Lavender-Pink outside and white inside funnels in June
Size: 20” x 12-24” Care: sun in well-drained soil Native: northeast North America Wildlife Value: feeds native bees, Baltimore butterfly and endangered Rusty patched Bumble Bee
Penstemon is named for its five stamens, penta meaning “five” and stemon meaning “stamen” in Greek. Penstemons are “handsome and deserving,” Bailey. P. hirsutus sent from America to England in 1758.
Chrysanthemum x rubellum ‘Mary Stoker’ Z 4-9
Sprays of large, single warming yellow daisies, blushed with apricot top a bushy mound of light green leaves, Blooms late-summer to late-fall
Sprays of large, single warming yellow daisies, blushed with apricot top a bushy mound of light green leaves, blooms late-summer to late-fall
Size: 1-2’ x 2-3’ and spreading Care: Full sun to part shade, tolerates normal, sandy or clay soil Wildlife Value: Attracts bees, butterflies and birds. Deer resistant.
One of the rubellum hybrids, Hybridized in the 1930’s
Platycodon grandiflorus albus Balloon flower Z 3-9
Balloon shaped buds opening to white bells, blooming mid-summer to early fall.
Balloon shaped buds opening to white bells in mid-summer to early fall.
Size: 24" x 12" Care: Full sun to part shade in moist well-drained soil. Heat and drought tolerant. Deadhead for rebloom. Native: Eastern Asia Wildlife Value: attracts hummingbirds, bees & butterflies Awards: England's Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit.
Platycodon is Greek from platys meaning “broad” and kodon meaning “bell”, referring to the shape of the flower. Cultivated in China for hundreds of years where it is called Jie-geng. Chinese used the root boiled to cure a chill in the stomach. Mentioned in Man’yoshu, a Japanese anthology of poems written in the 8th century. German botanist Johann Gmelin (1709-1755) collected P. grandiflorus in Siberia in 1754. Gmelin’s Siberian mission, sponsored by Catherine the Great, took 10 years and nearly killed him. Gmelin introduced it to European garden cultivation by 1782. Robert Fortune found the white form in a nursery near Shanghai and sent it to England in 1845.
Limonium minutum Dwarf statice Z 5-9
All summer long, droves of lavender blossoms above a mini pillow of spoon-shaped, glossy foliage.