How to Care Avens

With semi-double flowers that boast creamy petals tinged with a soft blush pink, avens 'Cosmopolitan' presents an enchanting display from late spring to early summer. The blossoms sit atop slender, wiry stems, rising from a low mound of dark green, lobed leaves. Thriving in temperate garden environments, avens 'Cosmopolitan' flourishes in well-drained soil and partial to full sun, attracting pollinators while resisting deer.

Avens 'Fire Storm' is an improved version of the Avens (Geum spp.) cultivar known as 'Fireball.' It was bred to produce even more flowers than its parent plant — it blooms profusely for several months, creating a flame-like mass of bright orange-red flowers, hence the provocative cultivar name.

Avens 'Mai Tai' is an avens (Geum spp.) cultivar selected for its attractive flowers whose varying colors can be compared to the Mai Tai drink. The semi-double flowers open vermilion, but they eventually fade to attractive shades of apricot, peach, or pink. The cultivar blooms for three weeks during the late spring and early summer, producing masses of blossoms at once.

The water avens 'Leonard's Variety' is a more compact form of the water avens, forming clumps as it grows, with semidouble flowers that are a copper-pink in color and that flare out as they bloom. This cultivar was created for its appearance, size, and for its long flowering period. This last factor makes it appreciated in gardens with cool, damp areas where other plants struggle to last.

Wood avens (Geum urbanum) is genetically related to the more commonly recognizable rose. This perennial plant is native to Europe and the Middle East. In folklore, the wood avens is considered to have spiritual properties and is seen as capable of driving away evil energy.

Geum coccineum has a wonderful reputation in gardening for being so easy to grow and yet so rewarding bloom-wise. Also, it is useful for providing pollinators with an attractive food source. In its natural habitat, it is found along streams, growing in wet meadows, or at higher elevations, enriching the landscape with its profuse orange and red flowers.

Prairie Smoke (Geum triflorum) is a perennial plant that blooms in late spring to early summer with clusters of nodding, pinkish-red flowers. Flowers are closed like buds and occur in threes. Bees force their way in to pollinate the flowers, but once pollinated, the nodding buds turn upright before fading away. Wispy, feathery seed heads replace flowers, changing from pink to golden as the seeds mature and dry.

Large-leaved avens (Geum macrophyllum) is a plant species that bears sticky fruit. Large-leaved avens can become stuck in clothing and pet fur. This weed is known best for its fruit, which is covered with spiky, velcro-like hooks that readily attach to anything that it touches.

Stranvaesia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rosaceae.

Cliffortia is a genus of plants that has been assigned to the rose family, with currently 132 known species. Its species can be found in southern Africa, particularly in the Cape Floristic Region. Cliffortia species are mostly upright shrubs, but some species develop into small trees of up to 5 m high. The stipules have merged with the base of the leaf and form a sheath around the branch. Leaflets may be thin or leathery, broad to needle-shaped, with the margin serrated or entire, and may have a spiny tip. Cliffortia has separate male and female flowers in the leaf axils, which are mostly set individually but sometimes in clusters. One or two achenes may develop in each flower, within the inflating calyx.

The dichotomanthes genus contains the sole species Dichotomanthes tristaniaecarpa, which is a small tree/shrub native to Eastern Asia. This species favors mixed evergreen forest habitats at medium altitudes. It produces late-spring white flowers as well as red fruit cylinders from late summer through fall.

Gardeners can plant drymocallis around trees to create a wild, woody ground cover. The plants have bright or pale green leaves that may be spiked or lobed, and they grow from kidney-shaped seeds. The flowers are small yellow or white blooms.