Perennials & Biennials - Heirloom Garden Plants

Digitalis purpurea Foxglove Biennial reseeds easily Z 4-8
Early summer pink, purple or white spires of spotted bells. Beautiful.

Size: 3-5' x 24"
Care: Part shade moist well-drained soil.  Deer resistant
Native: Great Britain,west and central Europe east to Scandinavia, often escapes.

Druids were fond of Foxglove because it flowered at the same time as their midsummer sacrifice. First described by German physician and botanical author Leonhard Fuchs (1501-1566). Cultivated in Medieval gardens. The plant's use as a heart stimulant was discovered in 1775 by English physician William Withering. The word ‘fox' is said to be a corruption of ‘folk,' meaning the ‘little folk' or fairies," having the power to ward off witches and return children kidnapped by fairies.  Cultivated in America since 1700's, with the first documented reference of American cultivation in 1748 by Peter Kalm, a student of Linneaus and a Swedish botanist who explored colonial America for plants. Pressed specimen in Emily Dickinson's herbarium.

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Digitalis thapsi Foxglove  Z 5-9
Shortish spikes of pale purple-rose spotted trumpets in summer. True perennial.

Size: 18” x 12”
Care: sun to part shade in moist well-drained soil.  Deer resistant. 
Native: Spain

Grown in the botanical gardens of Moscow by 1752.

Dodecatheon meadia Shooting Star Z 4-8
Rosy-lilac to white reflexed flowers, looking like a descending schuttlecock, dangle from stems on this spring ephemeral.

Size: 12-24” x 6-1'
Care: part shade in moist well-drained soil.
Native: PA to Wisconsin, south to TX.

Name Dodecatheon from the Greek dodeka (twelve) and theos (gods), meaning 12 superior gods, after the name given to another plant by Roman author, Pliny the Elder. The species name meadia after Richard Mead, physician to George III. Sent from its native America by John Tradescant the younger to England by 1640. “A favorite among old border flowers.” William Robinson, 1899. Received England’s Royal Horticultural Society Award of Merit.

Dracocephalum peregrinum   Twin flowered dragonhead  Z 4-8
Bushy, large purple-blue flowers on dwarf whorled spikes with a pair of toothed bracts,  June to August. Rock garden plant. 

Size: 4” x  6”     
Care: sun in well-drained soil
Native:  Rocky crevices on alpine grasslands in Gansu, Xinjiang China and Kazakhstand and Mongolian desert steppes in Russia

In China called “ci chi zhi zi hua.”  Collected by 1756.  Robinson called it “desirable.” (1900). Meehan wrote that it “makes a fine border clump.” (1876)  Dracocephalum is Greek meaning dragonhead referring to the shape of the flower.  Peregrinum means immigrant.

Echinacea pallida   Pale purple coneflower    Z 4-8 
Narrow, weeping rosy-pink rays surround rusty hedgehog cone in early summer

Size:  14" x  2'   
Care:  Full sun in well-drained to moist well-drained soil.  Deer resistant.  
Native:  much of continental US east of Colorado, Wisconsin native 
Wildlife value: attracts butterflies, seed heads provide bird food

Echinacea is Greek meaning "hedgehog" referring to the bristly conehead.  Indians (Cheyenne, Crow, Dakota & Sioux) used this native plant to cure numerous ailments - arthritis, rheumatism, burns, colds, boils, fever, sore mouths, throats & gums, toothaches, snakebites, headaches, stings and distemper in horses.  First collected for gardens by Englishman Thomas Nuttall (1786-1859) who searched much of North America for plants - the Atlantic to the Pacific, Canada to Florida and Hawaii.

Echinacea paradoxa  Bush's coneflower       Z 3-9
Sulphur yellow petals droop down below the bristly central cone - summer

Size:  2-4' x 14"
Care: sun to part shade in well-drained to moist well-drained soil.  Deer resistant. 
Native:  Ozark Mountains 
Wildlife value: attracts butterflies, birds eat seed heads

Echinacea is Greek meaning "hedgehog" referring to the bristly conehead.  Paradoxa because yellow petals on a purple coneflower is a paradox.  Collected by 1902.  

Echinops ritro   Globe thistle   Z 3-9 
Mid to late summer, round, steel blue flower heads at 1st prickly then turning soft and fuzzy.   Great cut flower - fresh or dried.

