Tickseed or corepesis (Corepesis sp.) — Asteraceae
This Fourth of July, remember to look around you for pyrotechnics in the Garden. I don’t mean to suggest there will be literal fireworks at your feet, of course. Perhaps the closest a plant comes to that is the lowly clubmoss (Lycopodium sp.), which is actually a fern ally and not a true moss. In the fall, gathered spores from clubmoss are highly flammable and have been used for generations to make flash powder. Today you may only see it used by magicians, but it was once popular in early photography as a rudimentary flash for large format cameras, not to mention its use in actual fireworks.
The pyrotechnics I am talking about are the plants that bear a resemblance to our favorite fireworks in various ways. Some even have names that suggest this, such as ‘Giant Sunburst’, firecracker flower, flaming sword, and torch lily. They have the advantage over real fireworks by making a show in the daytime with a much longer-lasting display, making them much easier to photograph. They are also considerably more diverse, and I’d say more beautiful, albeit without the bang.
This winter I attended a lecture by Bill Calkins, Retail Business Manager for the Ball Horticultural Company, a well-known seed company founded in Chicago at the turn of the 20th century. Its reputation for innovative new introductions and high quality product lines—including Simply Beautiful Gardens and Burpee Home Gardens—is renowned in the industry.
I enjoyed Calkins’ lecture not only because it covered an impressive array of new annuals and improved varieties flooding the market, but cast the subject of annuals in a refreshing light. The highlight was his discussion of the Dr. Seuss garden, a child-friendly garden containing fun and bizarre-looking annuals to inspire the imagination. Any initiative to encourage children to explore and engage in the natural world is a good one, so this endeavor sounds really fun. And, after all, who doesn’t like Dr. Seuss’ wild and wacky creations?
