By Grace Broyles
Big Country Master Gardener
It’s interesting to drive down the highways and the byways of our county in the early spring to see all the growth along the roadsides waving to us in the Texas breezes. When I discovered that the Guara flowering so beautifully at a local hospital years ago was actually a cultivar of a native plant, I was enthralled, and started looking for it along the roadsides. Sure enough, the taller wildflowers with pinkish flowers was a Guara, also called “Whirling Butterflies” or “Wand Flower” or “Bee Blossom.”
Some years ago, and again just recently, I tried digging some up and transplanting it in my flower beds, but had no success. So, I purchased some from the Big Country Master Gardeners plant sale. It was happy where I placed it, but alas, the deer enjoyed the plant so much, they nibbled off the tops over and over again. They actually pushed over the chicken wire cage I placed over it to protect it. I’m sure Guara does better in town where the deer do not roam looking for this tasty plant.
“Guara” comes from a Greek word meaning “superb.” And I agree. It was until recently in its own genus, but has been moved to the Oenothera genus of plants, which include our Showy Pink Primrose and the yellow Evening Primroses. It was named by Carl Linnaeus, coming from the Greek name “onos” meaning donkey-catcher or wine seeker. It’s botanical name is oenethera lindheimer after Ferdinand Jacob Lindheimer, the “Father of Texas Botany,” the first permanent-resident plant collector in Texas, who made his home in New Braunfels.
Guara is native to Texas where we enjoy its bloom time from early summer into the fall, especially as the rains fall. The plant has wiry stems that grow from about 12 inches to 4 feet tall. These stems bear many blossoms about one inch in size that have four petals each. The flowers are white or pink or a combination of the two, and varies in brightness of the hue. The foliage of the plant is lance-shaped and often is tinged pink or red, or gold or cream.
Although the plant gets its best boost when we have late fall and winter rains, it can handle very high temperatures and many dry days. Throughout the summer, thunderstorms will encourage the Guara to spurt forth new blooms to wave in the breezes. They will die back after a hard freeze, but once the temperatures warm up, the plants begin to grow again.
Guaras are perennials and start from seed or cuttings and grow a taproot deep into the soil. No wonder I couldn’t transplant my harvested specimen years ago. I only dug down several inches.
Guaras are best bought through a Master Gardener sale or from a native plant nursery. There are many cultivars available. One can choose for the bloom colors or the foliage colors. Guaras need to be placed where they have a lot of space because they can grow tall and splay wide. The best way to display a Guara may be in a wildflower bed with sturdy companion plants to help support its leggy limbs. To control some of its leggy-ness, one can cut off the stems after the first bloom. This will encourage a tidier growth and also many new blooms.
The best way to propagate a Guara is from cuttings. Cuttings will produce plants like the mother, but plants grown from gathered seeds will not produce the same results as the mother plant.
Cuttings are taken from the base of the stem as close to the crown as possible, about four inches long. The cuttings are poked 1 inch deep in 4-inch pots of well-watered potting soil mixed for good drainage. The pots need to be placed in a location away from sunlight and winds. New growth should appear in a couple of months.
Once the new plants seem healthy and growing well, the plants can be transplanted into moist soil, in full sun or part shade and watered only as needed to keep roots slightly moist. An umbrella or shade cloth may provide some relief for the new little plants the first summer during the extremely hot days.
Once the plants begin to bloom in the spring, the bees, butterflies and hummingbirds will find the blossoms and will enjoy the nectar they provide as they dance with joy in the wafting breezes of West Texas, and we gardeners get to participate in that joy as we see them in our landscapes.
If you have any questions, call the Taylor County Extension Office at 325-672-6048 or email us at mgardeners@yahoo.com. We hope you visit bcmgtx.org for information on all Big Country Master Gardener events, like us on BCMGA Facebook, and check out training presentations on BCMGA YouTube. We are here to help you.
