Petasites blooms, emerges

Petasites japonicus is the large-leaved plant that I grow at the edge of my pond. It's probably the single plant that makes the pond so attractive in the late spring and early summer, its 24" (60cm) or larger leaves creating the perfect backdrop to the water.

It's just getting started at this time of year, with blooms that appear around April 1 every year here in St. Louis. This is not a plant that is grown for its flowers, as they're really nothing too exciting and open just an inch or two above ground.

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I don't detect any fragrance coming from them, and they're fairly ugly...

...but they do attract the early honey bees:

The more exciting thing to me is the appearance of the foliage though:

At this stage they're tiny replicas of their mature forms, at most 2" (5cm) across. You'd expect large leaves to go through some elaborate unfolding or uncurling, but these just emerge in miniature and enlarge a bit every day.

This plant has a reputation as being a bit aggressive, but has been a slow spreader for me probably because the soil here is fairly dry -- the plant doesn't actually have access to the pond water.

It has spread a couple of feet this year though, which has me thinking about how far I actually want it to go. This is the edge of the area where I'd like to build a small deck, hopefully this year. Looks like I may need to move some stepping stones though...

So the pond will soon have its striking backdrop again. Spring is exciting in so many ways!

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