I took this picture Monday morning at the central square of Fayetteville, Arkansas: not many downtown's boast extensive perennial borders full of unusual plants, but that city does. And what plants! I've known Spigelia marilandica for 30 years (and killed my share of them) but here they were growing prolifically and combined artistically with Hakonochloa macro-aurea...
And then I mosey on over to the Botanic Garden of the Ozarks (at the edge of Fayetteville), very young but lovely public garden...and in their native section, what do I see? MORE Spigelia. In fact, it had self sown rather excessively in this garden (there were big clumps here and there, some of which should REALLY have been removed...if you know what I mean). But I didn't have the gumption (or the space in my car) to ask for one...
A slightly more closeup picture. It LOOKS tropical doesn't it? this is an outlier of the tropical family Loganiaceae (which is nevertheless related somewhat more distantly to the very temperate Gentian family). You can see a bit of the gentian in these, especially those outlandish Andean gentians, some of which have this same color scheme...
Seeing these plants has redoubled my determination to grow big clumps of these myself. I can think of few plants that inspire greater greed or envy in those who have been denied.
And trust me, I have been denied big time! Grrrrrrr.............
Great plant scenes...I've never been to that area, but something nice always lurks most anywhere, if we just look!
ReplyDeleteNorthwest Oklahoma was spectacular on my return: I suspect it must be an awesome year out in your neck of the woods too!
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