Server Home| Search

Missouri Botanical Garden: Plants in Bloom

AT A GLANCE

DECEMBER 4 - DECEMBER 10, 1998

• As the flowers fade outside, they come to life in the Shoenberg Temperate House. The tiled Moorish garden features pink and burgundy Cylamen, tall white Snapdragons, and Delphinium-like blue Coleus (Plectranthus thyrsoideus).

• Camellias are becoming showy in the Linnean House, though their peak bloom time is a long way off yet (mid- to late February). Cyclamen and Poinsettias decorate the beds beneath the Camellia trees. The tiny blossoms of the Fragrant olive trees fill the house with their heady fragrance. Look for the showy yellow spikes on the tall Chinese grape holly (Mahonia lomariifolia) in the southeast corner of the house.

• A few Reblooming tall bearded iris are still flowering in the Goodman Iris Garden.

• Winter pansies fill the beds in the Lois Whiteside Franklin Flower Trial Garden at the Kemper Center for Home Gardening.

• It's not unusual to see some sporadic flowering in the Lopata Azalea and Rhododendron Garden collection at this time of year.

• Robins and catbirds can be seen feasting on Holly berries throughout the grounds. The flock of introduced quail meanders throughout the grounds gleaning seeds from beds where annuals, grasses and perennials grew this past summer.

• The deep reddish hues of the autumn foliage of the Virginia sweetspires and Oakleaf hydrangeas throughout the grounds are very showy.

• Holly berries are highly ornamental at this time. The fruits of the 'Winter Red' deciduous Hollies on Spoehrer Plaza seem to glow from within.

• Seed heads of ornamental grasses are showy at this time.

See the Detail