Gas Plant is an Old School Favorite to the Garden

Adding an old school favorite to your garden that prefers to be left alone once it’s in the ground. That’s coming up on This Land of Ours. 

Gas plant is an upright, clump-forming perennial that blooms in late spring to early summer. It does well in northern climates with cool nights and it tolerates light shade. Gas plant likes to be left alone to grow, and it does not like to be disturbed once planted.

Gas plant flowers begin at the tips of stems and form tall spikes of fragrant pink or white five-petal blossoms. The pink varieties often feature darker pink or red colors along the veins, forming feather-like patterns. Flowers of the gas plant have a lovely fragrance with citrusy overtones. After blooming, the flowers will give way to star-shape seed heads that provide ornamental interest when left on the plant. Its glossy compound leaves in a rich green color release a lemony fragrance when crushed or bruised.

Another common name of gas plant is burning bush. Both names refer to the highly flammable oil produced by the plant.

Listen to Cathy Isom’s This Land of Ours program here.