Drought, Xeric & Dry Soil Plants

Showing 49–56 of 129 results

  • 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 slow to mature.

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    Small white flowers (bracts), like a baby’s breath but better, July & August. One of the best prairie natives but slow to mature.

    Size: 36' x 24" spreading slowly
    Care: sun in well-drained to moist well-drained soil. Drought resistant.
    Native: Canada to Florida and west through the plains, Wisconsin native
    Wildlife Value: deer resistant. Its pollen & nectar feed endangered Karner Blue butterfly as well as other small butterflies, numerous bees, wasps and flies. Several birds eat the seeds.

    A favorite medicine among native Americans.  Cherokee rubbed the plant’s juice on skin to cure cancer.  Also used to remedy tooth aches and gonorrhea.  Winnebago cut a 2.5” long root to clear stomach and steeped leaves for a baby’s colic. According to Breck (1851), “One of the most elegant species peculiar to the United States.”

  • Euphorbia marginata Snow-on-the-mountain reseeding ANNUAL Let seeds fall in autumn

    Clean white variegated leaves and flowers (bracts), very showy midsummer to fall. Use caution with internal milky sap.

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    OUT OF STOCK – EMAIL FOR AVAILABILITY

    Clean white variegated leaves and flowers (bracts), very showy midsummer to fall. Use caution with internal milky sap.

    Size: 18” x 10”
    Care: sun moist well-drained soil, drought tolerant.
    Native: Plains from Dakota to Texas
    Size: Wonderful cut flower just be careful of the milky sap.

    Sioux crushed leaves in water and boiled it for a liniment to remedy swelling; boiled whole leaves in water to increase milk for new mothers.  Collected on Lewis and Clark expedition three times, once July 28, 1806 along Marias River.  A “most elegant species.” Breck, 1851.

  • Euphorbia myrsinites Donkeytail spurge Z 5-8

    Chartreuse umbels at stem tips contrast succulent blue-gray foliage in early spring

    $12.25/bareroot

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    Chartreuse umbels at stem tips contrast succulent blue-gray foliage in early spring

    Can not ship to: Colorado.

    Size: 4” x 12”
    Care: Sun in well-drained soil, drought resistant
    Native: Western Asia
    Awards: England’s Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit.

    Euphorbia was named for Euphorbus, physician of Numibian King Juba, father of Ptolemy (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.

  • Euphorbia polychroma Cushion spurge syn. Euphorbia epithymoides Z 4-9

    May - June flashy chartreuse flowers.  In fall foliage turns orangey-red.

    $12.25/bareroot

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    May – June flashy chartreuse flowers.  In fall foliage turns orangey-red.

    Size: 16" x 24"
    Care: Sun, moist well-drained humusy soil. Drought tolerant.
    Native: Central and Southern Europe
    Awards: England's Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit.

    Polychroma means many colors referring to the fact that the plant changes colors with yellow-chartreuse flowers in spring and red foliage in fall. Named and described by Swedish botanist Linnaeus 1753.

  • Festuca ovina var. glauca Blue fescue Z 4-10

    Short mound of silvery blue spiky grass tufts. In summer short spikes of blue-green flowers.

    $12.25/bareroot

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    Short mound of silvery blue spiky grass tufts. In summer short spikes of blue-green flowers.

    Size: 12" x 10"
    Care: full sun, well-drained soil
    Native: temperate areas in Europe
    Wildlife Value: host for larvae of a few butterflies

    Festuca is Latin meaning “grass stalk..”  This variety described and named in 1881

  • Foeniculum vulgaris ‘Purpureum’ Bronze fennel Z 4-9

    Yellow blooms on flat-topped umbels in late spring into summer, features dusky purple, feathery, compound, aromatic purple leaves with needle-like segments.

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    OUT OF STOCK

    Yellow blooms on flat-topped umbels in late spring into summer, features dusky purple, feathery, compound, aromatic purple leaves with needle-like segments.

    Size: 4-5’ x 2-3’
    Care: sun to part shade in well-drained soil. Drought tolerant.
    Native: Mediterranean
    Wildlife Value: attracts bees and birds. Nectar plant for Swallowtail butterflies. Flat-topped surface gives insects a landing pad.

    Ancient Egyptians used fennel as food and medicine. Considered a snake bite remedy in ancient China. During the Middle Ages it was hung over doorways to drive away evil spirits.  Fennel is also associated with the origin of the marathon. Athenian Pheidippides carried a fennel stalk on his 150-mile, 2-day run to Sparta to gather soldiers for the battle of Marathon with Persia in 490 B.C. The battle itself was also reportedly waged on a field of fennel.  The Gardeners Dictionary, eighth ed.  1768.

  • Geranium macrorrhizum Bigroot Geranium Z 4-8

    Five raspberry-purple open petals showcase its tall, purple stamens beckoning come hither to bees. Blooms in early summer. Fragrant foliage smells like pine trees at Christmas. Good groundcover in dry shade

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    OUT OF STOCK

    Five raspberry-purple open petals showcase its tall, purple stamens beckoning come hither to bees. Blooms in early summer. Fragrant foliage smells like pine trees at Christmas. Good groundcover in dry shade

    Size: 20" x 24"
    Care: part shade in moist well-drained to well-drained soil
    Native: Southern Europe
    Awards: Elisabeth Carey Miller Botanical Garden Great Plant Pick.

    Geranium is Greek meaning “crane” referring to the shape of its seed resembling the bill of a crane.   Cultivated in England by 1600.

  • Geum triflorum Prairie smoke, Old Man’s whiskers Z 1-8

    Pale purplish-pink dangling cup-shaped flowers in spring to early summer, followed by hair-like, pink seed heads like the hair on a troll doll.

    $9.25/bareroot

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    Pale purplish-pink dangling cup-shaped flowers in spring to early summer, followed by hair-like, pink seed heads like the hair on a troll doll.

    Size: 10" x 8" but slow to grow to this width
    Care: sun in well-drained to moist well-drained soil
    Native: all of northern No. America, Wisconsin native
    Awards: Great Plants for Great Plains

    Introduced to gardens in 1609.  Many Native American medicinal uses.  Blackfeet used it to cure coughs, skin sores and wounds on people and horses, swollen eyes, canker sores, and fuzzy thinking in people. Crushed, ripe seeds made a perfume.  Okanagan-Colville women made a love potion from the roots, as well as curing vaginal yeast infections.  The Eastern Cascades of Canada brewed a medicinal tea for eye-wash, sore throats and general aches from the plant. Sioux used it for many ailments:  sore eyes, canker sores, sore throat, perfume, wounds, and added it to mixtures of plants for smoking Collected by Meriwether Lewis on June 12, 1806 on the Weippe Prairie, not far from the villages of the Nez Perce in Idaho.