Common Names for Garden Heliotropes
The garden heliotrope is an old-fashioned favorite that's making a comeback. A plant of the borage family, the heliotrope grows as either an annual or perennial depending on your climate. It's known for its sweet fragrance and long-lasting flowers --- in fact, with care it can flower throughout the summer and into early fall. The most common colors are white and purple. It goes by at least two common names.
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Cherry Pie Plant
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The heliotrope gets this name from the heavy fragrance of its flowers. To some they smell of vanilla or cloves, to others the sticky sweetness of a pie. It's a restful, satisfying scent. This name is most often applied to the older varieties, with deep purple blossoms and crinkled green leaves.
Turnsole
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This name refers to another common feature of the heliotrope---its leaves and flowers tend to follow the sun each day, bending towards it in a noticeable manner as it travels across the sky. This is also the meaning of "helio" in heliotrope, of course, referring to the plant's affinity for sunlight.
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Varieties
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Now that this Victorian favorite is returning to our gardens, breeders are producing more and more cultivars. Look for Marine, which is dark purple and has a bushy habit. Alba is a white variety, while Black Beauty is named for dark-colored leaves. Early Violet, as its name suggests, is an early flowering variety.
Valerian
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You will sometimes find an entirely different plant referred to as garden heliotrope. This is valerian or Valeriana officinalis, a pink- or white-flowering perennial. It's often grown in butterfly gardens because it attracts pollinating insects, but it can be invasive. It has a passing resemblance to Heliotropium arborescens in the shape of its flowers and its herbaceous foliage, but it usually grows much taller. It is also adaptable and will self-sow easily.
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