Monday, August 4, 2008

Hannah collecting Gaura biennis in Pennsylvania in 2006....Flowers on a plant in Fern Valley we grew from the seeds August 2008




















Hannah, Joan, and I (Fern Valley Staff in 2006) went on a seed collecting trip around State College, Pennsylvania in the fall of that year. We spent two days in the Bear Meadows Sedge Bog, and another day collecting in various places nearby. We brought back seeds from a variety of plants including Larch, Verbena hastata, Leatherleaf, Blueberries, Phlox paniculata, this biennial Gaura, and a few others. The Verbena and the Phlox have been or are flowering in the collection already. This morning, just returned from Florida and on my pre-work circuit of the Arboretum, I noticed that the Gaura had begun to flower. It is always good to find another plant that blooms later in the season!

The flowers are attractive, mildly fragrant, and much like those of the common perennial, Gaura lindheimeri. The plant itself is a bit loose and quite tall. It would be most appropriate in the garden in less formal settings and p;ossibly growing out of and overtopping earlier perennials. They could help support the ~6' stems. When we collected the plant the flowers were distinctly pink and these barely so. Various things can affect flower color the likeliest is that the flowers age to pink. Theses have just opened. We shall see.

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