Perennials & Biennials
Showing 13–16 of 495 results
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Adiantum aleuticum Western Maidenhair Fern Z 3-9
Bright green fronds perch atop black stems like the fingers of an open hand
Bright green fronds perch atop black stems like the fingers of an open hand
Size: 30” x 30”
Care: shade in moist, well-drained soil
Native: East and west of the Cascade Mountains and is also found scattered along the eastern seaboard
Wildlife Value: Deer resistant
Awards: Elisabeth C Miller Great Plant Pick, Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden MeritAccording to folklore if a girl can hold the stem without causing the leaves to tremble, then she was chaste.
Natives used the stems in basketry designs and made tea from the leaves to use as a hair wash. Quinault burnt the leaves and rubbed ashes in their hair to make it long, shiny and black. California Natives used the stems for pierced earrings, inserting them into the ear lobe to keep the hole from closing. They chewed the leaves to remedy internal wounds, chest pain, or stomach trouble and made a cough syrup from it. -
Adiantum pedatum Maidenhair fern Z.4-9
Grown for its delicate leaflets arranged in rows. One of internationally known garden designer Piet Oudolf’s 100 “MUST HAVE” plants, Gardens Illustrated 94 (2013)
Grown for its delicate 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.Adiantum is from Greek adiantos, unwettable because its fronds repel water.
Cherokee made a tea for flu, fever and rheumatism, and powdered parts for heart ailments, paralysis and asthma. Native Americans made a hair wash from the stems and applied a topical poultice of masticated fronds to a wound to arrest bleeding. 1st described by French botanist Cornu (1635). Introduced to France from Canada where it grew in “such quantities that the French send it from thence in package for other goods and the apothecaries at Paris use it for (another Adiantum) in all their compositions in which that is ordered.” Philip Miller (1768). Tradescant the Younger introduced this fern to garden cultivation when he sent it to England around 1638. English herbalist Nicholas Culpepper claimed it to be “a good remedy for coughs, asthmas, pleurisy, etc., and on account of it’s being a gentle diuretic also in jaundice, gravel and other impurities of the kidneys.” Father of the mixed perennial border, William Robinson, called this “elegant.” It “is unquestionably one of the most distinct and beautiful of the hardy ferns.” The Garden 1876. -
Adiantum venustum Himalayan maidenhair fern Z 5-8
Black stems hold triangular, delicate, lacy fronds of tiny leaflets
Adiantum venustum Himalayan maidenhair fern Z 5-8
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 MeritAdiantum 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.
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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.
OUT OF STOCK
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.
