Perennials & Biennials

Showing 313–320 of 511 results

  • Mertensia virginica Virginia bluebells Z 3-7

    Clusters of pink buds turn to sky blue trumpets in May.  Ephemeral, disappearing in summer to return next spring.

    $10.25/bareroot

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    Available for purchase in Spring only

    Clusters of pink buds turn to sky blue trumpets in May.  Ephemeral, disappearing in summer to return next spring.

    Size: 18" x 10" spreads slowly
    Care: Moist well-drained soil in part shade.
    Native: N.Y. to Tennessee, west to Kansas, Wisconsin native
    Wildlife Value: Provides nectar and pollen to honeybees, bumble and mason bees, as well as Skipper butterflies and Sphynx moths. Deer resistant.
    Awards: Royal Horticultural Society Award of Merit.
    Size: Cherokee cured whooping cough and consumption with Virginia bluebells. Other Natives treated whooping cough, venereal disease, and plain poor health with this.

    First collected by Rev. Banister (1649-1692) in colonial Virginia C. 1690.  Named Mertensia after Franz Karl Mertens (1764-1831), a German botanist who never set foot in America. Grown by both Washington and Jefferson.

  • Mimulus lewisii syn. Erythyranthe lewisii Lewis’ Monkeyflower Z 5-9

    Bright rose trumpets with hairy yellow throats, flowers all summer

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    $9.25/pot

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    Bright rose trumpets with hairy yellow throats, flowers summer

    Size: 2-3’ x 12"
    Care: sun to part shade in moist to moist well-drained soil
    Native: Alaska to California and as far west as Colorado
    Wildlife Value: Nectar for hummingbirds and bees
    Awards: Royal Horticultural Society Award of Merit

    First collected by Meriwether Lewis on the Lewis & Clark Expedition “on the head springs of the Missouri, at the foot of Portage hill,” in August 1805.

  • Monarda didyma ‘Cambridge Scarlet’ Beebalm, Oswego tea

    Whorls of scarlet tubes & bracts looking like fireworks, in summer

    $12.75/bareroot

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    Whorls of scarlet tubes & bracts looking like fireworks, in summer

    Size: 3-4' x spreading
    Care: sun to part shade in well-drained soil.
    Native: N. E. America
    Wildlife Value: Checkered white, Fritillary and Melissa blue butterflies relish Beebalm’s nectar.

    Cherokee used the species medicinally, to cure colic, flatulence, nosebleed, measles, flu, hysteria and to induce restful sleep.  Monarda was named in honor of Nicholas Monardes (1493-1588), a Spanish botanist who wrote about plants of the New World. Discovered by John Bartram (1699-1777) being used by colonists in Oswego N.Y. to make tea.  Oswego Indians taught the colonists how to make tea from the dried leaves.  Bartram sent this Beebalm to Peter Collinson in England in whose garden it grew in 1744.  By 1757 its English availability was “nearly universal” among gardeners.   During the American Revolution used as a substitute for tea. Grown at America’s 1st botanic garden, Elgin Botanic Garden 1811.This cultivar ‘Cambridge Scarlet’ recommended by Gertrude Jekyll in 1908.

  • Monarda fistulosa Wild bergamont Z 3-9

    Whorls of hooded lavender tubes in July - August

    $12.75/bareroot

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    Whorls of hooded lavender tubes in July – August

    Size: 3-4' x 2' spreading
    Care: Sun to part shade any soil.
    Native: central U.S., Wisconsin native
    Wildlife Value: Checkered white, Tiger swallowtail, Giant swallowtail and Melissa blue butterflies relish Wild bergamot’s nectar. Supports over 70 bee species including Rusty patched Bumble Bee.

