Gardening Unplugged - Hidden Flowers with Ben Helde

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]Hello everybody. Welcome to Juniper Level Botanic Garden, the home of Plant Delights Nursery. I'm Ben Held, our plant record specialist and taxonomist here. So, I manage all the plant labels and our pretty extensive database of living and many deceased plants as well.

[00:00:16]So, lots to research and kind of help contribute to some of the ornamental plant introductions in our region. So, today we'll be talking about hidden flowers.

[00:00:30]So, kind of a broad topic.

[00:00:33]Wanted to kind of I guess go with our theme this spring of hidden garden. So, this botanic garden is obviously very extensive, but relatively few are very aware of the garden and kind of the extensive work that we do. So, there's some pretty interesting flowers that many don't see, especially in the groups like Asarum and Podophyllum, that I think are interesting to highlight. So, we'll just take a quick walk around the this brick house garden area, the 49 garden, and chat about some hidden hidden flowers.

[00:01:10]So, I guess we'll start.

[00:01:12]Um, here in the rock garden area, we have a really great native plant, a native Baptisia. This is Baptisia Perfoliata.

[00:01:22]Um, and perfoliate or perfoliata refers to perfoliate, which the stem emerges directly through the leaf. And so, this plant is in pretty full flower currently, although it doesn't look all that showy. So, the flowers are coming out of the leaf axils, right at the base of each leaf. And that's pretty distinct for this species of Baptisia. So, Perfoliata is its native range is South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and then across to Alabama. Um so, very kind of localized native range to the Southeast. Um makes really great cut flowers, and it dries very well. So, if you want to use it for um wreath making or displays kind of after the season has gone over, it's a really great plant for that, too.

[00:02:16]Um And yeah, so I guess it's kind of unknown what the reasoning behind this axillary flowering is, um but some say that it gives the insect a place to land and sit um support while it's being pollinated. Um so, a very cool uh an unusual Baptisia species that we grow.

[00:02:38]Um Yeah.

[00:02:40]>> Yeah. Uh-huh.

[00:02:40]>> You said it uh dries well. Does it keep the green color? Does it go brown?

[00:02:44]>> It It will brown out, for sure. Yeah, it's not like um I guess eucalyptus where that will kind of like stay blue, but um it's I guess for more of the structure.

[00:02:53]And we actually keep ours up. Um we don't really cut back this Baptisia um as we would some of the others. We keep it up because it has that interesting kind of winter interest.

[00:03:04]>> hangs on to the leaves, then?

[00:03:05]>> It does. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Um >> And does it cut cut and come again? Like if you cut it, is that it?

[00:03:12]>> Oh, that's a good question. Um well, it blooms pretty early in the season, so there isn't really a great reason to cut it back um until a bit later. Um >> flowers, I was thinking if I cut it, will I say bye to it in the garden below in the house?

[00:03:30]>> Oh, um No, it should re-flush. I mean, I imagine I I probably wouldn't cut back the whole plant for cut flowers, but if you just take a few stocks, it'll be just fine. Yeah, Baptisias are are extremely um tough, reliable plants, so it shouldn't have a problem with that.

[00:03:45]>> And how long does it stay flowering?

[00:03:48]Like I'm just noticing how quickly peonies will extraordinarily bloom.

[00:03:52]>> Right.

[00:03:53]>> I think they're done in a week.

[00:03:54]>> Right. Yeah, Baptisias are very similar.

[00:03:57]Um yeah, they have a they have a very a relatively short flowering period. So, um pretty much all of our Baptisia species are US natives. Um so, they flower around now. Um some species flower a little before perfoliata, like many that you can see in some of our other gardens. And then some like Baptisia arachnifera, um which is native to coastal Georgia, flower a little later kind of into early July. So, by staggering species, you can get a longer flower time in a way. But, the individual flowers um probably generally last about a week or two. It's hard to say. It really depends on the um Yeah, it's a quick quick flower. So, with those 90° days and then all the rain over the past couple days, a lot of things are kind of getting the brunt of spring. So, >> [laughter] >> Yeah.

