Field of Science

Friday Fabulous Flower - Yellow wax bells

What with one thing and another, a couple of Fridays have slipped away without a fabulous flower, a situation up with which we will not put. Late summer is a tough time for gardens especially when in drought conditions. Yellow wax bells (Kirengeshoma palmata) is a large herbacous perennial plant hardy to zone 5 and they make a nice late summer flowering cluster in a shady corner. They needed some watering during this hot, dry spell. Ours are sandwiched between azure beauty berry shrubs that line the neighbor's driveway and an anise Magnolia tree. This was planned so that the view from their dining room was quite attractive, a view that only seen by yours truly when trespassing upon their driveway (our garden does actually extend right to the edge of their driveway). What good neighbors are we! For a member of the hydrangea family, the flowers are pretty large, and the thick, fleshy petals are arranged like a pin-wheel (jargon avoided). The "ki" part of the strange generic name means yellow in Japanese (Guess where this species is native?) but the Phactor is at a loss to explain "rengeshoma". Any takers?



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Rengeshōma" is Japanese for Anemonopsis macrophylla, so my bet is they're named for the resemblance between the two plants: ki-rengeshoma = "yellow A. macrophylla."

(I don't see much resemblance myself, but somebody must've.)

Northeast said...

Love this plant, have two in my garden