Size:  3-4' x 18"     
Care:  Full sun in well-drained soil.  Drought tolerant & deer resistant      
Native:  Southern Europe
Wildlife value: attracts American painted lady butterflies

The name Echinops is Greek meaning "like a hedgehog" describing the circular spiny thistles.   Introduced to England in 1570.  By the last half of the 1800's the Globe thistle became a popular Victorian flower. Cultivated by Washington at Mount Vernon. 

Echium russicum  Vipers bugloss    Z 2-9
Striking spikes of watermelon, wine red from May to July - exceptional and rare.

Size:  20" x 16"    
Care: Sun in moist well-drained soil.  Deer resistant     
Native:  Russia & eastern Europe

Bristly hairs on stems can cause skin irritation.    Collected by Johann Gmelin, German botanist, before 1791 who spent 10 years in Russia searching for plants, nearly dying in the process.

Equisetum scirpoides Dwarf horsetail Z 2-9
Short,bamboo-like - Black bands show joints of  greenstems, no showy flowers

Size: 6” x  spreads – invasive if not planted in pots sunk in the ground
Care: full sun, moist to wet soil
Native: all North America – including Arctic

Collected for cultivation by Andre Michaux, French planthunter who searched No. Am. East of the Mississippi for 11 years in late 1700’s. Contains large amounts of silica, giving it abrasiveness, so used to scrub. Grizzley bears in Pacific Northwest reported to eat Dwarf horsetail.

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Erinus alpinus  Fairy foxglove, Alpine balsam, Starflower   Z 4-7
May- July violet, pink or white 5-petaled stars (not resembling floxgloves) , self-sows. Rock garden plant.

Size: 3” x 4” spreads      
Care: sun to part shade in well drained soil                       
Native: Alps & Pyrenees

Recipient Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit. 
Erinus comes from Greek er meaning spring, for the time when this plant blooms.  Collected by 1753.  Wm. Robinson, father of mixed perennial border, called this a “pretty alpine plant.”

Erodium chrysanthum   Yellow storksbill    Z 5-9
Pale yellow saucers from June to September atop frilly silver foliage. Compact and well behaved.

Size:  5" x 10-16"           
Care:  full sun in well-drained soil.  Drought tolerant             
Native:  Greece

Erodium is Greek meaning "heron,"  because the seed capsule resembles a heron's head and bill.  This species collected before 1800.  Recipient Great Plant Pick Award from Elizabeth Carey Miller Botanical Garden.

Erodium manescavii  syn. Erodium manescani  Heron's bill      Z 5-8
Magenta saucer-shaped petals June-October - nonstop. Seed's tail like a corkscrew.

Size: 12-18" x 8         
Care:  Full sun in moist well-drained to well-drained soil  Drought tolerant 
Native:  Pyrenees

Erodium means heron because the seed capsule resembles a heron's head and bill.  This species collected before  1889.  "Most showy ... (and) throws up strong flower stalks ... each with 7 to 15 purplish flowers,"  William Robinson (1899.) 

Eryngium giganteum  Miss Wilmott's Ghost  BIENNIAL, reseeds generously Z 5-8
In summer, oval thistles top prickly green, turning steely blue, silvery, prickly bracts

Size:  36" x 24"      
Care:  Full sun in moist well-drained to well-drained soil.  Deer resistant.       
Native:  Caucasus Mountains

Named for Ellen Wilmott, a wealthy, eccentric English gardener who reputedly dropped seeds of this plant as she passed her neighbors' gardens.  It came up after she had passed - Miss Wilmott's ghost.  Her personality also reputedly resembled the prickly plant.  Introduced to England from its native Caucasus Mountains in 1820.  Recipient, England's Royal Horticultural Society Award of Merit.

Eryngium maritimum    Sea holly  Z 5-8
Mounds of showy frosted foliage with conspicuous silver veins and prickly leaf margins with round, steel-blue thistles blooming in late summer.  Grow at the front of the garden or in a rock garden.

Size:  8" x 8"    
Care:  Full sun in well-drained soil.  Drought tolerant    
Native:  Seacoasts of Europe

Eryngium is Greek meaning "thistle."  Anglo-Saxons prescribed the root to cure the king's evil, serpent bites, broken bones, stiff necks and melancholy. During Tudor times the plant, reputedly an aphrodisiac, brought on "kissing comfits." Garden cultivation in America since 1700's.

Eryngium planum  Flat sea holly  Z 5-9
Round thistles top prickly steely blue, silver colored, bracts June-August.  Stems turn steel blue too. Deadhead  for repeat bloom.  Reseeds readily.  Great cut flowers dry or fresh.