[00:04:51]Cool. Very good questions. Um yeah, and feel free any and all to ask as many questions throughout the talk. Um it makes it more fun for all of us. So, So, we'll head into some shadier areas um of the garden where I guess more of the woodland species uh thrive.

[00:05:15]Um This is that Baptisia arachnifera I mentioned. Um very rare and unusual. We do sell it on site, but we can't ship it out of um North Carolina. So, you'd have to pick up your plant here. It's very very unusual. Um an an endangered plant. And although it doesn't flower axillarily, um it does have a show of yellow flowers kind of across the whole top. Um it will be flowering in late June, early July, depending on what kind of weather we get over the next few weeks.

[00:05:47]>> Are they propagated by seed?

[00:05:50]>> Uh yeah, Baptisia I mean, they're generally they can be propagated in a number of ways. Um they're very red they germinate very readily. Um so, they're part of the Fabaceae or pea family. So, that group is kind of known for um germinating pretty successfully.

[00:06:08]Um but you can also divide and uh even take cuttings if you want.

[00:06:11]>> is a dumb question, but if we Was this a 4-in pot that was planted or was it >> Uh no, that's a great question. Um I don't I wasn't here when this plant was planted. Um so, I can't tell you what pot or like what pot size it was. I imagine it was a small plant cuz that's what we usually grow from. Um but it looks like it was planted uh in 2001. On all our labels, this date here below the QR code will tell you the date that it was planted so, um >> Now I understand stood Baptisia, you know where you want to plant it cuz it >> Right. [laughter] >> like to be moved.

[00:06:46]>> Yeah, absolutely. It does have a really extensive taproot and super chunky roots. So, um yeah, ideally uh you'll want to plant it and just let it grow out on its own. If you do transplant, you'll generally want to do that in uh midsummer, which is kind of against everything us gardeners know, but it tends to work best at least in our experience based on what I've heard from Tony and a few others here at Plant Delights. So, yeah.

[00:07:10]>> That's kind of when the seeds are mature, right?

[00:07:12]>> Uh yeah, I mean, the seeds mature a little bit before I guess uh I've heard late July, August is kind of the times to transplant. So, the seed has generally gone over for most species and I guess dispersed um or collected ideally. But, um yeah, by then. So, yeah.

[00:07:30]>> Cool.

[00:07:31]>> I'll just sneak past you.

[00:08:16]>> So, our next plant is this Podophyllum over here. This is Podophyllum Spotty Dotty, which is a tried and true Podophyllum cultivar that we sell and many of you all grow. Um, I I chose this one for the tour because it's one of the few Podophyllums that's still in pretty good flower. Um, like I said, our hot days over the past few weeks {slash} month, um, have led to a lot of things going over quick more quickly than we'd hoped. So, um, this is the flowers that sit beneath the foliage. Um, and it's just in general very pubescent or hairy plant. Um, but the flowers are really quite amazing and relatively unusual for a Podophyllum. So, I'll pass this flower around so you guys can take a closer look and smell if you want. It has a kind of unusual fragrance. Um, but this long pendulous deep red color is quite lovely. Um, and the speckling, I guess the parentage is somewhat unknown. This is a Terra Nova introduction and they are nursery out of, uh, the Portland, Oregon area. Um, so they think that they know that the pollen parent is, uh, delavayi, Podophyllum delavayi, um, which is known for kind of its speckled foliage. Um, but I guess to my knowledge the rest of the the is kind of a bit more unknown or uh kind of secret. So, um yeah, it's a very very beautiful plant.

[00:09:43]I would encourage you all to go to the Founder's Garden. There's a really large patch of it that looks kind of much much more full than this patch here, but uh for the sake of time, I thought this would be a good place to start. So, um yeah, just a really great plant.

