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Indian Feather Plants
Indian Feather Plants. It's a good garden guest: relaxed, graceful and low maintenance, reliable but not a fussy show-stopper. Indian feather plant (Gaura lindheimeri) has all the virtues you would expect in a native perennial bush, growing in a loose clump and producing long-blooming flowers that fall of their own accord when spent. It works well...
It's a good garden guest: relaxed, graceful and low maintenance, reliable but not a fussy show-stopper. Indian feather plant (Gaura lindheimeri) has all the virtues you would expect in a native perennial bush, growing in a loose clump and producing long-blooming flowers that fall of their own accord when spent. It works well in native landscapes and wildflower gardens.
Tall and Leggy Perennial
Indian feather plants grow between 3 and 5 feet tall with a 1- to 2-foot spread. The stems are slender and arching, and are filled with spoon-shaped leaves up to 3 inches long. Look for flower buds to appear in clusters early spring. Each blossom has four petals and long stamens and looks for all the world like a butterfly. Depending on the cultivar and where you live, the plant may bloom all summer long. The blossoms open white, but the fragile petals change to pink as they mature.
Some Like It Hot
The Indian feather plant is happiest in hot, dry zones and grows without much care or effort on your part in warmer zones. Almost any well-drained soil will do, from sandy to loamy, but try to put Indian feathers in the sun; the shrub grows in shade but prefers bright-light locations. Despite their native preference for heat, these shrubs grace gardens in a much larger range, thriving in United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) hardiness zones 5 through 10. In the lower zones, it's a good idea to spread a 3-inch layer of organic mulch, like compost or chopped leaves, over the root zone in winter.
Pick and Choose
If the species plant seems a little scrubby for your garden, you may find an Indiian feather plant cultivar more suited to your needs. Popular "Crimson Butterfly" produces brilliant pink flowers on clumps of foliage that stay below 2 feet in height. It's a good choice for USDA zones 5 through 8. For a slightly taller plant, look at cultivar "Whirling Butterflies." The shrub stems form a clump up to 3 feet high and wide and produce white flowers in zones 5 through 9.
Not Everybody's Cup of Tea
While you are certain to love Indian feather's drought-resistance and the fact that it has few insect issues, you might want to note a few of the plant's less popular qualities. You'll have to look out for root-rot infection if you position your shrub in soils that drains slowly or holds onto water. Moreover, once they get their deep carrot-like taproots into the soil, you aren't going to move them very easily to the far side of the garden. Last but not least is the rather unpleasant odor of the flowers, a fragrance experts at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center compare to cat urine.
