June blooms in Petworth, all across the neighborhood
/If you’ve found yourself walking around our beautiful neighborhood admiring the flowers and wondering what you’re looking at, we’re here to help. Welcome to "Petworth Blooming,” a popular series featuring some of the most common plants and flowers seen around Petworth. Follow @petworthblooms on Instagram for additional photos of our neighborhood flora.
I’ll start this month off with a couple of succulents... also known as plants that store water in their stems or leaves.
Purple Ice Plant on Illinois Avenue NW
Ice Plant forms a beautiful carpet of purple flowers and trails nicely over retaining walls. This plant stores water in its leaves, so they are quite “juicy.” The name “Ice Plant” supposedly comes from the tiny hairs on the leaves which reflect the sun as if covered in frost. Of course, many similar plants have acquired the same name even though they have smooth leaves.
Prickly pear cactus on Quincy Street NW.
Prickly Pear is another kind of succulent in the cactus family. Like all cacti, it stores water in its stems and its leaves are spines. These plants are actually native to the area, though were originally only found on very dry, sandy soils near the coast. They have beautiful yellow flowers which eventually turn into fleshy, pink “pear-like” fruits.
Yucca flowers on Randolph Street NW
Another plant with a desert look to it is Yucca or Needle-Palm. Although normally found in sandy soils towards the coast, it also does quite well in our neighborhood. This plant is in the asparagus family, which is quite obvious when the flower stalks first begin to emerge. The creamy white flowers each last only a day or two, but the tall flower stalks keep making new ones for a couple of weeks. It grows from big starchy roots which look like those of yuca (cassava).
Yucca leaves and flowers at the 4th and Buchanan Triangle Park
Up next is one of the most classic of flowers": the Daisy. There are lots of plants with white flowers and yellow centers which share the name, but the most commonly grown ones are usually “Shasta daisies.” These are members of the aster family, so each flower is actually made up of many smaller flowers, all clustered in the yellow center.
Daisies on Decatur Street NW
Daisies and coneflowers on Sherman Circle
Sticking with the aster family, the Plains Coreopsis is a stunning annual with a very airy feel to it. It has small needle-like leaves and keeps an open, slender structure as it grows. It’s great for filling in small gaps between other plants. It has yellow petals with burgundy centers surrounding a button-like core of central flowers.
Plains Coreopsis on 5th Street NW
St. John’s Wort is a native of southern Europe and southwestern Asia, though there are closely related species native to our area. All these plants have five yellow petals with an abundance of stamens in the center. These plants were traditionally used to treat wounds or to ward off evil spirits before St. John’s Day.
St. John’s Wort in front of Roosevelt High School, off of 13th Street NW.
One of the largest single flowers which grows here belongs to the Southern Magnolia. These classic garden trees are beloved for their dark, glossy, evergreen leaves and their huge cream colored flowers. Originally confined to the South, widespread cultivation has enabled them to spread throughout the eastern US (and beyond). While a bit big for many yards in Petworth, there are nice specimens at the library and a few corner lots around the neighborhood.
Southern Magnolia on 5th Street NW.
The magnolia seedpod after flowering. It will eventually reveal bright red berries later in the year.
We featured the double-flowering Hollyhock from this same garden last August, but it has a timely backdrop for this moment, so here it is again! Hollyhocks are related to hibiscus, okra and cotton. They can be grown from seed and will reseed themselves if the pods are allowed to develop.
Hollyhock on 8th Street NW.
So what's blooming in July? We’ll talk about that, next month! Meanwhile, enjoy the scenery around Petworth.
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