Hot Lips Turtlehead (Chelone lyonii ‘Hot Lips’)

• Soft Pink Flowers with Deep Green Foliage
• Tolerates Wet Soil and Shade
• Native Plant Attracts Butterflies, Hummingbirds, and Other Pollinators

This is an elegant native beauty with a funny name. Even if your visitors won’t be able to keep a straight face after asking you about it, Hot Lips Turtlehead (Chelone lyonii ‘Hot Lips’) is really special.

This flowering native springs to life with pink, puffy corollas in the late summer through fall. These flowers are bell-shaped, with a lower petal that extends out with fine yellow hairs (imagine a pink turtle’s head sticking out his yellow tongue). They range in color from hot pink to periwinkle and lavender.

If you’re looking for late season blooms, it’s happy to fulfill that request. And they grow well in a wide range of conditions, including wet soil which seems impossible to plant in.

People aren’t the only ones that admire this delightful plant. The pastel blooms cast a spell over bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. With such fantastic color, you’ll want to be sure you snap a few pictures when these pollinators visit.

The Hot Lips Turtlehead’s pink flowers are gorgeous in relation to its deep green foliage. This plant’s branches fill with forest-green lance-shaped leaves. These leaves first emerge a dark golden brown before unfurling to their verdant green.

Gardeners adore this plant’s ability to thrive in less-than-perfect conditions. This fast-growing perennial does well in shade and partial shade. It even tolerates medium to high moisture soils of almost any type.

Plant the Hot Lips Turtlehead in a border around your backyard gazebo. This plant would also be a great addition to your butterfly garden if you have a damp shady area where other plants struggle to thrive. Because this plant enjoys the shade and moisture, it also does well in woodland gardens and along ponds. Try it in a Rain Garden to absorb rain runoff in a soggy spot in the yard.

The Hot Lips Turtlehead is sure to bring a buzz to your backyard. Not just because bees adore it, but because it has such gorgeous pink blooms!