Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Let the blooming begin!


The elbow bush (Forestiera pubescens) is blooming...

We have one elbow bush in our Wildscape, and it was already growing madly before I arrived on the scene. Elbow bush is a deciduous shrub that blooms January through March. Thanks to a recent post by Plano Prairie Garden, I learned that this species is either male or female. This one appears to be a boy because the flowers have stamens, not stigmas. Cool!

...and attracting pollinators.

Carolina anemone

2 comments:

Michael - Plano Prairie Garden said...

It's a boy! You need to do some matchmaking and locate a girlfriend for him so you can have fruit for the wildlife. I hope mine have fruit this year. It has been rather cool since the flowers started blooming and I have not seen any pollinators.

Sheryl Smith-Rodgers said...

Thanks for stopping by! I didn't pay attention to this shrub, stuck in a far back corner of our Wildscape, for several years. Truthfully, I thought it was privet. Then last year, I noticed the blooms and realized it WASN'T. Cool–an elbow bush, I discovered! Thanks for further enlightening me about males and females (like possumhaw. Know of any available girls? :-)

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