Gaura lindheimeri ‘Crimson Butterflies’

‘Crimson Butterflies’ is a compact cultivar that features hot pink flowers on short racemes and crimson red foliage. It was discovered in 1997 as an open-pollinated seedling variant of Gaura lindheimeri ‘Siskiyou Pink’. It is a compact, dense, upright-spreading plant that forms a foliage mound to 12” tall featuring narrow, lance-shaped leaves (to 1-3” long) that emerge crimson in spring with the addition of some green as the leaves mature. Four-petaled hot pink flowers (1” diameter) appear in wand-like panicles on red stems rising above the foliage mound to 18” tall. Flowers bloom over a very long late spring to autumn period. Flowers reportedly dance in the wind like butterflies, hence the cultivar name.  (Courtesy of Missouri Botanical Gardens Plant Finder)