#Kalmia minuet full#

Evergreen shrub with sympodial growth and elliptic leaves.Select plants with a low flammability rating for the sites nearest your home. Plant mountain laurel in a meadow, naturalized, or woodland area, and use it as an accent or flowering shrub in a native, children’s, butterfly, or pollinator garden.įire Risk: This plant has a high flammability rating and should not be planted within the defensible space of your home. There are many cultivars available, including some that are heat tolerant and even some that are dwarf varieties. Flowers have touch-sensitive anthers contained in pockets in the corolla, which triggers the release of pollen when pollinators like bees visit. Attractive foliage makes this a good choice for year-round interest. It blooms in late spring to early summer, and its buds and fruits are showy. Remove spent flower clusters immediately after bloom and prune branches back lightly after bloom to promote bushy growth. In heavy soils, raised plantings should be considered to promote better drainage. The plant does not grow well in heavy clay soils or wet soils. Mulch to retain moisture and keep root zones cool.

#Kalmia minuet full#

Mountain laurel tolerates a wide range of light conditions, from full sun to full shade, but grows best in partial shade (morning sun with early to mid-afternoon shade) and in cool, moist, acidic, humus-rich, well-drained soils. Linnaeus named the genus after Swedish botanist Peter Kalm (1716-1779), who explored plant life in parts of eastern North America from 1747 to 1751. Rarely it will grow to 32 feet tall as a small tree, particularly on slopes in the Appalachian Mountains. It can grow slowly to 6 to 10 feet tall as a dense, rounded shrub, opening up and developing gnarly branches with age. Mountain laurel is a broadleaf, evergreen shrub or small tree in the Ericaceae (blueberry) family that is native to eastern North America, where it is found in a variety of habitats, including open rocky or sandy woods, cool meadows, balds, mountain slopes, acidic forests, and woodland margins. Flowers bloom late May into June.Phonetic Spelling KAL-mee-ah lah-tih-FOH-lee-ah This plant has high severity poison characteristics. Flowers open white with a broad, maroon-red band circling the inside of each flower cup near the rim. It features ornamentally attractive light pink flower buds.

'Minuet' is a dwarf shrub that typically matures to only 3' tall and as wide. Genus name honors Pehr Kalm (1715-1779), Finnish pupil of Linnaeus, who was sent by the Swedish government in 1748 to report on the natural resources of North America. Linnaeus named the genus herein after Swedish botanist Peter Kalm (1716-1779) who explored plant life in parts of eastern North America from 1747 to 1751. Mountain laurel has acquired a number of different common names over time including ivy bush, spoonwood, calico bush and American laurel. Kalmia latifolia is the state flower of Connecticut and Pennsylvania. All parts of this plant are toxic if ingested. Elliptic, alternate, leathery, glossy evergreen leaves (to 5” long) are dark green above and yellow green beneath and reminiscent to the leaves of rhododendrons. If not deadheaded, flowers give way to non-showy brown fruits (3/16” dehiscent capsules) that persist into winter. Each flower (to 1” across) is cup shaped with five sides and ranges in color from rose to white with purple markings inside. Flowers appear in terminal clusters (corymbs to 6” across), typically covering the shrub in late May-June for several weeks with an often exceptional bloom. Notwithstanding its usual shrub habit, mountain laurel will rarely grow as a small tree (particularly on slopes in the Appalachian Mountains) to as much as 30’ tall. It typically grows as a dense rounded shrub to 5-15’ tall, opening up and developing gnarly branches with age. It is noted for its excellent spring flowers and quality year round foliage. Kalmia latifolia, commonly called mountain laurel, is a gnarled, multi-stemmed, broadleaf evergreen shrub or small tree that is native to Eastern North America (New England south to the southern Indiana, Louisiana and the Florida panhandle) where it is found in a variety of habitats including open rocky or sandy woods, cool meadows, balds, mountain slopes and woodland margins.