“Hot Lips” turtlehead is quite a cutie.
Photo by L.A. Jackson
I am sure that, on occasion, you have spotted a turtle or two moseying around your plant beds. Although they are slow, their visits are usually brief. If you enjoyed those fleeting moments, why not just add turtleheads to your garden?
No, I’m not talking about doing vile things to cute critters. Instead, I suggest a plant called turtlehead (Chelone spp.). It is an herbaceous perennial native to the Southeast that has hooded blossoms that look like—with some imagination on your part—turtle heads with their mouths open.
Even with its odd name and look, turtlehead is a rather pretty plant. But you have to wait until midsummer for visual satisfaction, when its clustered blooms supported on 2- to 3-foot stems begin to open, starting a pleasing show that can last over a month.
Turtleheads (deer-resistant, by the way) perform best in sunny to semi-shady gardens. But unlike many other plants, they will even grow well in soggy soil, making them a great addition to rain gardens or low spots in the landscape that turn to muck when it rains. Also, they are obvious options as marginal plants in a water garden.
If the flowers are left to go to seed, your turtlehead patch will continue to grow, just as long as the soil is kept moist to help encourage new sprouts. In addition, turtleheads can slowly expand their clumps by way of underground rhizomes. And if you want extra turtleheads for other parts of your landscape or to give away to friends, the plants can be propagated by divisions taken in early spring just as new growth begins to appear.
Three turtlehead varieties are typically available at garden shops. Pink turtlehead (Chelone lyonii) is the most common—meaning easiest to find—and in particular, the cultivar “Hot Lips,” which is quite a cutie with light-rose flowers hovering over rich green foliage. Prefer white blooms? Chelone glabra will deliver with its pleasant pale blossoms. There is even a so-called red turtlehead (Chelone obliqua), but the ones I have seen had flowers that were more a deep pink than a flashy red.
Turtleheads shouldn’t be too hard to find at area nurseries, especially ones that specialize in native plants. But if your local hunt comes up empty, these strange, charming beauties are easy online finds.
June in the garden
• Make rakes, hoes and shovels even more useful in your garden by marking the handles with paint, permanent marker, or waterproof tape in inch increments. This gives you handy measuring devices to use when it comes to correctly establishing row widths as well as planting distances and depths.
• If you remove some of the stem suckers off the lower portions of your tomato plants and tuck them away in individual pots filled with moist dirt in a semi-shady spot, many will root and, in about a month, be ready as transplants that are exact clones of the momma plant for the midsummer veggie patch.
Tip of the month
Thinking about adding a fig tree to your edible garden? Plant it in a well-draining site in full sun, and keep in mind a young fig tree can take a few years to swing into full fruit production. Since maturing fig trees are sensitive to drought, add mulch and water during the dry times. Typical fig trees can reach 15 feet or more in both height and width, so to prevent them from becoming botanical beasts, prune about a quarter of their growth every few years in late winter, cutting back limbs to leaf or branch joints. “Brown Turkey” and “Celeste” are two popular cultivars.
L.A. JACKSON is the former editor of Carolina Gardener magazine. Contact him at lajackson1@gmail.com.