Containers in Color

We are a month past the Summer Solstice and the summer annuals and tropical plants are full sized and exuberant at Powell Gardens! Here's a brief show of some of our containers and plantings...

This container in the Perennial Garden (by former Senior Gardener Jay Priddy) is one of my favorite. It contains the three "classic" elements of container design: thriller, filler, and spiller. The thriller is hare's tail grass (Lagurus), the filler is a cultivar of black-eyed-susans (Rudbeckia hirta) and the spiller is Margarita Sweet Potato (Ipomoea battatus). The use of a grass and a cultivar of a native wildflower really speaks to our region of native grasslands.

The Chapungu Sales tent covers part of our terrace beds outside the Visitor Center but the remaining corner functions as a container. The dramatic use of a Variegated Fucrea (Fucrea)"thriller" and shocking 'Crystal Palace' red geraniums makes quite a composition. The crisp stone edging to the bed makes use of a "spiller" obsolete here. This design is by Horticulturist Anne Wildebor.

This container by Anne Wildebor has a mix of harmonious foliage plants with just a splash of contrasting pink flowers. The dramatic foliage is Canna 'Sunburst' on either side with a Black Elephant Ear (Colocasia) in the center. Coleus 'Fishnet Stockings' and Alternanthera 'Red Thread' are fillers all being set off by the pink angelonia in bloom. Again the low crisp container would be muddied up by a spiller.

This container by Anne Wildebor is about texture and the wonderful color we take for granted: GREEN. A spectacular 'Macho' Boston fern is perfectly punctuated by a white Caladium. This container only gets morning sun under the east overhangs of the Visitor Center.

This dramatic Leopard-Palm (Amorphaphallus konjac) has a pink caladium to help set off the subtle pink in the print of its stem. A spiller would "muck up" the elegant container. This design is by Anne Wildebor.

Even Edible Landscaping can be unique: this container near the entrance to the Heartland Harvest Garden has a dramatic fig (Ficus carica) with a base of curly parsley for contrast. It's all green but the drastic change between coarse dramatic leaves of the fig and fine detail of the parsley leaves make it work. This design is by Matt Bunch and Barbara Fetchenhier: look for their containers of edibles at the entrance plaza to the Heartland Harvest Garden north of the Visitor Center.

The seasonal display beds around the Visitor Center are reaching maturity with this wonderful planting (designed by Tracy Flowers - now gardener at the Kauffman Memorial Garden) outside the north side of the Conservatory: huge Castor Beans, sword-like Purple Majesty Millet, purple and white Kahuna Petunias and an edging of trailing Blackie Sweet Potato all make for a stunning, tropical-esque composition.

The Year of the Lily at Powell Gardens

The ample moisture and more reasonable temperatures have made the summer of 2008 the year of the lily at Powell Gardens. Lilies (Lilium spp.) are bulbs, most with exceptionally showy flowers and some with intense fragrance.

There are hundreds of species of lilies and the Easter Lily (Lilium longiflorum) is one of the most popular. Easter lilies are actually from Asia but forced into bloom for Easter sales. Hardy selections of Easter Lily bloom in midsummer and are pristine white with a very fine aroma. These were photographed in the Perennial Garden. The Madonna Lily (Lilium candidum) is the actual lily that is the symbol of purity and faith for Christians. Madonna lilies must be ordered now and planted by Labor Day because they must grow some foliage before fall.


There are thousands of cultivars of lilies but luckily they are assigned into several groups: Asiatic Lilies are some of the easiest to grow in our climate and come in a wide array of colors from white to yellow, orange, red and burgundy: this is the cultivar 'Savannah' in the Perennial Garden. Most Asiatic lilies are scentless and the flowers face upwards.


Tumpet lilies like this cultivar 'Golden Splendor' on the Island Garden are tall with trumpet shaped blooms that are also fragrant. This clump was hit hard by the Easter freeze of 2007. It languished all last year but we "let it be." This year it came back as if nothing had happened and seemed to make up for lost time!


