. (Some species branch more than others.) Seed pods sport spiny “horns,” giving the plant its common name. Native to the eastern Mediterranean, Horned Poppies are listed as noxious weeds in some states (happily, not Colorado). Interestingly, the plants contain the chemical glaucine, which is used medically (and rarely as a recreational hallucinogenic drug—not recommended).

Cultivation
Horned poppies are grown from seeds or started seedlings. While the seedlings will overwinter in mild areas (to USDA zone 6), here it’s best to start them in early spring. Choose a spot in full sun. Soil must be well-drained for these xeric plants. Lightly cover the seeds, which can take a while to germinate. Once plants reach blooming size, they will continue to flower until seeds are formed or until frost. Removing spent blooms prolongs flowering, but if you want more plants next year, be sure to let some seed pods ripen. Pick them and scatter the seeds where you want plants to grow next season. A pea gravel mulch will keep weeds in check, mitigate soil temperatures and moisture levels, and encourage self-seeding.

 

Common Yarrow

Appearance
Yarrow (Achillea sp.) might be common, but it’s still a worthy plant for Colorado landscapes. Plants form spreading clumps of dark green, finely cut leaves about one foot tall. Flat-topped clusters of tiny flowers that rise well above the greenery provide landing places for butterflies, which are attracted in large numbers. Blooms may be white, pale to golden yellow, or various pastel shades; ‘Paprika’ is a cultivar that blooms in the red color of its namesake. Native to North America, yarrows were used medicinally to stop the flow of blood from a wound, hence some older common names such as Soldier’s Woundwort, Staunchweed and Nosebleed Plant.

 

Chocolate Flower

photo by Lisa Bird

Berlandiera lyrata

Appearance: This very aromatic plant has bright green, flat spreading leaves with shallowly lobed edges.  The flowers are daisy-like, with green center and light yellow petals.  The underside of the petals have maroon markings on them.

Habitat: This plant is very drought tolerant and blooms profusely throughout the season.  The flowers have a wonderful chocolate scent are are edible.  Chocolate Flower prefers full sun and needs very little water.  Found on the Western plains to northern Mexico, in dry rocky soils.  Hardy to Zone 4.

 

Cowboy’s Delight

Sphaeralcea coccinea

Cowboy’s Delight

Sphaeralcea coccinea

Appearance: This small perennial appears to be a sweet little hollyhock. It grows to just over 12″ tall, and the silver-green, hairy leaves are each deeply lobed into three sections. Another variety found in cultivation, Sphaeralcea munruona is very similar, but with more gently lobed leaves. The wheel-shaped bright orange flowers are under an inch in diameter. Their bright appearance in often otherwise dull areas is what earned it its common name of cowboy’s delight. Blooming starts in June and continues through September.

Habitat: Cowboy’s delight thrives in sunny, open areas and can be found in both the plains and foothills.

 

Love-in-a-Mist

Appearance
Unique among garden flowers, Love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascene) is sure to catch your eye with its delicate sky-blue flowers (they also come in pink and white) floating in a nest of soft green spines.  Branching clumps of ferny green foliage grow about fifteen inches high, providing the perfect backdrop for the abundant two-inch blooms. The flowers are followed by unusual balloon-shaped seedpods with little “horns” that give the plant their other common name: Devil-in-a-bush.

Cultivation
Sow these easy-to-grow annuals outside in full sun and well-drained garden soil. Seeds can take several weeks to sprout, so be patient. Putting the seeds in the refrigerator for a week improves germination. Seedlings do not transplant well due to their long tap root. However, that root sustains plants through periods of drought; the gardener need only provide deep watering once a week. Add some all-purpose fertilizer for maximum bloom. If the seeds are allowed to mature on the plant, Love-in-a-mist will readily self-seed.

Landscape Use
In cultivation for over 400 years, both the flowers and seedpods are frequently added to dried arrangements, and the aromatic seeds are used as both a spice and a medicine.

Love-in-a-mist is ideally suited for an old-fashioned cottage garden. Try combining the silvery-blue blooms with silver-foliaged plants such as Lamb’s Ears (Stachys byzantina) or one of the Artemisias, or with other pastel hued flowers—perhaps pink or white perennial geraniums. The airy foliage is an excellent gap-filler in a flower border, and also combines well in containers.

Article and photos by Leslie Holzmann, Certified Colorado Gardener

 

Dwarf Pussytoes

Dwarf Pussytoes (Antennaria parvifolia)

Photo by Lisa Bird

Appearance: Dwarf Pussytoes has pretty white flowers clustered like a cat’s toes on stalks growing to 6 inches in height.  The lance-shaped leaves grow in low mats, so the combination of the leaves and flowers on stalks makes it ideal for use as a groundcover.

Habitat: One of nine species found in the southern Rockies, it is commonly found in open mountain and foothills areas in sandy, well-drained soils. It has low moisture requirements and grows in sun to part shade.

 

Variegated Sweet Iris, Dalmatian Iris

Iris pallida ‘Variegata’

Appearance
While most people grow bearded irises for their rainbow of spectacular blooms, Variegated Sweet Iris is prized for its striking variegated leaves. The plants bloom in late spring with lovely violet-blue flowers, and your nose will appreciate their delightfully heady fragrance. But that’s just the beginning. Long after the flowers fade, the stiff, sword-like leaves will remain, with their vertical stripes of blue-green, white and cream creating an exclamation point in the landscape. Plants grow from two to three feet tall, and clumps spread over time.