Native Plants

Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?

A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.

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Monday - April 25, 2005

From: Lowell, AR
Region: Southeast
Topic: Plant Identification
Title: Smarty Plants on Plant Identification
Answered by: Nan Hampton

QUESTION:

We bought our house last October and there were beautiful pink flowers blooming along our sidewalk. They bloomed until past Thanksgiving. They resembled Azaleas but we don't know what they were. They stood about 8 or 10 inches tall. Do you have any idea what would bloom for us like that? We are rather new to the area and have never been in an area where we were able to successfully have a flower garden. Any help you could give us would be greatly appreciated.

ANSWER:

From just your description I am afraid we can't really give you an identification. We would be very happy to try to identify the flower if you could send us a photograph. You can learn how to submit a photograph electronically on the Ask the Expert page. If it is a native plant, you could also try to find it by doing a "Combination Search" on the Native Plants Database. Under "Bloom Characteristics", select "pink" and the month. Under "U. S. Distribution" select "Arkansas". Selecting "November" as the month I didn't find anything that resembled the azalea, but you might try other months you know that it was blooming and search the images. It is possible that it is an introduced nursery plant and not a native plant and wouldn't be in our Native Plants Database. You might contact someone at Arkansas Home & Garden, from the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service or a local garden center to help in its identification.

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Monday - April 25, 2005

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