Size:  36” x 18”      
Care: Sun well-drained soil,  drought tolerant     
Native: E.  Europe

Eryngium is Greek meaning "thistle."  Eryngium was described in Gerard’s Herball  in 1597 for its uses: ”old and aged people that are consumed and withered with age, and which want natural moisture (and also) amended the defects of nature in the younger,”  Garden cultivation of this species in America since  1800’s.                   

 See Special Heirloom plant section and Get 3 plants for only $18.50.  You get 3 for the price of 2, saving $9.25

Eryngium yuccifolium   Rattlesnake master  Z 4-8
July-September, prickly round white umbels. Leaves like thinner versions of a Yucca

Size:  48” x 18”   
Care:  Full sun, moist well-drained soil.
Native:  Eastern United States, Wisconsin native

Eryngium is Greek meaning "thistle."   Chickasaw shamans chewed the root, blew on their hands and then picked up rattlers without injury, hence "Rattlesnake master." Its roots valued by Native Americans for medicinal uses: diuretic, stimulant, and to cure venereal disease, impotence and joint inflammation. Potawatomi used Rattlesnake master for good luck in gambling.

Eupatorium coelestinum    Blue mist     Z 3-7
Clusters of cornflower blue in fall - looks like a big Ageratum but it's a perennial, not an annual - August to October. One of the best fall flowers.

Size:  3' x 2-3'   
Care:  full sun moist to moist well-drained soil.  Tolerant of walnut toxicity.    
Native:  New Jersey - Missouri
Wildlife value: nectar source for American painted lady butterfly

Eupatorium named after Mithridates Eupator, ancient king of Pontus, Greece, said by Pliny to have used another species of Eupatorium medicinally in 1^st century B.C.  This species 1^st collected by John Bartram in 1732 and offered for sale in Bartram Garden's 1783 Broadside, America's 1^st plant catalog. 

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Eupatorium purpureum    Sweet Joe Pye weed  Z 3-9
From July to September 6' tall stalks bear showy dusty rose flower heads.

Size:  5-6'  x 3'  
Care:  Sun, moist to moist well-drained soil.  Resistant to Walnut toxicity.
Native:  Eastern U.S., Wisconsin native
Wildlife value:  attracts Monarch, Swallowtail & Red Admiral butterflies

Named "Joe Pye weed" after a Native American medicine man who used the plant in New England to cure typhus, typhus being named "jopi." Meskwaki men "nibbled (Joe Pye weed) when speaking to women when they are in the wooing mood." This had the power of "fetching" women. Introduced to gardens in 1610.

Euphorbia corollata  Flowering spurge  Z 4-7 
Small white flowers (bracts), like a baby's breath but better, July & August. One of the best prairie natives but takes a year or two to mature.

Size:  36' x 24"   
Care:  Full sun in well-drained to moist well-drained soil.  Drought tolerant & deer resistant.
Native:  Canada to Florida and west through the plains, Wisconsin native

Euphorbia was named for Euphorbus, physician of Numibian King Juba (c. 50 B.C. - 20 A.D.)  Reputedly Euphorbus used  spurge to remedy the King's enlarged stomach.   Euphorbus' brother was Augustus Caesar's physician. Corollata  means "like a corolla."   A favorite medicine among Native Americans.  Cherokee rubbed the plant's juice on skin to cure cancer.  Also used to remedy toothache and gonorrhea.  According to Breck (1851): "One of the most elegant species peculiar to the United States."

Euphorbia myrsinites   Donkeytail spurge  Z 5-8
Chartreuse umbels tip succulent blue-gray foliage in spring. Foliage attractive all season.  Great for groundcover or rock garden.

Size:    4” x 12” 
Care:  Sun in well-drained soil.  Drought tolerant & deer resistant 
Native:  Western Asia

Euphorbia was named for Euphorbus, physician of Numibian King Juba (c. 50 B.C. – 20 A.D.)  Reputedly Euphorbus used  spurge to remedy the King’s enlarged stomach.   Euphorbus’ brother was Augustus Caesar’s physician.  Myrsinites is a Greek word meaning “resembling myrtle.”  This plant described by Swiss botanical scholar Conrad Gesner in his book Horti Germaniae published in 1541.   Grown in American gardens since 1900. Received England’s Royal Horticultural Society Award of Merit.