"New" Heirloom Plants

Showing 9–16 of 48 results

  • Centaurium scilloides Carpet tulip, Perennial centaury Z 5-9

    Sweetest plant ever - tiny pink tulip-like flowers in constant bloom mid-summer to frost, close at night and open in daytime

    Placeholder

    Buy

    EMAIL FOR AVAILABILITY

    Sweetest plant ever – tiny pink tulip-like flowers in constant bloom mid-summer to frost, close at night and open in daytime

    Size: 2” x 4”
    Care: sun to part shade in moist to moist well-drained soil
    Native: Atlantic Ocean coasts of Europe, Azores

    Named by Carl Linnaeas the Younger in the supplement to his father’s legendary book Species Plantarum, 1782

  • Cleome serrulata Rocky Mountain Beeweed, Spiderflower, Stinkweed Reseeding annual

    Blooming all summer dozens of rose to lilac-colored flowers bunch together at the top of the 3-4” tall stem seemingly one soft-ball sized flower. Thread-thin stamens protrude above the flowers, each flower bearing six stamens, 72, for example, if the cluster contains a mere dozen individual flowers earning it the nickname spider flower.  Short leaves grow the length of plant stems, from bottom to top, bare of flowers. A trio of leaflets to each leaf, one as a leader with two sidekicks.

    Placeholder

    Buy

    OUT OF STOCK – EMAIL FOR AVAILABILITY

    Blooming all summer dozens of rose to lilac-colored flowers bunch together at the top of the 3-4” tall stem seemingly one soft-ball sized flower. Thread-thin stamens protrude above the flowers, each flower bearing six stamens, 72, for example, if the cluster contains a mere dozen individual flowers earning it the nickname spider flower.  Short leaves grow the length of plant stems, from bottom to top, bare of flowers. A trio of leaflets to each leaf, one as a leader with two sidekicks.

    Size: 4' x 9"
    Care: sun in moist-well drained to dry soil, drought tolerant
    Native: Minnesota west to the Pacific, south to Arizona and New Mexico and all in between.
    Wildlife Value: : So many flowers, each with nectar and a hoard of stamens each holding pollen in a soft-ball sized object makes this a mecca for pollinators of all sorts, numerous bee species, wasps and several butterflies. When it’s done flowering birds eat its seeds. Its skunk-like odor (Stinkweed) has one advantage – it keeps the deer away.

    An ancient, pre-historic plant, Natives including Lakota, Zuni, Tewa, Navajo, and Pueblo found many uses for this Cleome. Some ate shoots, leaves, seeds or flowers, cooked them, or ate them raw alone or together with other food. Tewa grew this with corn, beans and squash to attract pollinators to pollinate the food plants.  Infusions treated fever, and stomach aches. A poultice treated sore eyes. Lakota used this and a shrub to trap bison.  Navajo color rugs with a yellow-green dye they make from Cleome.  Pueblo Indians concentrate Cleome to make a thick, black paste to decorate baskets and pottery. Meriwether Lewis collected three of these two on the way west and one homebound traveling east.

  • Coreopsis lanceolata Lanceleaf tickseed Z 4-9

    Golden yellow daisy-like flowers with pleated petals, jagged at their tips, blooming June to September

    Placeholder

    Buy

    OUT OF STOCK

    Golden yellow daisy-like flowers with pleated petals, jagged at their tips, blooming June to September

    Size: 24” x 18”
    Care: sun to part shade, moist well-drained soil
    Native: Central and southeastern U.S., WI native
    Wildlife Value: caterpillar food source

    Coreopsis is Greek meaning “buglike” referring to the seeds looking like little black bugs.  Cultivated in America since the 1700’s. Sent to England in 1724 by English naturalist Mark Catesby (1683-1749).

