Playing Favorites: Bowman’s Root

While I’ve been engrossed out back with all my tiny baby plants, there’s been something quietly magical growing out front: a fluffy little gem of a plant called bowman’s root (Gillenia trifoliata). Last June, I was at one of the local nurseries looking for a few things to add to the totally random, on-and-off planting I’ve been doing at the front of the house for the past three summers. I think I was there specifically for the hot pink coneflowers I also came home with that day, and found myself poking around in a very picked-over row of native fledglings in pint containers. Most of it was yellow coneflower, but there were a few things that were new to me. I was in need of a low groundcover and bought a pint of Bowman’s root, not knowing anything about it — either because it looked ground-cover-y to me, or that’s how it was described on the signage, not sure. But I bought it thinking it was some sort of a creeper.

It didn’t amount to much last year, but somewhere along the way I learned that it actually grows into more of like a 3-foot mound. So I made a mental note that I should move it this year, and then promptly forgot all about it. It’s tucked up against some of the echinacea, in between an extremely vigorous ‘Double-file’ viburnum and my oakleaf ‘Alice,’ both of which are threatening to drown the poor dear. But I found it out there this week, not only all fluffed out but in bloom, and fell instantly in love with it.

It is a feathery mound of greenness with reddish stems and these delicate white blooms, and it bounces and flutters gracefully in the breeze. It has a native range that sort of mimics the eastern coastline, but inland a bit, just barely including my house at the northern tip of the range. When I saw it out there blooming, it reminded me immediately of guara, a plant I loved in California and have been surprised to see for sale here, which made me wonder where it hails from. I would not have guessed, but guara is native to the lower middle of the US — Oklahoma, Texas, into Louisiana — and Mexico. And it likes hot dry conditions, whereas bowman’s root wants part sun to shade, and is apparently happy in any kind of soil or moisture level, including being drought tolerant.

In addition to being both pretty and unfussy, it’s also deer resistant, butterfly supporting and provides brilliant red fall foliage.

I’m going for a lot of soft wildness out back — masses of grasses and wildflowers woven into the trees and conifers — so I’m now eager to tuck some delicate mounds of bowman’s root into that mix, just as soon as I’m able.

PLANT DETAILS
• Bowman’s root (Gillenia trifoliata), native to a good chunk of the eastern US
• Member of the vast rose family, rosaceae
• Fluffy mounding growth habit, 2'-4'
• Delicate white to pinkish-white flowers from May to possibly early July
• Red foliage in fall, dies back in winter (cut back in late winter)
• Part-sun to shade
• Dry to moist soil, drought tolerant
• Attractive to butterflies and bees