Oenothera lindheimeri 'Rosy Jane'
(previously known as Gaura lindheimeri 'Rosy Jane')
Overview
Uses: Front to mid border, hot and dry sites, outdoor containers, pollinator gardens, cutting gardens.
Benefits: Four-petaled white flowers finished with a candy-pink picotee edge, opening from deep pink buds so both colors show at once. A compact, low-branching selection that avoids the legginess typical of the species, over foliage mottled with purple.
USDA Hardiness Zones: 5–9
Sun: Full sun to partial sun
Life Cycle: Hardy Perennial
Growth Habit: Clumping, mounding — low basal mound with slender wand-like flower stems
Bloom Color: White with pink picotee edges
Foliage Color: Green mottled with purple
Mature Height: 20–24 in.
Mature Width: 20–24 in.
Bloom Season: Late spring into early fall
Growth Rate: Fast
Summary
The knock on gaura has always been that it looks wonderful in June and like a collapsed pile of sticks by August. Long wiry stems, sparse growth at the base, and a tendency to fall outward from the middle.
'Rosy Jane' is a low-branching selection that keeps the plant furnished all the way down. It holds a compact mound roughly two feet in both directions, with wand-like stems rising above it rather than flopping out of it.
The flowers are the reason to grow it. Deep pink buds open into four-petaled white blossoms, each petal finished with a narrow candy-pink picotee edge, so a stem in full swing shows dark buds and bicolor open flowers simultaneously. They are small, they are held on stems fine enough to move in any breeze, and the effect is a cloud of pink-and-white butterflies hovering over the plant. Bloom begins in late spring and continues into early fall.
The foliage earns its keep too — narrow willow-like leaves mottled and splashed with maroon-purple. A deep taproot makes the plant genuinely tough once established, indifferent to heat, humidity, and drought, and deer pass it by.
Care
Rosy Jane Gaura Care
Full sun gives the best form and the heaviest bloom. Light shade is tolerated, but shade is one of the two reliable causes of floppy stems.
Sandy or loamy, sharply drained soil is what it wants. Good drainage is not optional — root rot in heavy, wet ground is the usual cause of death, especially over winter.
Lean soil is better than rich. Rich ground is the other reliable cause of flopping, producing tall soft stems that cannot hold themselves up.
Water regularly the first season to establish the taproot, then reduce sharply. Established plants are extremely drought tolerant, and frequent shallow watering does more harm than good.
Skip fertilizer on average soil. If the ground is very poor, one light spring application of slow release fertilizer is the ceiling.
The plant largely self-cleans. Shearing lightly after a heavy flush refreshes it and encourages continued bloom, and cutting back by roughly half in late spring controls size. Cut stems back in late winter to early spring before new growth begins.
Note that this variety is patented and sterile, so it will not self-seed the way the straight species does. Propagating it is not permitted.
Container growing: use a gritty, free-draining mix and a pot with open drainage; standing water will kill it. Water when the top inch is dry. Feed sparingly. Plants hardy in the ground may require winter protection when grown in containers in colder zones.
Size
What Size is the Rosy Jane Gaura for Sale Online?
Our Rosy Jane Gaura ships in a greenhouse-grade grow pot and is appropriately sized for its container at the time of shipment. Plants may arrive with buds or blooms during the active growing season. If you have specific sizing or planting questions, please contact us.
How Large Does Rosy Jane Gaura Grow?
Expect a mature height of about 20–24 in. and a spread of roughly 20–24 in. in the garden. Growth rate is fast. If you have questions about spacing for your site, please contact us.
Additional Information
What are some common names for this plant?
Several are in regular use:
- Gaura
- Beeblossom
- Whirling butterflies
- Wandflower
Why is it listed as Oenothera when everyone sells it as Gaura?
Botanists folded the genus Gaura into Oenothera, the evening primroses, so the currently accepted name is Oenothera lindheimeri. The nursery trade has largely kept selling it as gaura, and the common name has not budged. Both names refer to the same plant.
What does picotee mean?
A narrow band of contrasting color along the outer edge of a petal. On 'Rosy Jane' the petals are white with a fine candy-pink rim, which is what produces the bicolor effect from a distance.
Will it flop?
Not the way ordinary gaura does — this selection was chosen specifically for low branching and a compact habit. When it does flop, the cause is almost always rich soil, too much water, or insufficient sun. Lean, dry, sunny conditions produce a self-supporting plant.
Does it reseed?
No. The straight species self-sows readily, but this cultivar is sterile, so it will not volunteer around the garden. That also means the only way to get more is to buy more, since propagating a patented variety is not permitted.