[00:09:58]And I will head across the bridge here.

[00:10:01]We'll go take a look at an Arisaema.

[00:10:08]Morning.

[00:10:08]>> Morning. How are you all?

[00:10:09]>> Good.

[00:10:15]This is Arisaema consanguineum, which is um one of our later flowering Arisaema species.

[00:10:24]Um this is actually uh generally they flower in June for us. Uh so, this one's actually a clone that is kind of a more early flowering plant. Um it has a spathe and spadix uh flower type, which is uh true of the Araceae family or aroid family. Uh and this really long tendril on the spathe is quite attractive. I I just thought I mean, because the flowers sit below the foliage, some people might miss it. Kind of hard to miss, but um this really nice kind of netted uh radial foliage is uh pretty amazing. So, just another really great plant for the spring garden.

[00:11:12]>> I'm curious.

[00:11:12]>> Uh-huh.

[00:11:13]>> What do you think the purpose of having the long >> That's a great really really great question.

[00:11:19]Yeah. Yeah. Um that is something I don't know. Yeah, I would I'll need to do more research on that. Um because it's like a very unusual it seems hard to believe that it would help in any way. So, >> Or >> Maybe it has a has some kind of aroma either better or might anchor the top.

[00:11:39]>> Sure, yeah, yeah. It might keep the top keeping it closed, right, yeah. Um Yep, Jack-in-the-pulpit is the common name for um the genus. So, yeah, this is not a native uh species like our triphyllum is our native version. Um but yet sometimes with consanguineum the those like leaf tips extend even further kind of similar to that spath. Um so, it's it's a pretty amazing plant, but I think that your idea about it kind of weighting it holding it closed um is there's definitely potential there and to protect that the spadix, which is the part where the inflorescence really is and that gets pollinated. Um so, yeah, very unusual thing. So, uh-huh.

[00:12:25]Right, yes.

[00:12:29]Yes, so they're pretty solitary and we do uh collect both seed and keep plants reigned in. We have a pretty extensive collection and we want to keep things uh true to type. So, this clone was selected and on the label it says early May, so that kind of refers to its flowering time. Like I mentioned, it's because it's a clonal selection that flowers early, we want to keep that uh characteristic kind of separated for any from any of the other uh selections that we make, so uh yeah, we do our best to keep things just pretty tight so that um we know what the true clone is that we're looking for.

[00:13:07]All right, I'm going to head right behind you guys.

[00:13:12]Yeah, I'll just go over this one quick cuz we're in a tight spot, but uh this here um is a serum heterophyllum. It's a native um to the kind of Appalachian mountain range. Um and it is in the Aristolochia family or the pipevine family. So, um Aristolochia is I guess fimbriata is the most common Aristolochia species uh probably and it has a very unusual kind of pipe-shaped flower. Um so, I'm just going to pick a flower so that you guys can all see better. Um and I'll pass it around, but for like one of our natives, this is a really quite an amazing flower.

[00:13:54]Uh And they're all hidden beneath the foliage. So, I'll talk about a few other Asarum species um throughout the talk, but very few people ever see Asarum flowers because they're hidden beneath foliage.

[00:14:08]Um so, I would definitely encourage you all to delicately and gently when you can kind of pull pull away foliage and look under cuz sometimes there are flowers that are really small, sometimes they're very large, um and it's kind of a a fun little surprise to see.

[00:14:25]Yeah, this this small plant. You can take a look at it when you pass by. Um so, this plant produced it looks like three or four flowers this season, um but larger patches can produce many many uh depending on the species, so.

[00:14:39]Um yeah, it's kind of a fun plant. If you want, you can get flowers from a relatively young plant. Um we get flowers on our nursery in our nursery pots. Um so, you can potentially get flowers from sale, too, which is nice.

[00:14:52]>> It was in the same family as the pipevine?

