Butterfly Garden - An Early Bloomer, Prairie Smoke

One of the few short, evergreen prairie plants that exist, Geum triflorum, also known as Old Man's Whiskers, Prairie Smoke, or Three-flowered Avens, presents us with a curious cluster of pink, bell-shaped flowers bobbing in the breeze during late April or early May. Standing only 6-18" tall, these plants serve as nice border plants. But their short stature and unaggressive nature means you need to keep weeds away from seedlings and prevent the big prairie monsters from towering over and excessively shading them. As early bloomers they serve as a much-needed food source for small insects emerging from hibernation.

Look at that color! I think it's my Spring favorite... haven't decided yet.

What will dumbfind you (!) even more than their flowers are their fruits. Once the pollinators have wedged their big bee-bodies into the blooms, a slow fertilization process allows the flowers to last for several more weeks. Eventually each bloom will lift its head and turn into a tufted fruit that looks like a plume of smoke. Each plume is actually the "style" of the flower (the tube between the sticky stigma and the ovary). These stylin' plumes elongate in order to create pinkish, whisker-like, functional art. Acting as wind-dispersal aids for the seeds, by the end of June, away they fly...

If you're interested in planting these, put them in dry, well-drained soil with maximum sunlight.