Perennials & Biennials - Heirloom Garden Plants

Iris ensata syn. Iris kaempferi        Japanese iris   Z 5-8
Very showy white to reddish purple flowers in early summer. 

Size:  2' x 9"    
Care: moist soil in full sun    
Native:  China, Korea and Japan

Called "hana-shobu" in Japan where it has been grown in gardens for at least 1200 years.  A symbol for beautiful women and used to dye fabric.  Introduced to the West in the 1690's by Engelbert Kaempfer, physician to the Dutch East India Co. on Deschema Island, off the coast of Japan.  Recipient, England's Royal Horticultural Society Award of Merit.

Iris pseudacorus   Yellow flag       Z 4-8
Stout sword like leaves with vivid canary blossoms in early summer.

Size: 3-5' x  6" and spreading     
Care:  Full sun wet soil, can be shallow water plant, to moist well drained soil.
Native:  Europe, Siberia, Caucasus

Credited with saving Clovis I, king of the Franks in 496 when he sighted a clump across the river, indicating shallow water to ford the river and escape the advancing Goths. It became the Fleur de Louis in 1147 when Louis VII left for the Crusades. In the early 1300's Charles I placed the flower on the French flag as the symbol of France, the Fleur de lis. Jefferson grew Yellow flag at Monticello.

See Heirloom plant specials to Get 3 plants for only $12.50.  You get 3 for the price of 2, saving $6.25

Iris siberica    Siberian Iris         Z 4-9
Narrow, sword shaped leaves with blue, purple or lilac Iris flowers in June.

Size:  3-4' x S 12" and spreading   
Care:  Full sun  moist well-drained soil.  Deer resistant, Walnut toxicity resistand and drought tolerant.    
Native:  Eastern Siberia

Iris is named after the Greek goddess who accompanied the souls of women to the Elysian Fields by way of the rainbow.  Her footprints left flowers the colors of the rainbow.   Iris means the "eye of heaven." The iris is the flower of chivalry, having "a sword for its leaf and a lily for its heart." Ruskin. Siberian irises first cultivated in European gardens in the 1500's.  Blue Siberian iris was introduced to the U.S. in 1796.  Cultivated by Washington at Mount Vernon.  Received England's Royal Horticultural Society Award of Merit.

See Heirloom plant specials to Get 3 plants for only $13.90.  You get 3 for the price of 2, saving $6.95

Iris versicolor      Blue flag    Z 3-9
Purple, lavender or blue flowers in June

Size:  36" x 12"           
Care: sun, moist to moist well-drained soil         
Native:  Eastern United States, Wisconsin native

Iris is named after the Greek goddess who accompanied the souls of women to the Elysian Fields by way of the rainbow.  Her footprints left flowers the colors of the rainbow.   Iris means the eye of heaven. Omaha Indians used the roots topically to cure earaches. Other tribes applied a poultice to cure sores and bruises. Root is poisonous. Cultivated in gardens since the 1700's.

Iris  ‘Wabash'  Z 5-8
Pure white standards with deep violet falls edged in white in late May-early June.

Size:  24" x 8" 
Care: sun in moist well-drained soil.  Deer resistant.

Hybridized by Williamson in 1936. Dykes award (best iris) winner 1940.

 Iris 'Anne's'  z 4-8
Classic purple iris blossoms in late May to early June

Size:  15" x 8"  
Care: moist well-drained soil in full to part sun

This Iris was growing in the gardens when we moved to Heritage Flower Farm in 1992.  We do not know the variety.  The property has been owned continuously by the Patterson family from 1880 until 1992.  Anne Patterson began gardening here in 1927 as a young bride, so I call these "Anne's Iris."  In June, 2003 Anne turned 104 years old.  She passed away on August 1, 2003.

See Heirloom plant specials to Get 3 plants for only $13.90.  You get 3 for the price of 2, saving $6.95

Kalimeris incisa  syn. Asteromoea , Kalimeris integrifolia  False aster  Z 4-8  
Another blooming machine. Pale lavender single daisies that bloom all summer - from July – September.

Size: 24” x  18"     
Care: sun to part shade in moist well-drained to dry soil.
Native: Japan, northern China & Siberia

Collected before 1836.

See Heirloom plant specials to Get 3 plants for only $12.95, saving $4.90

Kirengeshoma palmata      Yellow Waxbells    Z 5-8
Pale yellow bells in late summer and fall

Size:  3' x  3'     
Care:  part shade in moist to moist well-drained soil      
Native:  Mt. Ishizuchi in Japan

Nothing else in the shade garden matches these 3' tall pale yellow bells in late summer and fall.  This native of Mt. Ishizuchi, Japan has been in Western gardens since at least 1908.  Kirengeshoma means "yellow" in Japanese.

Leucanthemum weyrichii Alpine daisy Z 4-8
Pink or white daisies all summer and fall. One of the best for groundcover, front of border or rock garden plant.

Size: 6” x 18”
Care: sun in well-drained soil.  Drought tolerant.
Native: East Asia & eastern Russia

Collected before 1891

Leucanthemum x superbum syn. Chrysanthemum x suberbum Shasta Daisy  Z 5-8
June - July classic white daisy.  You can extend the flowering season by deadheading and make it into fall with white daisies by growing Nippon daisies nearby, Nipponanthemum nipponicum.

Size:  36" x 24"   
Care:  Sun - part shade in moist well-drained soil

If any flower needs no introduction, this is it. Pure white daisies in summer. Hybridized by Luther Burbank during 17 years of intermittent work with 4 daisies, from 1884 - 1901. Burbank, nicknamed the "Plant Wizard" introduced more than 800 plants. Named "Shasta" after California's Mt. Shasta.

