Drought, Xeric & Dry Soil Plants

Showing 113–120 of 133 results

  • Schizachyrium scoparium syn. Andropogon scoparium Little bluestem Z 5-9

    Wispy, feather-like seedheads atop blue-grey foliage that turns plum-orange-red in fall.

    $12.25/bareroot

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    Wispy, feather-like seedheads atop blue-grey foliage that turns plum-orange-red in fall

    Size: 18" x 12"
    Care: sun in well-drained soil.
    Native: all No. America, Wisconsin native

    First collected by French plant hunter André Michaux in America’s prairies c. 1790.  Comanche used it to remedy syphilitic sores. Lakota made soft, wispy seedheads into liners for moccasins.

  • Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ syn ‘Herbstfreude’ syn Hylotelephium ‘Autumn Joy’ Z 4-9

    Classic, large flat flower heads turn from green to rose

    $12.25/bareroot

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    Classic, large flat flower heads turn from green to rose blooming in September and October.  A staple for autumn in the garden.

    Size: 30” x 12”
    Care: full sun in well-drained soil
    Awards: England’s Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit.

    Sedum means “plant that sits.”  “Live forever” is an ancient Greek name for sedums. The Roman Pliny claimed that sedum’s juice treated wounds.  In the 1500’s English herbalist Gerard called sedums “very full of life,” referring to succulent’s quality of being very easy to grow.  Autumn Joy introduced to gardens before 1920 by the George Arends Nursery in Ronsdorf, Germany.

  • Sedum hispanicum var. minus ‘Purple Form’ Little Blue Spanish stonecrop, Tiny buttons Z 4-9

    Many petite faintly pink flowers in June, soft, succulent, glaucous leaves form a perfect mound.

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    OUT OF STOCK

    Many petite faintly pink flowers in June, soft, succulent, glaucous leaves form a perfect mound. Perfect for rock gardens, front of border, fairy gardens, roof garden, troughs and groundcover, or any place with drought.

    Size: 2” x 8”
    Care: sun to part sun in well-drained soil
    Native: Southern Europe, Balkan peninsula

    The variety minus is considered a synonym of the species which was described by the father of botany, Linnaeus, in 1750’s.

  • Sedum sieboldii syn Hylotelephium sieboldii, October Daphne Z 3-9

    Fleshy gray-green foliage edged with pink

    $12.25/bareroot

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    Fleshy gray-green foliage edged with pink encircles the prostrate stems, flowering strawberry pink in fall.

    Size: 4" x 8"
    Care: full sun in moist well-drained to well-drained soil. Drought tolerant and deer resistant.
    Native: Japan

    Sedum means “plant that sits.”  “Live forever” is an ancient Greek name for the plant. The Roman Pliny claimed that sedum’s juice treated wounds.  In the 1500’s English herbalist Gerard called sedums “very full of life,” referring to succulent’s quality of being very easy to grow.  William Robinson described Sedum sieboldii as “a beautiful Stonecrop loved by slugs.” (We have not found that, the slug part, to be true.)  American garden cultivation by 1850.

  • Sidalcea malvaeflora Checker bloom Z 5-8

    Fuchsia-pink mallow type blooms on upright stems

    $9.95/bareroot

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    Fuchsia-pink mallow type blooms on upright stems, looking like miniature hollyhocks from midsummer to fall.

    Size: 18-24" x 10"
    Care: sun to part shade in well-drained soil
    Native: western No. America
    Wildlife Value: Attracts large white skipper butterflies.

    Collected by botanist Charles Wright (1811-1885) before 1880.

  • Silene chalcedonica syn. Lychnis chalcedonica Maltese cross, Jerusalem cross Z 4-8

    Balls of tomato-red crosses

    $12.95/bareroot

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    Balls of tomato-red crosses top 3′ stems in June and July, reblooming if deadhead

    Size: 3-4' x 12"
    Care: Sun to part shade moist well-drained to well-drained soil
    Native: Western Russia

    Chalcedonica refers to a place near Constantinople. Louis IX reputedly transported this plant from Jerusalem to France on his return from the Crusades. Liberty Hyde Bailey called this “one of the best of old fashioned flowers.” In both Jefferson’s and Washington’s gardens.

  • Silene coronaria syn. Lychnis coronaria Rose campion Z 4-8

    Crimson/magenta cymes contrast felted white foliage

    $12.95/bareroot

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    Brilliant crimson/magenta cymes contrast felted white foliage from early to midsummer.  Really eyecatching.

    Size: 36" x 18"
    Care: Full sun in well-drained soil
    Native: Southeastern Europe
    Awards: England's Royal Horticultural Society Award of Merit.

    Mythology reports that the Rose campion sprang from the bath of Aphrodite.  European garden cultivation since the 1300’s.  Parkinson in 1629 wrote of the Rose campion: “The single red Rose campion hath divers thick, hoary or woolly long greene leaves, abiding greene all the winter, and in the end of the spring or beginning of summer, shooteth forth (flowers) … of a perfect red crimson colour …”  Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris.  Jefferson grew it at Monticello in 1807.

  • Silene schafta Schaft’s catchfly, Moss Z 5-7

    One of the spectacular late season blooms –clusters of five-petaled, jagged-edge, bright magenta flowers on short mounds, September to October.  Perfect for front of borders or rock gardens.

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    OUT OF STOCK

    One of the spectacular late season blooms –clusters of five-petaled, jagged-edge, bright magenta flowers on short mounds, September to October.  Perfect for front of borders or rock gardens.

    Size: 6” x Slowly spreading
    Care: full sun in well-drained to moist well-drained soil
    Native: Russia
    Awards: England’s Royal Horticultural Society Award of Merit

    Introduced from its native Russia in 1844. First described by and probably collected by Johann Gmelin (1709-1755) German naturalist who spent years hunting plants in Russia and authored four-volume Flora Sibirica.  In Greek mythology Silene was a companion of Bacchus who was covered with foam. William Robinson, father of the mixed perennial border, described the flowers of this species as being “very neat tufts.”