July 2023

Here at BGO, we experiment with planting different types of plants just like you do. A plant which I have not seen but in one home garden of the thousands of gardens I have visited over my gardening career. I encountered ‘Dara’ in a home garden in Jonesboro three years ago and it was put near the top of my list of a new plant to try.

Dara is an annual flower that is a member of the carrot family. Its close kin which it resembles the most is Queen Ann’s Lace (Daucus carota). One would think that Queen Ann’s Lace is native to our region because it’s so abundantly found along roadsides and fields. Both of these plants are native to the Mediterranean region stretching over to Afghanistan.

What makes Dara different is that the umble of flowers it produces is not white like its cousin, but shades of pink to purple. One of the reasons Dara is not in many gardens is that it’s not sold in six packs like most of your bedding plants. Here at BGO we purchased seeds and started the seeds indoors in February. Looking back at how fast this plant grew, next year I will sow seeds in the first week of March to have nice size transplants by mid-April.

Dara is a flower to enjoy for close viewing so it will not work as a show stopper from a distance. For your viewing, we planted Dara in beds just off of the Tyson Terrace. They are expected to have showy blooms all summer. Hope you enjoy them like we have.

Berni Kurz

Director of Horticulture

Botanical Garden of the Ozarks