Beetleweed, Wandflower

Most people just call this plant "galax". A very beautiful perennial with rounded, glossy, evergreen foliage. Leaves turn bronze to scarl...Read Moreet in winter.

A single plant can be underwhelming, but a patch several feet across can be lovely. It can, with care, and a few decades---or deep pockets---become a groundcover.

Unfortunately, it grows slowly, and nursery-propagated plants are correspondingly expensive. A woodlander native to the Appalachians from Alabama to New Hampshire, it's an acid soil lover and a lover of shade. In the nurseries, I sometimes see it hitchhiking on the rootballs of wild-harvested mountain laurel and Rhododendron maximums.

Galax has become rare, threatened, or endangered in many areas. Its leaves have always been in great demand for use in the florist industry, and have long been wild-collected in large quantities. Due to widespread concern about its unsustainable exploitation, as with several other wildflowers, collection is legally restricted in many places. But that hasn't stopped illegal commercial poaching.

The leafless flower spikes reach 18" in late spring, and the foliage stays at 6-9". The height information above should be corrected.

Once established, this is as drought-tolerant as the wild mountain laurel and Rhododendron maximums it grows among.

These evergreen plants are used by landscapers and home gardeners as groundcovers. They begin new growth in mid-April and are usually re...Read Moready by late June-early July. The leaves are used by florist in all floral arrangements - wreaths, bouquets, etc. Plants can be shipped most of the year. Leaves are shipped worldwide to florist beginning usually in late June-early July until mid-April each year. Leaves and plants are very hardy and plants are drought-resistant.

This is a herbaceous,evergreen,perennial plant,that can reach 3 feet in height.It has rounded shiny,heart shaped leaves that grows in slo...Read Morew expanding clumps.The foliage is 2to4 inches across and turns red-bronze in winter.In late spring foot long spikes of feathery white flowers rise above the leaves.Florist use the leaves to decorate wreaths at Christmas.