[00:14:55]>> Yep. Yeah.

[00:14:56]>> Does the Does the swallowtail will they use it as a host plant or no?

[00:15:01]>> No. Yeah, yeah. That's like they're they're distant enough relatives that yeah. Um I haven't noticed a lot of insects >> Using >> using the leaves as like for edibility um as a food source, um but they are primarily uh pollinated by fungus gnats and other ground insects. So, some Asarums have kind of a putrid smell. Others have less of that, but the flowers being on the ground really is uh an evolutionary trait that helps with its pollination, specialized pollination. Yeah.

[00:15:39]And then this is another Podophyllum species that we have, another Asian species. Um I swear just a couple days ago it was in flower, um but since then you can see the petals have fallen. So, um it's quite interesting.

[00:15:54]Oh, you got some?

[00:15:58]Yeah, so these are the Yeah, these are the remaining seed pods. So, the petals just come right off and kind of make a rotund ball shape. Um they're deep burgundy red.

[00:16:10]Um Actually, here I can Here are some petals.

[00:16:14]You'd like to see. Um but yeah, this is a really this is uh Podophyllum pleianthum, an Asian species uh native to central China.

[00:16:24]Um I guess yeah, interestingly for pleianthum the specific epithet uh pleios means many, and um anthem on uh is flower. So, as you can see, it does produce quite a few flowers compared to Spotty Dotty, which only had a couple. Um so, the mature foliage will have kind of the more deeply ridged um dissected foliage, and the younger leaves are kind of more hexagonal or uh just kind of flat edged. Um so, that's an interesting feature. And as you can see, it does run just a little bit, less so than our native species peltatum, which really runs, and the foliage doesn't last quite as long. It's probably considered more of a true ephemeral, whereas the Asian species the foliage stays up pretty much the whole summer. So, um you can get kind of a lot more time out of it foliage-wise.

[00:17:19]>> Those leaves are huge.

[00:17:20]>> They are huge, aren't they? Yeah.

[00:17:25]>> Do you work with um nursery owners in Korea, China to get some seeds or just a propagator of elements?

[00:17:35]>> Yeah, that's a very good question. Um, there are a number of nurseries that function similarly to ours in many Asian countries like Japan and China is where we source a lot of our material. Um, so yes, yeah. Uh, generally we'll get seed and um, sometimes we'll be able to purchase with a phytosanitary certificate. Um, cuz there's lots involved with shipping internationally.

[00:18:00]Um, but yeah, we definitely do the most to procure, obviously, as many unusual plants as we can.

[00:18:08]Right, exactly. Yeah, yeah. We love to share um, both with, I guess, academic institutions and other nurseries, so um, yeah, that's kind of how we're able to get a lot of this material.

[00:18:24]Yeah, we've got a lot of tight spots today, but I'll highlight this plant um, tomorrow and I'm I'm doing an aroid talk tomorrow as well. Um, but I'll just quickly point it out as it is another uh, Arisaema species that the flower is below the foliage, I guess, in some ways, although this is a very showy plant. There's not much hidden about it.

[00:18:45]Um, yeah, but this is just another Arisaema species with that really long tendril.

[00:18:50]This is even longer than consanguineum.

[00:18:52]Um, and that purple spathe is is really, really attractive, so um, also of note is this like red edge on the foliage, which is really unusual, so whereas consanguineum, um, the spadix was very upright and white, this one, yeah, the the tendril is actually coming from the spadix rather than the spathe or the the outside part.

[00:19:23]Right, to climb up. Yeah, sure. Yeah.

[00:19:26]That's an interesting, yeah.

[00:19:28]Very good observation.

[00:19:31]Uh yeah, small flying insects generally.

[00:19:34]Yeah.

[00:19:36]Yeah, cuz the I guess the pollen or um the nectaries are at the base. I won't Yeah, it's hard to see. You can Yeah, I won't That since that's the only one. Um but you can see there are like small little pollen dispensaries at the base that um Yeah, another really interesting one.

