There is something special about the character accompanying folks who beautify the Earth with beautiful grounds. Few of the sixty plus client visitors to our past Thursday’s Masterpiece Garden Party know one another. The evening was heavy of air but fortunately, without rain.
Gardens draw friendships together. We all had a common bond …..to transform our grounds. Conversations and laughter and addresses were shared.
Without question the garden plant of Party talk centered on Angelica gigas, unknown generally, but when known is commonly called Korean angelica. Several hundred of them were entering full bloom and will continue to do so for several weeks. Each specimen appears as a ballet dancer, tutu and all, from the first foot of foliage to its spectacular period of bud and sharp maroon flower cluster show usually beginning in midAugust in our Twin City area.
No garden floral display appears more stately, more proud to show off its superior form of presence when in bloom. No foliage greenery is better designed to resemble a ballerina performing on stage. It is shockingly eye-catching, whether single or in group.
I have had Korean angelica growing in our Masterpiece Garden grounds for about fifteen years. I was early-on informed that Angelica gigas was a biennial, that is, a herbaceous plant that grows from seed to death in two years….. such as the common onion or carrot. The first year develops foliage, strong roots, storing the necessary energy to produce the next year, the reproductive parts of the plant, the flowers and seeds to continue its future the second year, when it grows a cane ranging from a puny two feet to a stately eleven feet tall, depending upon seasonal nutrient and water availability.
I have discovered since that Angelica gigas, after flowering, often does send out underground root shoots in the first year which do produce blooms and their seeds the very next season, causing the species to behave like a perennial instead of a biennial. Angelica gigas is not shy about producing seeds, lots of them whether grown in shade or sun.
After you establish the general number of plants for your garden display, I’d advise you remove the flower clusters as soons as the seeds are developed, usually in mid September. Although Angelica gigas may qualify as a weedy plant for its determination to reproduce, it is a weed ONLY if becomes a plant out-of-place.