Blooming lovely
TURTLEHEAD is a very distinctive name for a flower, and very apt, as becomes immediately obvious when this pretty flower is first seen. From spring to late summer, turtlehead simply builds a bushy, rounded clump of stems. The green leaves are carried in pairs that give an element of structure. For months unremarkable, it proves its worth in late summer when it flowers at a time when many perennial flowers are looking jaded.
The stems are closely held together and there is no space for weeds to compete. The height varies from 60cm to one metre. It is only when the flower spikes start to form that the plant begins to be noticed. The flower buds are broad and held in a tight clump on the flower stem. The flower spikes are formed right at the tip of the stems where they will be most obvious to the bees and butterflies that visit the flowers for nectar, and pollinate the flowers in the process.
The turtlehead flowers are very pretty, a bright pink colour with a hint of purple. They open in sequence up the short spike, a few open at a time, and one or two flowers may appear in the angle of the first pair of leaves. Each flower is made up of an upper and lower lip, the uppermost forming the top of the ‘turtle head’ and the bottom lip its opening ‘jaw’. Just inside the bottom lip is a beard of yellow filaments that receive the landing insect and its cargo of pollen. Turtlehead is part of the foxglove family with its tube-like flower shape.
The botanical name for the most widely grown form of turtlehead is Chelone obliqua. It is native to damp prairie land in eastern North America. With its natural distribution reaching as far north as Canada, there is no concern about its hardiness regarding frost. The foliage is tough and durable and the flower stems are rigid.
Turtlehead is easy to grow and worth having for its valuable late flowers, produced over several weeks. It has a natural preference for soil that does not dry out, but not necessarily wet. If the soil is too dry, it can get mildew and the leaves tend to hang. It likes good soil, not too rich, and full sunshine for best flowering.