What's blooming in the Botanic Garden

Ellis Perennial Garden

Location: West side of Ellis Library

Adjacent to the Ellis Library and the southwest edge of Lowry Mall, this 4,500-square-foot garden features a lush display of some 40 different plants, including hostas, Siberian Iris, astilbe, variegated Soloman’s Seal and ferns amongst oak, dogwood, pine and tulip trees. “We took a lovely shady spot where the grass wasn’t doing all that well and, with the addition of shade-loving plants, added another dimension to a favorite lunch-time gathering spot,” said landscape designer Joan Smith. The garden is being expanded to approximately 8,500 square feet. “New plants will be introduced to MU’s Botanic Garden, including eight varieties of lobelia, crape myrtle, shrub clematis and Japanese iris,” said landscape gardener Marsha Bower.

Bulb Display Garden

Location: Brady Commons Mall, between the Fine Arts Building and Hulston Hall

Little-leaf linden trees gently shade this 2,250-square-foot, rotating display of colorful spring- and summer-flowering bulbs. The trees’ light-yellow blossoms are abuzz with pollen-gathering bees in the spring and ablaze with golden leaves in the fall. Appearing early-to-mid-spring are dogs’ tooth violets, winter aconite, snow drops and chionadoxa, followed by late-spring tulips, then summer-flowering dahlias and tuberous begonias. Summer-flowering perennials, including catmint, day lilies, hellebore, Stokes aster and ground-cover geraniums follow.

Memorial Union Gardens

Location: West side of the North and South wings of the Memorial Union

West Coast artist and teacher Elizabeth Whittlesey draws a canna plant during her visit to Columbia. In addition to the canna, some 40 new varieties of sun-loving coleus presently bask along the sidewalk running north and south between Hitt Street and the Memorial Union. Interspersed among the coleus plants are annual fountain grass and alocasia mettalica, a type of elephant ear. Little is known of changes this new coleus undergoes over a growing season. Landscape Services’ student intern Tim Sparling is photographing the plants during their various stages for information to disseminate later this year over the department’s Web-site.

The Siberian Iris Garden

Location: On the South Quad just east of Reynolds Alumni Center

Nine varieties of Siberian iris, guarded by prairie fire crab apple trees, are featured in this triangular, 2,000-square-foot, garden display. Landscape designer Smith says, “It’s a wonderful plant that exposes people to a ‘new’ group of iris, something more than the old-fashioned German varieties.”

Gardens on the Francis Quadrangle

Shown to the right is the “Chancellor’s Perennial Bed.” Located near the Residence on Francis Quadrangle, this garden is awash with purple-rain salvia, coronation gold yarrow, bear’s breeches, peonies, betony and Japanese snowbell trees. Similar gardens ring the Quad, each with different varieties of flora, including blue-wonder cat mint, tootsie rose daylily, heavy metal switch grass, purple dome aster, jig-saw ornamental pepper and May-night salvia. MU alum Michael Fox and wife Rhea, campus visitors from Springfield whose two children are also graduates of the university, admire the shapes, colors and smells.

Butterfly Garden

Location: Eckles Hall/Stringer Addition South Courtyard

This garden features forty varieties of nectar-producing perennials that attract butterflies – and hummingbirds: Alaska Shasta daisies, purple coneflowers, coreopsis, speedwell, Japanese tree lilacs and asclepias tuberosa, better known as “milkweed” or “butterfly weed,” among others. Along the south side of the Stringer Addition between Buck’s ice cream and the west entrance to Ag Engineering, the garden consists of about 22,000 square feet. “Over time, we’ll attract more and more butterflies as the plants mature and as the garden’s location becomes known among a growing butterfly population” said landscape architect Mark Jarvis. Above, ten-year-old Wade Brown, Levi Harmon, Tyler Todd and Benjamin Reidinger check out the coneflowers while on campus with Recreation Services’ Camp Tiger Rec.