Ariel, languishing underwater at first, breaks free and blooms (7)

I believe the answer is:

ruellia

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'free and blooms' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I can't tell whether it can be defined by this definition.

'ariel languishing underwater at first breaks' is the wordplay.
'at first' says to take the initial letters.
'breaks' indicates an anagram.
The initial letters of 'languishing underwater' is 'lu'.
'ariel'+'lu'='ariellu'
'ariellu' is an anagram of 'RUELLIA'.

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(Another definition for ruellia that I've seen is " Flower".)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.

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