  • Dianthus cruentus Blood pink  Z 5-9

    Small but eye-catching carmine flowers held high on a leafless stem above basal foliage.  Blooms in late spring-early summer

    Buy

    OUT OF STOCK

    Small but eye-catching carmine flowers held high on a leafless stem above basal foliage.  Blooms in late spring-early summer

    Size: 2-3’ x 6-9”
    Care: sun in moist well-drained soil
    Native: Balkans
    Wildlife Value: Attracts bees & butterflies

    First described in Spic. Fl. Rumel. 1: 186 1843.

  • Digitalis parviflora Chocolate foxglove Z 3-9

    Spikes densely encircled with small, red-brown bells for weeks in summer, prune back after flowering to encourage reflowering.

    Placeholder

    Buy

    OUT OF STOCK

    Spikes densely encircled with small, red-brown bells for weeks in summer, prune back after flowering to encourage reflowering.

    Size: 24- 60” x 12”
    Care: sun to part shade in moist well-drained to well-drained soil
    Native: Picos de Europa Mountains of Northern Spain
    Wildlife Value: attracts bees and butterflies for its pollen and nectar, deer and rabbit resistant.
    Awards: Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit

    Grown by Tradescant the Elder, 1634.

  • Dracocephalum rupestre in China mao jian cao Z 4-8

    True deep blue, hooded flowers rise above heart-shaped, crinkled foliage in the heat of mid-summer

    Placeholder

    $9.25/bareroot

    Buy

    True deep blue, hooded flowers rise above heart-shaped, crinkled foliage in the heat of mid-summer

    Size: 12’ X 12”
    Care: sun to part shade in well-drained to moist well-drained soil
    Native: Western China in alpine meadows and grassy slopes

    First named in the West in 1867, Journal of Botany, British and Foreign, Vol 7 p. 166.  Dracocephalum means “dragonhead” in Greek.  Chinese made a tea from this.

  • Erythronium americanum Yellow trout lily, Dog’s tooth violet Z 3-9

    Downfacing yellow lily-like recurved flowers in spring above mottled foliage.  Tops of petals slightly tan Grows from deep rootstock or corm, 3-5” deep.  In time it spreads from offshoots of the corm, resulting in colonies of trout lilies. Ephemeral – dies back in summer.

    Placeholder

    Buy

    OUT OF STOCK – Only available for purchase in spring.

    Downfacing yellow lily-like recurved flowers in spring above mottled foliage.  Tops of petals slightly tan Grows from deep rootstock or corm, 3-5” deep.  In time it spreads from offshoots of the corm, resulting in colonies of trout lilies. Ephemeral – dies back in summer.

    Size: 3-6” x 4”
    Care: part to full shade in moist soil
    Native: Eastern No. America, Wisconsin

    Cherokee warmed crushed leaves & poured the juice over wounds.  According to Cherokee Yellow trout lily also remedied fever, fainting & removed slivers.  Used by Iroquois as birth control for young women and to make fish bite (by chewing the root & spitting into the river.)  In garden cultivation since 1665. Named Dog’s tooth because the white, oblong, fleshy root is shaped like a dog’s tooth.

  • Gaura lindheimeri syn. Oenothera lindheimeri White gaura, Beeblossom Z 5-9

    Multitudes of small white/pink. 4-petaled blossoms on wiry stems from May to October. Cut back by half in July to increase blossoms, as though the hoards are not enough.

    Placeholder

    Buy

    OUT OF STOCK

    Multitudes of small white/pink. 4-petaled blossoms on wiry stems from May to October. Cut back by half in July to increase blossoms, as though the hoards are not enough.

    Size: 36” x 36”
    Care: Full sun in well-drained to moist well-drained acidic soil
    Native: Texas and Louisiana
    Wildlife Value: deer & rabbit resistant. Source of pollen for bees, butterflies and hummingbirds
    Awards: Royal Horticultural Society Award of Merit.

    Gaura is from the Greek gauros meaning superb.  Collected in 1851 by German plant hunter Ferdinand Lindheimer (1801-1879) in the Texas Hill Country.  Lindheimer considered the Father of Texas botany.   L.H. Bailey (1913) wrote:  “The best kind is Gaura lindheimeri which has white flowers of singular appearance, with rosy calyx tubes.”