Purple, upfacing bells for months in mid to late summer
Size: 4-6” x 20” Care: full sun-part shade in moist well-drained soil Native: Northern Yugoslavia Awards: England’s Royal Horticultural Society Award of Merit. Top rated for ornamental traits and landscape performance by the Chicago Botanic Garden & Elisabeth Carey Miller Botanical Garden Great Plant Pick.
Campanula is Latin meaning “little bell.” In 1629 Parkinson described campanulas as “cherished for the beautie of their flowers.” This species named for one of its discoverers, Franz Edler von Portenschlag-Ledermayer (1772-1822). 1st described inSystema Vegetabilium 5: 93 in 1819. Listed in Sanders’ Flower Garden in 1913.
Platycodon grandiflorus albus Balloon flower Z 4-9
Balloon shaped buds opening to white bells in mid to late summer
Size: 24" x 12" Care: Full sun to part shade in moist well-drained to well-drained soil. Native: Eastern Asia 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. Planthunter Robert Fortune found the white form in a nursery near Shanghai and sent it to England in 1845.
Amsonia hubrichtii Thread leaf amsonia Z 5-8
Blue spring flowers, feathery green summer foliage and golden fall color
Amsonia hubrichtii Thread leaf amsonia Z 5-8
An erect, clump-forming plant that is primarily grown for its blue spring flowers, feathery green summer foliage and golden fall color. Powdery blue, 1/2″ star-like flowers appear in late spring atop stems rising to 3′ tall.
Size: 2-3’ x 2-3’ Care: full sun to part shade in well-drained soil Native: Ouachita Mountains in central Arkansas.
First recorded in the 1770s as A. angustifolia, but later named Hubricht’s Amsonia, after Leslie Hubricht, an American biologist who re-discovered it in the 1940s.
Tanacetum niveum Silver tansy, Snow tansy Z 5-9
Profusion of small classic daisies May-July atop fragrant silver foliage