Liatris aspera  Rough blazing star  Z 4-8
Fabulous feathery purple buttons along spike August-October

Size:  36" x 12"-18"     
Care:  Sun in well-drained soil.  Drought tolerant & deer resistant.                 
Native:  So. Canada, much of eastern 3/4^th of U.S.  Wisconsin native.
Wildlife value: A favorite source of nectar for Monarchs flying south for the winter.  Also attracts hummingbirds

Aspera is Latin meaning "rough."  1^st collected by Frenchman André Michaux (1746-1802) who spent 11 years in America collecting hundreds of new plants.
 

Liatris spicata  Blazing star, Gayfeather, Button snakeroot  Z 4-9
Showy rosy purple spikes in July & August. Great cut flowers.

Size:  3-4' x  18"    
Care:  Full sun in moist well-drained soil. Drought tolerant  
Native:  Eastern and southern U. S., Wisconsin native

Native Americans used the roots medicinally. The Dakota recognized this as an indication "when the flower is blue-red that corn is good to eat." The dried root reputedly repelled moths. First collected by English naturalist Mark Catesby around 1732.

Ligularia przewalskii      Z 4-8 
Bold, deeply palmate lobed foliage, deep yellow spike in late summer

Size:  5-6' x  24-36"        
Care: full to part shade in moist to moist well-drained soil.  Deer resistant              
Native:  Northern China

Named for Nikolai Przewalski (1839-1888), Polish geographer and naturalist who explored Central Asia on behalf of Russia.  An old Chinese species. 

Lilium auratum         Goldband lily  Z 5-7
Late summer, extremely fragrant recurved open white trumpets with yellow stripes end-to-end on the petals and bright spots. So beautiful, it's picture is my screen saver.

Size: 2-5' x  12"   
Care:  Sun moist well-drained soil                
Native:  Japan

Cultivated by Japanese farmers as a vegetable since 1688. “I have eaten them pretty often, and rather relished them, as they are, when cooked, sweet, mucilaginous, and without any decided taste to make them objectionable to a newcomer.” American Gardener, May 1882.  English planthunter Robert Fortune and English nurseryman John Gould Veitch sent the Goldband lily from Japan to Europe in the 1860's where it became "Queen of the Lilies" in the Victorian era.  In 1896 the Wisconsin Horticultural Society described as the “most beautiful of all Japan lilies…”

Lilium henryii          Z 3-8
Carrot orange, black spotted turk's cap flowers top this magnificent giant lily in August

Size: 5-8'  x  6"     
Care:  Part shade in moist well-drained to well-drained soil
Native:  China

Named for its discoverer August Henry, a Scotch/Irish plant hunter who found this lily near Ichang China around 1890.   Lilium henryii received England's Royal Horticultural Society Award of Merit.

Lilium lancifolium   Tiger lily  Z 3-7
Late summer,  nodding orange, recurved blossoms with black spots.  Fun fact - its "seeds" are small bulbils that grow where each leaf meets the stem.  The bulbils drop and in 2 years create a new plant. 

Size:  2-5' x  12"        
Care:  Sun to part shade in moist to moist well-drained soil                  
Native: Asia

Referred to in Chinese literature as long ago as the 10th century, growing it in rows as a vegetable and claimed it brought the pained dragon to life. William Kerr sent the Tiger lily from Canton China to Kew in England in 1804. A Tiger lily in Wonderland's looking glass garden told Alice "We can talk…when there is anybody worth talking to."

Lilium regale   Regal lily  Z 5-7
Midsummer, pearly white trumpet flushed with purple, extremely fragrant

Size:  4' x 12"  
Care:  Sun, moist well-drained soil     
Native: Western China

In 1905 Ernest Henry "Chinese" Wilson discovered the Trumpet lily blanketing the Min River Valley. Carrying the bulbs out, an avalanche broke his leg as he walked up a narrow mountain trail. Continuing, Wilson faced an oncoming donkey train. To allow the donkeys to pass, he lay down as the donkeys stepped over his body, one-by-one. He walked with a limp the rest of his life, his "lily limp." Of the hundreds of plants he found in Asia this was his favorite. 

Lilium speciosum rubrum  Z 4-8
In late summer on each stem bloom a dozen cerise-pink, very fragrant, recurved, flecked flowers with long stamens.

Size: 3-4' x 12"   
Care: Sun to part shade in moist to moist well-drained soil      
Native:  China and Japan

Carried from its native Asia to Europe by von Siebold in 1828. The English periodical Botanical Register described it: "surely if there is anything, not human, which is magnificent in beauty, it is this plant." Grown in America by the 1850's.

Lilium superbum Meadow lily Z 4-8
Briliant orange with purple spots, turks-cap type lily blooming in summer

Size: 10’ x 12” 
Care: shade to sun in moist, acidic soil  
Native: from VT to Fl & west to Mississippi River, incl. Wisconsin

Lilium was named for the Greek word for smooth, polished referring to its leaves Collected before 1762. Sold in America’s 1^st plant catalog, Bartram’s Broadside, 1783. L.H. Bailey (1913): “The most magnificent and showy of native North American species, well worthy of extensive cultivation.”

Linum perenne ‘"Lewisii''     Perennial flax, Prairie flax          Z 4-8
Smallish saucers of sky blue flowers open in the mornings - all summer

Size:  24" x  12"   
Care: Full sun in well-drained soil.  Drought tolerant.  
Native:  western US, Wisconsin native

Linum is Greek for "flax," the source of linen cloth. This cultivar was named for Meriwether Lewis who found the plant on the Lewis and Clark expedition 200 years ago. Western Indians used the seeds in cooking.