    Used medicinally by many Native tribes- Blackfoot, Cherokee, Chippewa, Choctaw, Crow, Dakota and Flathead. Cherokee: to cure colic, flatulence, nosebleed, measles, flu, hysteria and insomnia.  Blackfoot called it “Single-young-Man.”  Teton Dakotas boiled the leaves and flowers to cure abdominal pain. Ho-Chunk boiled the leaves to remove pimples.  Choctaws cured chest pain in children. The Flathead cured colds and sore teeth with Wild Bergamot. HoChunk inhaled fumes in a sweat bath to cure colds. Oneidas made a tea. For the Sioux it was nourishment and a panacea:  tea, stomach ache, fever, indigestion, sore throats, fainting, whooping cough, wounds, sore eyes, ulcers, and snakebites. First documented by French explorers before 1635.  Plant exported to Europe by Tradescant the Younger in 1637.  Grown by Washington at Mount Vernon.  Today it is a flavor in Earl Grey tea.

  • Nepeta nervosa Catmint Z 4-9

    Chubby spikes of many clear blue-purple flowers blooming June-September. Deadhead to rebloom

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    Chubby spikes of many clear blue-purple flowers blooming June-September. Deadhead to rebloom

    Size: 16-20” x 18-24”
    Care: sun in moist to moist well-drained soil
    Native: China
    Wildlife Value: deer & rabbit resistant, attracts bees & butterflies

    Nepetas may have been named after Nepete, an old Etrusrian city. Nervosa means with conspicuous veins. Collected before 1833.

  • Nepeta racemosa syn. N. mussinii Persian Catmint Z 4-8

    Lavender blue fragrant flowers from May through September, cut back for rebloom

    $12.75/bareroot

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    Lavender blue fragrant flowers from May through September, cut back for rebloom

    Size: 18" x 18"
    Care: Full sun in well-drained soil
    Native: Caucasus
    Wildlife Value: attracts butterflies
    Awards: Royal Horticultural Society Award of Merit.

    Nepetas may have been named after Nepete, an old Etrusrian city. Mussinii named for the plant’s discoverer, Russian Count Apollos Apollosovitch Mussin-Pushkin.  In gardens before 1810 and a favorite Victorian bedding plant by the late 1800’s.  Catmints contain various amounts of an essential oil  (nepetalactone) both a cat stimulant and a mosquito repellant.

  • Nepeta subsessilis Japanese catmint Z 4-8

    Showy bluish purple spikes of bell-shaped flowers, June-September

    $12.75/bareroot

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    Showy bluish purple spikes of bell-shaped flowers, June-September

     

    Size: 18-24” x 18-24” 
    Care: sun to part shade in moist to moist well-drained soil
    Native: Japan
    Wildlife Value: deer & rabbit resistant, attracts butterflies

    Subsessilis means nearly without stalks.  Catmints contain various amounts of an essential oil  (nepetalactone) both a cat stimulant and a mosquito repellant. From Nambu Japan where botanists called it Miso-gawa- sô.  Von Siebold, German botanist and physician, who worked in Japan from 1823 to1830  saw it.   Named in Bull. Acad. Imp. Sci. Saint-Pétersbourg, sér. 3, 20: 469. (1875) by Russian botanist Karl Maximowicz.

  • Nipponanthemum nippinicum, Nippon daisy, Montauk daisy Z 5-9

    Yes, you can have pristine white daisies all summer and into fall.  Grow Shastas for summer flowers then pair them with Nippon daisies for 3” blooms in late summer and fall.  Excellent cut flower

    $12.75/pot

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    Yes, you can have pristine white daisies all summer and into fall.  Grow your Shastas for summer flowers then pair them with Nippon daisies for 3” blooms in late summer and fall.  Excellent cut flower.

    Size: 2-3' x 2-3'
    Care: sun in well-drained soil. Cut back in early summer if you wish to keep it short and bushy, if you wish.
    Native: China

    1st described in 1872 in Bull. Acad. Imp. Sci. Saint-Pétersbourg 17:420.  Common name Montauk after a ship carrying a shipment shipwrecked at Montauk Long Island and the plants grew on the beach.