[00:19:56]Right, yeah.

[00:19:58]Yeah, yeah. I'm going to highlight this one here. Yeah.

[00:20:02]Yeah, yeah.

[00:20:07]So yeah, as we pass, feel free This is kind of what I was mentioning before.

[00:20:12]There are a number of uh plants with If you just peek behind the curtain of these asarums, you'll see some kind of bright yellow flowers and some other unusual things. So um Yeah, this one here is Kagayaki. It's an asaroides. So it's a Japanese cultivar um and Japanese species.

[00:20:32]Um so I will take a flower of this as well so that I can pass it around.

[00:20:37]Um Obviously, don't do this. I'm special. I have the privileges. Um but yeah, feel free to >> [laughter] >> take a look and just kind of to show the real diversity of um the genus asarum that we've got small flowers and large flowers. Um arifolium, which is our one of our natives, has very very small flowers. Um so Yeah, we'll just continue walking up onto Mount Mitchell, but I thought I would point out some of these.

[00:21:49]So, this is a Polygonatum, a Chinese Polygonatum, called Cyrtomium.

[00:21:54]Um, and this is a selection, a clonal selection that we selected for its purple foliage. So, this has uh, more purple foliage and a deeper purple on the stem than kind of some of the other populations of this plant. Um, but it's pretty amazing. And the flowers are just now opening, whereas a lot of the other uh, Polygonatums have already come and gone. So, um, in my research earlier this week, I did read that uh, some believe that insects or pollinators, bees primarily, will uh, stand on the stem and vibrate the plant to release pollen from the base. Um, so, that's kind of another unusual uh, >> Is that true of all of them?

[00:22:37]>> Of all the Polygonatums? I They all function similarly, at least true Polygonatum, true Solomon's Seals, um, with their le- uh, flowers coming out of the leaf axils and stems here. Um, whereas Maianthemum, which is the other, I guess, false Solomon's Seal or Plume Solomon's Seal, the flowers come out of the tip of the foliage or the tip of the stem, I should say.

[00:23:00]Um, so, I would imagine that probably most Polygonatum species would have that characteristic or like pollinator connection, um but I'm not certain, so.

[00:23:10]>> Do you have this plant somewhere else, like in >> In the garden?

[00:23:15]>> Like to protect it, like if this one were to die?

[00:23:18]>> Oh, that's a good question. Yeah, so uh in our research areas, we grow These are all seed grown so that we can get that variation, um based on which parent we fl- like collect seed from. So, this is probably, I would imagine, the only clone uh of this specific plant that we have, but we certainly have a number of other Polygonatum cyrtonema that have been selected for perhaps other different reasons. Yeah, yeah, characteristics, exactly.

[00:23:50]>> There's a dark purple leaf one over in the shade garden over by the white house.

[00:23:55]>> Oh, nice. Yeah.

[00:23:59]All right.

[00:24:03]Oh, wait. I passed it.

[00:24:05]Yeah. So, this is It has gone over since, but this is probably one of my favorite Asarum species. This is Asarum maximum, um and a lot of people call it the panda-faced Asarum wild ginger, um and so >> Oh.

[00:24:21]>> It has a really amazing deep purple edge, and when it's in full flower, the center is bright white. Um it's really hard to miss once you peek behind, and yeah, as you can see, this plant has probably 20 to 25 flowers on it, so it's a very profuse species, too. I'll pass this one around, as well.

[00:24:43]Feel free to look around.

[00:24:45]You got it?

[00:24:46]Um Yeah, so just another really quite amazing Asarum, another Asian species, um but this also this kind of netted venation uh the light venation is another really important characteristic because the flower period on Asarum is in early spring and is quite short. So, um it's really helpful to have kind of a hardier, thick, and glossy leaf that will help last through the rest of the growing season. Um and all the Asarums that we've seen are evergreen, although you can cut them back and they'll re-flush in spring if you want um to kind of highlight the flowers rather than have them be covered. So, um there's kind of many different routes you can take with that.