Oriental Lilies are some of our most fragrant and require proper siting in our climate. These Stargazer Oriental Lilies were photographed in the Perennial Garden--in the afternoon shade of native trees. Oriental Lilies can literally bake in our hot afternoon sun so that the flower buds brown and never open.

New hybrid lilies have created quite a splash. This is a LA Lily: LA stands for longiflorum (Easter) - Asiatic (not Los Angeles!). LA lilies have the colors of Asiatic lilies, the fragrance of Easter lilies, and an exceptional hybrid vigor. This is the cultivar 'Gerrit Zalm' in the Perennial Garden which would be a great addition to a moon or white garden.

Some of the newest hybrid lilies show incredible vigor! This is a new Orienpet lily. Orienpet stands for Oriental - Trumpet hybrid lilies. These have the most hybrid vigor, good heat resistance and awesome fragrance. The unnamed hybrid shown from the Perennial Garden is well over 6 feet tall. Unfortunately the colors of many Orienpet lilies are just plain ugly blends of pink and yellow.

Powell Gardens' favorite Orienpet lily is the cultivar 'Silk Road,' which graces the entrance to the Island Garden's Sunken Garden. It has good color, fragrance and abundant bloom on sturdy 6 foot stems! Make sure to include lilies into your gardens for next year--there are many species and even more cultivars to choose from. Many of the later blooming varieties are still in bloom for ideas at Powell Gardens.

Mimosa, Exotic Beauty or Garden Pest?

Mimosa trees (Albizzia julibrissin var. rosea) are currently in full bloom at Powell Gardens and throughout Greater Kansas City. When I first moved to the area 12 years ago, I was surprised to see so many of them growing here (I thought they would not be hardy here). I was also bombarded by gardeners commenting that they either love them or hate them! Now that I have been here and observed the trees through 12 seasons I feel like I can weigh in on them: The successful trees in the area are of the variety rosea which noted plant explorer E. H. Wilson brought back from Korea to the Arnold Arboretum. These trees are more refined and hardy (to -15F or more) than the typical species "monster" you see escaped along the roadsides in the South. Mimosas are a long blooming tree, at a season when their bright color adds to our tropical-like weather. The fragrant flowers are nectar-rich and attract a plethora of beneficial insects (including butterflies) and hummingbirds. The trees have a horizontal form that seems to fit in our prairie landscapes even though they originated in Asia. The ferny foliage is delightful and airy; folding up each night to give the tree a whole new look.

The negatives are that past severe winters clipped many of them to the ground. It is no fun removing such a large plant! Virtually all of them recovered with stump sprouts. Some local trees amazingly survived the big freezes of the 1980's and many are over 50 years old according to their owners. The seeds of mimosa are prolific and germinate with abandon in disturbed soils in the garden landscape. Fortunately they do not germinate into undisturbed soils or wildlands so I would not consider it invasive like it is in southmost Missouri and points south. It is a nuisance to pull up all the seedlings as weeds in the garden!

Mimosa in mid-day, over 90F heat north of the Visitor Center (the flower color does bleach out to pink in extreme heat).

Powell Gardens Mimosas are grown from local hardy trees or regional sources. I would advise anyone wanting this tree to do the same: local seedlings "Brian's Choice" are available at Greeson's or trees wholesale grown by Forrest Keeling Nursery sold at Colonial Nursery are good bets. The beautiful purple-leaved variety 'Summer Chocolate' is a beautiful plant but was killed to the ground out here by 2007's Easter Freeze. It came back and did not dieback last year. We look forward to how it will perform over the years at is always a plant that attracts attention. I will leave it up to you whether you want a mimosa in your landscape -- good or bad, the choice is yours! You can always come out and experience them at Powell Gardens: most north of Visitor Center surrounding the Dwarf Conifer, Butterfly and Fountain Gardens. Three seed grown trees from an old (now removed) tree in Brookside we call "KC Red" can be seen at the Rock & Waterfall's trolley stop. This strain grows with shocking sturdiness and vigor but is still of the hardy rosea variety. We usually grow some of these trees for our spring plant sale.