Plants With Perfect Flowers

• This perfect flower has orange-topped stamens surrounding a carpel. Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images

  Comparing a simple buttercup to the exotic bird of paradise, it may be hard to believe that all flowers draw from the same four parts to create their wealth of floral expression. Two parts --- sepals and petals --- are accessory parts and aren't directly needed for reproduction. The male stamens and female carpels, on the other hand, are vital if a plant is to fruit and produce seeds. A "perfect" flower is one that possesses the two vital parts, making a perfect flower hermaphroditic.

Rose

• A full-blown rose shows off stamens and carpels. Rose image by reises from Fotolia.com

  Roses have a long history with humans, and over time, the flower has not only become a fixture in gardens and flower shops, but an expression of our thoughts and feelings, especially of love.

  Rose plant stems are woody with various growth habits. Some grow in miniature, some vine and some bush. Meanwhile, rose blossoms can be simple or many-petaled affairs, with scent or without, thorned or not, blooming in a riot of colors. Indeed, there are so many kinds of roses that any gardener should be able to find one that is right for her situation.

Hibiscus

• This hibiscus illustrates the fact that carpels are always in the middle of a flower surrounded by stamens, which in this case are small and golden. hibiscus image by Christophe Fouquin from Fotolia.com

  The charm of hibiscus for some gardeners may be its long-blooming nature. Not that the blooms last long --- they don't, and when they're cut, they do not linger. But the plant itself begins flowering in midsummer and lasts through fall.

  Depending on the type, hibiscus flowers may be small --- approximately 1 inch across for the flower-of-an-hour hibiscus --- or very large, in the case of the 9-inch-wide sunset hibiscus flowers.

Lily

• The stamens and pistil--the name for carpels that fuse into a single structure--are easy to see on this lily. pink flower of lily image by Maria Brzostowska from Fotolia.com

  Lilies grow from bulbs and --- good news for those with sandy conditions --- in soil that is not rich. Indeed, lilies grow wild in poor soil. Gardeners that baby lilies with nutrients are rewarded with plants with weakened stems.

  The lily blooming season is long, from early in the summer into the fall. There are a lot of hybrids to choose from. Some lilies can become too tall for their own good and need to be staked. The tallest lilies reach about 8 feet tall.