[00:25:35]>> The leaf is really pretty.

[00:25:37]It's sort of like some cyclamen.

[00:25:39]>> Yeah, right. Exactly. Yeah, sometimes it can be easy to uh see some definite characteristic similarities between those two.

[00:25:49]Um Yeah, so there is one more plant that I was going to highlight, a Ruscus down below.

[00:25:54]Um So, yeah. I'll just I'll just get right past you and then we'll just look at one more thing.

[00:25:59]>> And is that flower edible?

[00:26:02]>> That's a good question. Uh you should ask our garden supervisor Trevor cuz he knows all about edible plants.

[00:26:09]>> some of our Solomon's seals they are.

[00:26:11]>> Right, yes. So, yeah. So, the natives I'm pretty confident are edible um but I don't know about the Asian species and I'm very hesitant to ever say anything's edible without knowing. So, yeah.

[00:26:41]Right.

[00:26:43]So, this kind of low-growing evergreen plant here um is Ruscus hypoglossum and we have the clone 'Mr. Lonely on this plant. So, Ruscus are dioecious, which which means that the male kind of flower parts and female flower parts are on separate plants. Um So, this plant has gone over. It's no longer in flower, but I really wanted to highlight it because it does a lot of very unusual things. Um so, what you see here as leaves are actually called cladodes. Um so, they're a modified stem.

[00:27:19]Uh So, the the actual leaves are very minuscule, kind of like microscopic little hairs or like small appendages that come uh out from below the I guess the cladode. Um So, you cannot propagate this plant really very well via cutting. It's going to be mostly division or seed. Um But, the flower it sets on the top of the cladode or modified leaf. So, um I'll pass around that little brown piece is the I guess developing fruit, um which used to be the flower. So, um Yeah, this is just another very unusual plant that >> I don't know where you asked where you pulled it off from.

[00:28:04]>> Yeah, so that's where I pulled it off from the I guess what looks like a true stem.

[00:28:10]Uh But, yeah.

[00:28:14]>> slow growing?

[00:28:15]>> They are quite slow growing, yeah. And they they take very well to obviously deep shade, which is I guess the thought evolutionarily is that it probably grew true stems at one point, but then once it had adapted to very deep shade, those stems began to open up into what what looked like leaves in order to get as much photosynthesis as possible in in that deep shade.

[00:28:40]>> I see.

[00:28:41]Okay. I'm maybe incorrect with that.

[00:28:45]What's on that leaf that you're really applying? So, it get a break up into one.

[00:28:49]>> It already has.

[00:28:50]>> It already has.

[00:28:51]What we see is what's left.

[00:28:53]>> Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So, it the developing fruit is like the theoretically um being produced currently, but they flower in late winter. So, they've they've already gone over.

[00:29:03]>> So, would that be the leaf right there?

[00:29:06]That little thing?

[00:29:06]>> Yeah, that does look like that the I guess what you would call the true leaf.

[00:29:10]Yeah, right at the base of the leaf.

[00:29:12]>> types of Ruscus don't have the flowers on the >> Um >> modified stem >> Right, some do and some I guess technically they all flower from uh >> modified >> The yeah, the the cladode, but like aculeatus doesn't really have this same characteristic of flowering like on the very top of the leaf. So, this is like I mentioned hypoglossum. So, they do have some difference in the way that flowers and fruit are set on the plant. Um But, yeah, this one's very unusual in that it sets on the top of the cladode. So, yeah, those are all the plants that I have to highlight today. So, hope you guys learned something new and enjoyed seeing some plant flowers that you might not uh normally see. So, yeah, let me know as always if you have any questions and hope you enjoy the garden. Thank you.

[00:30:04]>> Thank you. Thank you.