If you’ve found yourself walking around our beautiful neighborhood admiring the flowers and wondering what you’re looking at, we’re here to help. Welcome to "Petworth Blooming,” a popular series featuring some of the most common plants and flowers seen around Petworth. Follow and support Steve at PetworthBlooms.org and see more photos at @petworthblooms on Instagram.

by Steve Feingold

For this article I’m checking out what’s blooming on the hillside in front of Roosevelt High School along 13th Street NW. But first a bit of history of this space. Originally this area was a grassy hill as seen in this Google Street View from 2009:

Google Street View image of Roosevelt HS from 13th Street in July 2009

Between 2013 and 2016, the school underwent a $130 million renovation that included adding several stormwater management facilities along the 13th Street side of the building. The hill was modified to include a large bioretention area and planted with grasses, St. John’s wort and roses.

Google Street View image of the new bioretention area in November 2016

Unfortunately, many of these plants were killed by follow-up construction work, and their replacements did not fare better. By 2022, the hillside was essentially empty, with erosion channels forming.

Google Street View image from September 2022

In December of 2022, I planted approximately 1,000 tulip and daffodil bulbs across the hillside and spread a couple pounds of wildflower seeds over the area. In April of 2023, those bulbs were flowering and the first of the seeds were starting to sprout.

Tulips and daffodils blooming in April 2023

By August, the marigold and partridge pea seeds had grown in and were blooming profusely.

Partridge Pea (yellow) and marigolds (orange) blooming in August 2023.

So what’s blooming at Roosevelt right now?
Perhaps the most striking flower is of the Lupine. This member of the pea family puts out tall spikes of purple flowers. It takes a couple years after sprouting before it’s large enough to bloom.

Lupine flowers range from pale purple to a darker blue hue.

A pair of honeybees visiting the lupine flowers.

Blanketflower is starting to bloom now. These plants are more common in and around Texas, but grow well here, especially in drier soils. Also known as Firewheel due to their bright red and yellow flowers, they are short lived perennials that readily reseed themselves.

Blanketflowers catching the late afternoon sun.

One of the more recognizable flowers you can see at Roosevelt High School is the Daisy. While there are lots of plants with white petals and yellow centers which share the name, I believe that these are Oxeye Daisies. These are members of the aster family, so each “flower” is actually made up of many smaller ones, all clustered in the yellow center.

Oxeye Daisy flowers near the rainwater outflow.

Blue Flax is a plant typically found in the western US. Its small blue flowers are born on delicate stems and it often needs support from other nearby plants to hold itself upright.

Large flower coreopsis is beginning to bloom, but it should put on quite a show over the next few weeks. It is a short lived perennial that spreads well by seed.

Large flower coreopsis (also known as large flower tickseed).

Wallflower is a biennial from eastern Europe/Asia with bright orange flowers, which is not a common color for plants blooming this time of year. After flowering, the plants look fairly weedy, so it’s best grown mixed in with other more stately plants.

Wallflower is best appreciated from farther away, I think.

Another bright orange flower blooming now is the California Poppy. These flowers have a very short bloom time. They are annual plants, but don’t reseed very well in our climate, so don’t expect them to continue in a garden for too many years.

California poppies catching the sun beneath a blue flax plant.

Last up is Sweet William, a biennial species of dianthus. This is a highly cultivated version of a plant originally from southern Europe. There are many colors including white, pink and red, and some that are multi-colored.

There are a lot more native perennials growing in this area of Roosevelt that will be blooming later on in the year. Be sure to walk past through the spring and summer to see coneflowers, black-eyed Susan’s, partridge pea, obedient plant, bee balm, goldenrod and others.

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