STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

It’s daffodils that have gotten all the press at the Sawtooth Botanical Garden lately, what with the launching of the inaugural Wood River Valley Daffodil Festival.

But there are plenty of other reasons to visit the garden right now, especially given the on-again, off-again snow that has characterized this year’s spring.

Several other flowers are providing plenty of color, and the greenhouse is bursting with lush lemons, orange plants and boulangerie flowers.

Among the blooms that you can see right now:

  Pasque Flower—This purple flower with a voluptuous bloom is one of about 4 species of the perennial plant native to the meadows and prairies of North America, Europe and Asia. It gets its name from “pesach,” the Hebrew word for Passover—a nod to the fact that it flowers around the time of Easter and Passover.

It’s also known as the Easter flower, wind flower, prairie crocus and meadow anemone.

It is poisonous so the elk avoid nibbling on it. It is, however used in homeopathy for tension headaches, hyperactivity insomnia, asthma, migraines, neuralgia and disorders of the gastrointestinal and urinary tract.

The Snow star, according to the garden’s executive director Jen Smith, is a pretty delicate purple flower that greets all comers at the entrance of the garden near the greenhouse. Some call them Glory of the Snow flowers. And they’ve have been providing a welcome sight after a long winter since 1878. And they are critter proof.

Siberian squill bloom early in the spring when others are just starting to emerge.

Another deep purple flower is the sedum groundcover with purple blossoms. Experts say there are between 400 and 500 different species of sedum. The leaves store water, and the plants make great groundcovers.

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