“The plant of the week is the narrow, spikes of black bell flowers on the Persian Lilies or Black Fritillaria that can be seen with companion hyacinth, grape hyacinth and violas on the east bed of the Botanical Center.
This is also a great week for highlighting plant rescues. A majority of the wildflowers in the Wildflower Garden north of the Butterfly Garden were rescued a decade ago from a construction site near the University of Missouri, Kansas City with permission of the property managers. Today, you can see Virginia Bluebells, bloodroot and number of trillium starting to bloom.
The Springfield Botanical Gardens serves as a sanctuary or safe place for plants that are disappearing or displaced from human activity. It is a crime to remove plants from the park or any other location without permission. Another example of endangered or rescued plants include the newly planted River Cane (Arundinaria gigantea) sourced through Missouri State. We hope this plant will help mitigate storm water on South Creek and add to our living collection.
If you notice some holes in the caterpillar café, those plants are rescued too! Volunteers potted up and will continue to transplant from those beds ahead of a garden renovation project. Please resist the urge to pick or harvest anything from the gardens. Save them for your public garden for all to enjoy!”
Katie Keith
Botanical Center Coordinator
Springfield-Greene County Park Board
