Vermont State Flower - The Red Clover

Botanical Name

Trifolium pratense

Year Adopted

1894

Peak Bloom

May to June

History

Red Clover was naturalized after being brought over from Northern Europe.

Fun Fact

Red Clover beat four other flowers with a resonant 9,575 votes.

English colonists brought the Red Clover to northeastern North America, where it is now distributed prevalently. Inspired by the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago and its unequaled National Garland of Flowers, Vermonters were determined to have their own official state flower to represent the independent nature of their unique state and its inhabitants.

Populating many of Vermont’s cultivated hay fields and a common sighting along roadsides and highways, the Red Clover is symbolic of Vermont’s scenic countryside and of its massive farms, like Pomfret, and other dairy farmlands.

Red Clover is now grown extensively in the northern U.S., and even used as a winter annual in the southeastern U.S. Red Clover displays dazzling deep dark red flowers and thrives in the chillier climate of Vermont.

The plants have hollow, hairy stems and branches both medium and mammoth in size, averaging 18 inches and 24 to 30 inches, respectively. Medium types have about four branches per stem; mammoth have six. Each leaf consists of a slender stalk bearing three leaflets. Seed pods are small and short, containing kidney-shaped seeds which vary in color from yellow to deep violet.

Did you know as many as 10 million acres of Red Clover were grown in the Northern states in the 1940’s? Prominence has waned in time because it doesn’t fit well into current crop rotations. The cherished Red Clover will always add to the stunning scenery of Vermont’s scenic hills, valleys, mountains and lakes.

Growing Information

Soil

Well-drained

Sun

Full Sun/Partial Shade

Zones

4 - 10

ALL STATES