Perennials & Biennials

Showing 9–16 of 496 results

  • Adiantum pedatum Maidenhair fern Z 4-9

    Grown for its delicate-appearing leaflets arranged in rows. One of internationally known garden designer Piet Oudolf’s 100 “MUST HAVE” plants, Gardens Illustrated 94 (2013)

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    FGrown for its delicate-appearing leaflets arranged in rows. One of internationally known garden designer Piet Oudolf’s 100 “MUST HAVE” plants, Gardens Illustrated 94 (2013)

    Size: 12-24”x 12”
    Care: Shade in moist soil
    Native: all parts of No. America including Wisconsin
    Awards: England’s Royal Horticultural Society Award of Merit.

    Cherokee made a tea from this for flu, fever, and rheumatism, paralysis and asthma.  Native Americans used stem to make a hair wash and applied a topical poultice of masticated fronds to wounds to stop bleeding.  1st described from a Canadian plant by French botanist Cornut in 1635.   Tradescant the Younger introduced it to English gardens in 1638 when he sent it from Virginia Colony to London.  English herbalist Nicholas Culpepper claimed it as “a good remedy for coughs, asthmas, pleurisy, etc., and on account of being a gentle diauretic, also in jaundice, gravel and other impurities of the kidneys,” The English Physician (Complete Herbal), 1652–1653

  • Adiantum venustum Himalayan maidenhair fern Z 5-8

    Black stems hold triangular, delicate, lacy fronds of tiny leaflets

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    Black stems hold triangular, delicate, lacy fronds of tiny leaflets.  Favorite short fern.

    Size: 6" x 12", slow spreader
    Care: part or light shade in moist well-drained soil but tolerates any soil
    Native: China and Himalayan Mountains
    Awards: Great Plant Pick from Elisabeth Cary Miller Botanic Garden & Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit

    Adiantum is from Greek adiantos, “unwettable” because its fronds repel water. Venustum means attractive in Latin. (We think it should be “venustumest” for most attractive.) Collected for gardens by 1841.

  • Adlumia fungosa Allegheny vine, Climbing fumitory, Bleeding heart vine Biennial Z 4-8

    Dangling pink to white Bleeding heart-like flowers bloom all summer, June-September. Fern-like foliage on twining stems

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    Dangling pink to white Bleeding heart-like flowers bloom all summer, June-September. Fern-like foliage on twining stems

    Size: 6-10’ x 12”
    Care: part shade to shade in moist to moist well-drained, acidic soil
    Native: Nova Scotia to No. Carolina west to Minnesota Wisconsin native status-special concern
    Wildlife Value: attracts bumblebees

    1st described in 1789 (Aiton, Vol. 3 Hortus Kewensis).

  • Aethionema cordifolia Lebanon stonecress Persian candytuft Z 4-8

    Short subshrub with lovely, tiny blue-green leaves on upright stems with terminal clusters of pale pink blooms in spring. Perfect for rock gardens and front of the border.

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    Aethionema cordifolia  Lebanon stonecress, Persian candytuft   Z 4-8
    Short subshrub with lovely, tiny blue-green leaves on upright stems with terminal clusters of pale pink blooms in spring. Perfect for rock gardens and front of the border.

    Size: 6-8” x 12-15”
    Care: sun in well-drained soil. Sheer back after blooming to keep compact and rebloom.
    Native: Lebanon and possibly Caucasus on chalky summits.

    Collected before 1841. Foster: “…when planted in quantity does wonders for mass effect in the rock garden or alpine lawn.” January 1876 issue of The Garden called these “very attractive dwarf rock garden plants.” Aethionema from aitho meaning scorch and nema for filament.

  • Aethionema grandiflorum Persian stonecress Z 5-8

    Bushy, low growing perennial with blue-green leaves and spikes of fragrant pink to lavender flowers, June-July

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    Bushy, low growing perennial with blue-green leaves and spikes of fragrant pink to lavender flowers, June-July

    Size: 6-12” x 12-18”
    Care: full sun in well-drained soil. Drought tolerant.
    Native: Iran, Iraq, Caucasus, Turkey
    Wildlife Value: attracts honeybees & other pollinators, Deer & Rabbit resistant.
    Awards: Award of Garden Merit from the Royal Horticultural Society

    Short-lived perennial, but self-seeds where happy. Described in 1849 by Pierre Edmond Boissier and Rudolph Friedrich Hohenacker.

  • Agastache foeniculum Anise hyssop Z 4-8

    Purplish-blue spikes from July to October, very fragrant, smells like anise.

    $12.95/bareroot

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    Purplish-blue spikes from July to October, very fragrant, smells like anise.

    Size: 2-3' x 12"
    Care: Full sun in well-drained soil
    Native: North America
    Wildlife Value: Skipper butterflies love Anise hyssop’s nectar, deer resistant.

    The name Agastache is from Greek agan and stachys meaning much like an ear of wheat referring to the shape of the flower spike. Anise hyssop leaves were used by American Indians of the Missouri River region to make tea and as a sweetener in cooking. The Cheyenne used it to relieve chest pain due to coughing or to a dispirited heart. Listed hyssop as an aromatic herb in McMahon’s 1805 book.

  • Ajuga genevensis Geneva Bugle Z 4-9

    True blue 6” spikes in spring and early summer

    $8.95/4" pot

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    Ajuga genevensis  Geneva Bugle  Z 4-9
    True blue 6” spikes in spring and early summer. Great groundcover.

    Size: 6” x 12”
    Care: full sun to shade in well-drained to moist well-drained soil
    Native: Europe
    Wildlife Value: Tolerates foot traffic. Deer and rabbit resistant.

    William Robinson, father of the mixed perennial garden, called this “among the best.” (1933).  In gardens before 1753.

  • Alcea rosea Hollyhock BIENNIAL

    Early to late summer spikes of single platters - mixed colors. The classic cottage garden flower.

    $12.25/bareroot

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    Early to late summer spikes of single platters – mixed colors. The classic cottage garden flower.

    Size: 5-8' x 24"
    Care: Sun in moist well-drained to well-drained soil. Drought tolerant
    Native: West Asia
    Wildlife Value: Butterfly plant, host for Painted Lady butterflies

    Cultivated in China for thousands of years where it symbolized the passing of time. They cooked the leaves for a vegetable and also ate the buds. Transported from Middle East to Europe by the Crusaders and introduced to England by the 1400’s. Culpepper, a 17th century English herbalist, claimed the plant could be used to cure ailments of the “belly, Stone, Reins, Kidneys, Bladder, Coughs, Shortness of Breath, Wheesing, … the King’s Evil,, Kernels, Chin-cough, Wounds, Bruises, Falls. . . (and) Sun-burning.” Both single and double forms grew in England by the time of Parkinson (1629). Parkinson said they came “in many and sundry colours.” John Winthrop Jr. introduced the 1st hollyhock to the New World in the 1630’s.